The Broncos gave a slew of players opportunities over the weekend, and for three of them, those turned into contracts.
Utah State wide receiver Kyrese White and Michigan State linebacker Jordan Turner parlayed their rookie minicamp tryouts into longer looks from the team, signing contracts on Monday to stick around as offseason work continues.
Denver also added a veteran who was brought in on a tryout basis, tight end Cole Fotheringham. He spent most of the last two years on the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad, playing in a pair of 2023 games. He also had a brief stint on Houston’s practice squad last year.
The Broncos also brought back long snapper Zach Triner, who was released on Friday as the club signed its crop of college free agents in advance of the rookie minicamp.
White was particularly impressive at rookie minicamp, catching several passes during the practice that was open to media observation Saturday afternoon.
The Utah State alumnus grabbed 44 passes for 526 yards last season, which was the only year in which he played substantially on offense; he had just three receptions in the previous two years at Utah State after transferring from Utah, where he never caught a pass in three seasons.
Broncos wide receiver Kyrese White
Turner transferred to Michigan State last year and started 11 games, notching 66 total tackles, including 10.5 for losses, with three sacks and two interceptions. In three previous seasons at Wisconsin, Turner started 18 games, notching 135 total tackles, 12.5 tackles for losses, five sacks and three interceptions.
Fotheringham will join a fellow Utah product, seventh-round draft pick Caleb Lohner. But his arrival comes at the expense of another Utah alumnus, Thomas Yassmin, who spent last year with the Broncos as a practice-squad player through the NFL’s international program.
Yassmin was one of four players waived by the Broncos.
The others were linebacker K.J. Cloyd, nose tackle Christian Dowell and defensive back Kendall Bohler. Bohler and Dowell were college free agents officially signed to the roster last Friday. Cloyd joined the practice squad last December.
The decision to waive Yassmin transfers the Broncos’ international-player designation to punter Jeremy Crawshaw; both Yassmin and Crawshaw are Australian. Thus, Crawshaw will not count against the Broncos’ 90-player roster.
Yassmin gave the Broncos a 17th practice-squad player last season; no such exemption exists for a 53-man roster spot, so assuming that Crawshaw earns the punting job as expected, there would be no exemption for the sixth-round pick after the roster deadline.