BREAKING: Denver Broncos set 53-man roster, make SURPRISING cuts & Jonathon Cooper placed on exempt

**Zac Stevens** (0:00)
Huge day for the Denver Broncos as we are minutes away from the 53-man roster officially being set. And the Broncos still have a lot of moves to make. So we're gonna be covering it live when the Broncos final 10 or so moves come down the wire. And Henry, this has been quite a day so far. We're here to break it down on the DNVR Broncos Podcast. Zac Stevens joined by Henry Chisholm right now. And man, it has been a busy 24 hours for the Broncos. And really, it's gonna be even busier next 14 minutes when they need to set these rosters. And Henry, before we dive in to the moves the Broncos have made themselves, and we're gonna be updating you on all the moves that continue to come in in the next couple of minutes, Broncos roster has to be set by 4 p.m. I wouldn't be surprised with where we're at right now if they leak a little bit later into the 4 p.m. hour.
But before we talk about all the moves they have made, which there are some big moves right now, we gotta talk about the move that was made by the NFL earlier today by placing Jonathon Cooper on the commissioners exempt list. Henry, what do you think about this?

**Henry Chisholm** (1:17)
You know, it's probably what we should have expected, especially with all the rumors going around all week that today is gonna be the big day for that. And just knowing what Jonathon Cooper is charged with, it makes sense for the league to do something like this and keep them off the field for the start of the season. Obviously disappointing for the Broncos to not have a starting pass rusher, a guy you're giving $20 million a year to. But if it's gonna happen, today's a good day for it to happen because you realize you get that extra roster spot and you've got to.
I'm surprised by some of the names we're seeing leave given that they have that extra roster spot.

**Zac Stevens** (1:56)
Yeah, and so Henry, we're gonna talk about the three rookies that have been cut, the Broncos decision to keep three quarterbacks. And let's just talk about Cooper a little more because I think you brought up some really good points. So the Commissioner's exempt list, what the heck is that? The Commissioner's exempt list is essentially a way for the NFL to step in as the legal process continues to play out. We saw the NFL do it with Josh Jacobs right before they did it with Jonathon Cooper. Both of those guys in similar situations where they've been charged with some very serious potential crimes. And the legal process has still not played out in either of their cases. So instead of suspending them when they don't have all of the information and instead of continuing to let them play and practice, the NFL kind of steps in and says, okay, what we're going to do is we're going to make it where you have to take a step back. So Jonathon Cooper, when he's on this commissioner, is exemplist. He cannot practice with the team. He cannot play with the team. However, unlike a suspension, he can be in the building. He can be in meetings. He can work out with the team. He can get those type of resources with the team. But Henry, we are not going to see Jonathon Cooper practice with the team until he's taken off this list and we're not going to see him play. So in one way you can think about it is kind of kind of like an indefinite suspension that can be raised at any time. Just the only difference is he is allowed to be in the Broncos building. So on one hand a blow for the Broncos because you know as training camp went on and he was allowed to practice there was a belief in the building that maybe he wasn't going to be put on this commissioners exemplist. But on the other side like you mentioned Henry this is the timing actually is a little bit of a win for the Broncos because the NFL could have easily put him on the commissioners exemplist tomorrow and what that would have done is it would have made it so that the Broncos had to use a roster spot for him today to be on the 53 They had to cut an extra player today and expose someone else to waivers so the NFL kind of helped the Broncos out here by doing it today. Instead they open up a roster spot because Jonathon Cooper does not count against the 53 man roster but he will get paid during this time and with the commissioners exemplist Henry I have no idea if he's going to be back on Tuesday or if he's going to be out half the season because with his court case where it stands right now he's charged with five things including one felony related to two domestic domestic violence incidents that we talked about back in June.