The Lead

After being waived on cutdown day for the past two seasons, it was finally Broncos' defensive lineman Jordan Jackson's turn for good news.

The 2022 sixth-round draft pick was named to the Broncos 53-man roster this season, and Parker Gabriel of The Denver Post recently took a closer look at the defining moment.

Jackson, who received his phone call just 10 minutes before the cutdown deadline, said he was nervous up until the very last moment.

"Up until then, I was pacing around the house and sitting there waiting, wondering," Jackson said. "You never really know, honestly. ... I thought I had put the work in, but I didn't know until they told me."

Head Coach Sean Payton, however, expressed that he knew all along.

"We saw it in practice, we saw it in the game," Payton said. "I would say were a little bit more one-gap driven now. I think that's benefited him. In other words, he can get to an edge. So, we were encouraged.

"He wasn't a borderline decision."

Jackson spent 2023 on Denver's practice squad after signing with the team in January 2023. A sixth-round draft pick in 2022, Jackson was selected by the Saints and spent the 2022 season competing on the practice squad in New Orleans. It seems the Broncos front office, however, had a plan to bring Jackson to Denver all along.

"[General Manager George Paton] said recently that he loved Jackson as a prospect out of Air Force — the standout tackle had 29.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks in his final three seasons there — and wanted to draft him in the late rounds," Gabriel wrote.

The Broncos eventually got him, and Jackson has spent the last year and a half in Denver learning the defense and improving each time he stepped on the field.

So, when the opportunity came to show this progress during this year's preseason competition, Jackson was ready. In Denver's preseason finale, he recorded a pair of first-quarter sacks, arguably solidifying his roster spot.

Jackson's improvement has earned the respect of several players on his unit, including veteran defensive tackle D.J. Jones.

"First and foremost, I think it's well deserved," Jones said. "In Jordan's case, he's been able to sit behind some guys that he's been able to learn from and watch. It's accumulated into who he is now because he's a hell of a ball player now.

"We've got a lot of underdogs and he's one of them."

For more on Jackson, click here to read Gabriel's article.