Isaiah McKenzie and Adam Jones are long gone, leaving the Denver Broncos with a wide-open competition for the team’s punt return job.
Earlier this week, Broncos special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was asked who’s in the running to win the job.
“Everybody,” McMahon said on May 12. “Right now, in my opinion, it’s like spring training. Every single guy that we have out here, right now the rookies for example, we have to give them a chance to catch up. They haven’t caught — you can say that they haven’t caught as many punts in college as these guys have caught.
“They haven’t caught punts. They’ve caught 4.0-hang times. Now, they’re catching 5.2s. It’s not fair to them or to judge or to even start thinking about it until you get to training camp. That’s where the competition really starts.”
Once training camp arrives in mid-July, the Broncos’ likely candidates to compete for the job will probably include wide receivers Brendan Langley, Kelvin McKnight and Trinity Benson.
Denver will be looking for an explosive player.
“Returners have to make plays,” McMahon said. “The best returners in this league create their own returns. They really do.
“Once a year, twice a year, there is nobody blocking for them and they score a touchdown. You just look how they do it. That is the type of guy that we need.”
The competition will heat up this summer. May the best man win!
