Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - NEW ACE: Denver Broncos SIGN Safety Tycen Anderson To Add Depth at Safety

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

The Denver Broncos signed former Cincinnati Bengals safety Tycen Anderson to give them depth on defense and an instant impact player on special teams as a core four ace. How will Anderson fit into Darren Rizzi's units, replacing PJ Locke's role, and what is his projected path on the Broncos' defense inside the safety room? Plus, could there be training camp competition between he and JL Skinner or Devon Key for a role behind Talanoa Hufanga and Brandon Jones.   Cody Roark breaks down the Broncos only external NFL Free Agency signing so far.   Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos.   WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT? For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today --   Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-broncos/   Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/nfl/   Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedinger Follow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos   Everydayer Club   If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to join -- https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.   Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.   Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm.   FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at 5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon.     FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The loss of PJ Lock was a big one for the Denver Broncos this offseason, but they just found his replacement. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up Broncos country? I'm Cody Rourke. Today's episode show is brought to our friends over there at Fanduil and College Hoops. The action is hot right now, and you can turn that energy into even a bigger potential win with a college basketball parlay profit boost. head of Fanduu.com to get started. The Denver Broncos, they made the big splash trade for Jalen Waddle, but their first external free agent signing was Tyson Anderson, a safety special teams contributor for the Cincinnati Bengals.

We'll tell you about how he fits in here now with the Denver Broncos and the safety room that they currently have, what his role projects to be here in his first year in the mile high city. And on top of that, the impact he could potentially have here for the Broncos in Darren Rizzi's favorite aspect of foot And that is special teams. Let's go through this. I mentioned it earlier.

Obviously at the Jalen Wattle trade, that was an external trade that never made. But Tyson Anderson, who is entering his fourth season in the NFL, he is now going to be the Broncos first external free agent signing that move became official on Friday as he signed his contract with the team leaving the Bengals after just three seasons. And you want to talk about maybe the ties that bind the three degrees of separation here. Tyson Anderson was a rookie. with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2023. That's when Robert Livingston, who is the Broncos defensive passing game coordinator,

that's when he was on Cincinnati last before he took the job at CU in 2024. So he knows Tyson Anderson a little bit. And I imagine when the Broncos are looking over potential free agent prospects to add in this wave three part of free agency, they used his input and his feedback on that. But what are the Broncos getting from Tyson Anderson? I mean, folks, entering his fourth season, he's a young player, but he was a rookie season. He was primarily a special teams player. Second season, mostly special teams was a core four specialist.

And then this past season, obviously, a key special teams core four guy as well. But he saw his first action on the field playing some safety because of injuries to the Cincinnati Bengals defense. So that equated to around 6% of Cincinnati's defensive snaps this past season. So not a lot of actual on-field defensive experience. at the NFL level for Tyson Anderson. So right now with Brandon Jones, with Tala Noah Hufanga, he projects to come in and compete for some depth spots here, obviously for Denver.

But I think primarily for Darren Rizzy, we've seen a history of him trying to find really good safeties to add to his special teams unit. And that's exactly what the Broncos are getting from him to put things into perspective about how much he has played on the special team side of the ball here. 203, he had 123 snaps as a rookie on special teams, 67%. I know he overcame an injury there. Then in 2024, it jumped up to 75%. He played 345 snaps of

special teams play right there. So anytime that the Bengals had the punt or on kickoff, return, you name it. He was a core four guy. And so he's going to play that rule probably right away here for DeVere, because that's what PJ Locke was. This is Denver's PJ Lock replacement in 2025. He saw an increase as well from 345 to 382 snaps on special teams. 83%. So that is where I think you can realistically expect his immediate impact because the Broncos, as I mentioned, I were with Darren Rizzy looking for these safeties, look at J.T. Gray as an example, who was released by the Northern Saints. And then obviously they picked him up in the Baltimore Ravens and they brought him over to Denver. That move didn't necessarily work out. I know he got

injured and so they had an injury settlement with him. You look at Sam Franklin Jr., who came over from the Carolina Panthers and is now a part of the Buffalo Bills. That obviously did not last in Denver very long. So the Broncos have been trying to find that right fit, it's kind of safety special teams book in that they could pair alongside J.L. Skinner and Devin Key here going forward. But this is where the Broncos are just continuing to add depth, continuing to build their 90-man roster,

considering that they offset some draft capital here. They have a roster that they feel very comfortable about right now. And those are, I think, the key things that really do matter here. But there was always a chance, right? When you sign a player like Tyson, Anderson who's entering his fourth year. His growth development or his pathway to playing defensively could be a little bit different. It just depends on the right environment, the right coaching staff.

And obviously for Denver's defense, a very aggressive attacking style defense called by Vance Joseph. You want to see what these guys can do. And so he's going to get a lot of opportunities here in the preseason to play safety for the Broncos defensively. We're going to see a lot of him at training camp. But the ideal goal for him right now is to come in and to be an immediate impact player on special teams. The rest of the stuff will follow from there here. But what does the Broncos safety position look like? And exactly how did Tyson Anderson contribute? Well, there's one statistic that tells you about how good of a special teams player he is. We'll break it all down here on today's

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and how can Tyson Anderson potentially find himself on the field here? That is a question, folks, and really for the Broncos at this stage of free agency, I think you have to look at the signings kind of for what they are. If this was one of the Broncos first moves in free agency, I think that maybe we could envision, okay, maybe they do see a rotational role for this player on offense or on defense. But for Tyson Anderson, that's not necessarily going to be the vision for him right now. And I'm curious, when we have a chance to meet with Sean Peyton and George Peyton,

Maybe they'll give us this info before the draft or sometime after the draft when we get our first chances and maybe seeing some mandatory rookie minicamp, mandatory minicamp with the vets in June. We're still a little bit of a ways away. But the ideal vision for a player like Tyson Anderson, as I mentioned earlier, is a core four special teams ace contributor here, especially considering that Brandon Jones, Talanoa, Hufanga, these two guys are your starting safeties. There's no question about it. And yes, we know after the season, Brandon Jones, his contract will be up. I imagine the Broncos will work towards extending him because they have loved what he's brought to the table since they initially signed him in free agency.

And he and Talano, Hufanga, they've played really well off of each other. And behind them, they really like Devin Key, who's signed his ERFA tender. They like J.L. Skinner, who's also entering the last year of his deal. So when you factor out how the secondary is sort of created here from a depth standpoint, you look at the cornerback room and you look at safety. Usually you'll carry six corners or six safeties on your active roster. And the other position, it will carry five. So last year, the Broncos, they had a handful of corners and then they had five safeties that were factored into the mix there, right?

Obviously, Hufanga Jones, PJ Locke, who Anderson is coming in to replace and then Devin Key J.L. Skinner. Now, I'm not saying that Tyson Anderson is coming in right away and he's going to be the number three safety right behind Hufanga and Jones. I would have to say right now, that's probably Devin Key, his familiarity with the Broncos defense, his knowledge of that. And Vance Joseph, having expressed comfortability with what Devin Key brings to the table, on top of him being a first team all pro special teams ace, Denver's three safeties

last year that were core four special teams guys, Locke and Skinner, these guys were their best overall special teams players. And they graded out very high internally for the Broncos. And they track everything about guys doing their job, being in the right alignment, making sure that their assignment is taking care of. And that's what you want here. So now I think when you bring in an outside voice or an outside name like Tyson Anderson, I think it's going to be an easy transition for him to come in and fit in because he's very good on kickoff,

very good on punt coverage, punt return coverage, kick return coverage, any special teams unit you name, he's going to be out there because he's one of those players that has mastered the fundamentals of those units. I mean, every role that you play on special teams, it's not just like you're going out there and you're just running free will. It is you have a specific assignment and alignment and a role whether you're, you know, the safety on kick coverage, right? You're the last line of defense besides the kicker. You have to maintain that. If you're the gunner or the jammer or if you're the guy who's supposed to be responsible for

being the personal protector when you're punting, these are the little intricacies that you look at here. And that's exactly where I think Tyson Anderson is going to fit in. I think he's going to project to be a nice personal protector on the Broncos punt unit because he's also going to get down there and make plays as well. They could even use him as a gunner. The Broncos did that with J.L. Skinner, but in the regular season, they switched that up to Chris Abrams, Drain, and Jadae Barron. So that just depends on the vision there for Darren Rizzi.

But I mentioned it earlier. There's one statistic that's telling that tells you what type of impact you're going to be getting from a guy like Tyson Anderson here on special teams. We talk about it. 42 career tackles for him in three seasons, but he's only missed one tackle so far in three years. and he's seen a lot of action, folks. Once again, 123 special team snaps in 2020. He's a rookie. 345 and 2024, 3802 this past season.

And only have one miss tackle on all of those repetitions. That's impressive. That right there tells you that he knows how to do his job. And he's going to go down there and be a high volume tackle guy. Once again, special teams-wise, you have 42 tackles. And I believe two tackles of his actually came playing defense. So 40 special teams tackles. and two and a half seasons essentially for Anderson,

you know you're getting an immediate impact player right away. And that is why Darren Rizzy, Sean Payton, and maybe Robert Livingston even factor in saying, hey, you know, we need some safety depth. And we also need someone who I know, we need someone who can contribute right away on special teams. And mulling the offers as to like, hey, are you going to return to Cincinnati or are you going to go to another team?

The Broncos seem to be the more appealing destination here for Anderson. So that's where everything is kind of culminated over the last 72, hours. I know there were some speculative reports initially there. James Rapine first reported it. He's obviously the host of Lockdown Bengals. He covers a team on the beat daily. So he reported that and it wasn't confirmed because the two sides were nowhere near close to the deal. And then about 24 hours later, a deal got done here. But the Broncos bolstering their special teams depth right now, adding more depth to the safety position, which was, you know, an area they absolutely needed to add to considering PJ Locke's departure going to the Dallas Cowboys.

and I'm very curious. I think there will be a competition, but right now, Devin Key is the prime favorite to be that third safety here for Denver. J.L. Skinner, Tyson Anderson might be competing for different roles on defense, but once again,

both Skinner and Tyson Anderson do not have a large sample size of being able to play defense just yet at the NFL level. They haven't had a lot of snaps collectively between the two of them. So that could be where the ideal competition takes place here during training camp.

Also considering that JL on the last year of his rookie contract, and we'll see where things are at for Denver after this season. But some exciting times here in Broncos country, as Denver has taken an interesting approach in the offseason, but all that went away with the impatience after they made a big-time trade there for Jalen Waddle and now adding just a special teams guy along the way

that's going to come in and contribute. And then now the Broncos, they couldn't make a signing here or there before the NFL draft. I'm not sure what to expect with this team, and especially their approach with how quiet they are, nothing gets out of the building. I think that's where some frustration from the fan base comes in. It's where you see some reporters also getting frustrated about that

is because they don't have leaks in that building anymore since Sean Peyton took over. So it is exciting to see maybe how they keep a lid on some of those things. But we know that the NFL draft is just about a month away. And we know the Broncos. Yes, they don't have their first round pick. They don't have their third, but they do have two fourth round picks. They have a second round pick. And they have a fifth and three seven.

So they still have a lot of ambivalrous. ammunition to do some things here to add key players. 73 players right now on their roster going into building the 90-man roster. So factor in this year's draft class, how many picks they have right now, and then how many undrafted rookie free and she may sign. I still think Denver signs one or two veteran names here. Maybe a big splash. We'll see if Cam Jordan lands at some point here for the Denver Broncos.

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guarantee you're going to get a bonus episode of the show. But Sarah and myself, we'll be back on Monday for a brand new full slate of Lock on Broncos.