Broncos roster review: Wide receiver Fred Brown

Fred Brown
WIDE RECEIVER #19
Experience: 2 years
Height: 6-1
Age: 26
Weight: 195 lbs
College: Mississippi State

Fred Brown was undrafted out of college after he was kicked off of the Miss. State football team in 2015. He landed a spot on the Colts practice squad in 2017, but he was cut, resigned and cut again from their PS, then he was signed to the Rams practice squad. The Rams signed him to a futures contract in 2018 but then let him go at the end if training camp. He kept working out and was signed at the very end of 2018 to a reserve futures contract by the Broncos. Brown failed to make the roster out of training camp in 2019, but he was signed to our practice squad and then signed off of the practice squad relatively early in the season. He appeared in thirteen games for the Broncos, but mostly he was used on special teams. He did make one start.

He appeared on 100 offensive snaps (10%) and 203 special teams snaps (47%) in 2019. He was targeted three times and caught two of those for 21 yards and one first down. He also fumbled once in 2019. He had five tackles on special teams. The was the most of any non-defensive player on special teams.

The Good

Brown made himself an integral part of both the punt and kickoff coverage teams in 2019. His utilization on offense was very limited. Brown is not a burner, but neither is he slow. He ran a 4.48 40 at his pro-day. He is relatively quick if you trust his 3-cone and shirt shuttle results.

Despite his limited NFL experience, Brown is one of the older WRs on the 90-man roster. Only Diontae Spencer (28) and Tim Patrick (26-208 days). Brown is eight days younger than Patrick.

The Bad

Fred Brown touched the ball three times on offense and fumbled once in 2019. That one target that he didn’t catch, he dropped. On a roster that was desperate for healthy WRs at one point, Brown still only got 100 offensive snaps. Once Emmanuel Sanders was traded and while Tim Patrick was still recovering from injury, Fred Brown had a chance to step into a larger role on offense. He wasted that chance.

46 of his 100 offensive snaps came in the loss to the Colts. He was targeted twice that game - catching one and dropping the other. Brown would only get 28 more offensive snaps during the rest of the season.

Thoughts

With thirteen WRs currently on the roster, it would take a really good training camp and preseason for Brown to make the roster. For a smaller WR, he doesn’t have elite speed and he doesn’t have the route running acumen of Jeudy or even DaeSean Hamilton. I doubt that his special teams prowess will be enough to garner a roster spot.