According to ESPN’s lead NFL insider, Adam Schefter, the Denver Broncos have signed 41-year-old tight end Marcedes Lewis to their practice squad. The former first-round pick worked out for the Broncos on Tuesday and is now signing on to their practice squad today.
With Nate Adkins going down with a knee injury and expected to miss some time, the Broncos needed to add a blocking specialist in short order. They put in two waiver bids for tight ends, but lost both due to other teams ahead of them also putting in claims. So, plan B was to call up Lewis and see if he wanted to give it a go one last time.
Listen, I get it. You see 41 years old in the report and you think, “What the hell is Sean and George thinking?”, but it makes sense. Lewis was brought in to do one thing and one thing only, and that is to block. He has been one of the best blocking specialists in the NFL for quite a while now and has been incredibly durable throughout his career. Last season, for the Bears, at 40 years old, Lewis played in all 17 games. In fact, from 2021 through 2024, Lewis has not missed a game.
For the Broncos, he will play maybe 10-15 snaps a game, if that, and be a blocking specialist. He isn’t out there running routes, catching passes, or being a red zone threat. He is putting his hand in the dirt and blocking players 10, 15, or almost 20 years younger than him and opening up run lanes for the Broncos’ running backs.
Marcedes Lewis was selected in the first round of the 2006 (you read that right) NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars and has been a consistent player in the NFL ever since. During his career, he has 437 receptions for 5,115 yards and 40 receiving touchdowns. However, he has transitioned into more of a blocking specialist as he got older and became one of the best in the NFL during that span.
Now, the Broncos will hope he has something left in the tank and could make some history this Sunday in Houston vs. the Texans if Lewis is elevated off the practice squad and active for the game.
