The Broncos’ emergency kicker might surprise you

Nairavoice | Aug 11, 2026 2h ago 277 0 3 min read

The Broncos’ emergency kicker might surprise you

With Denver Broncos kicker Wil Lutz celebrating the enshrinement of former New Orleans Saints teammate Drew Brees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, the Broncos turned to an unorthodox emergency kicker: safety Brandon Jones.

In Saturday’s scrimmage-like practice, Jones converted 3-of-4 attempts, including a 41-yard kick. It certainly went better than his teammate Malcolm Roach’s recent try at kicking. “I can’t even exaggerate how badly he missed,” the Denver Post‘s Luca Evans wrote of Roach’s attempt.

For Jones’ part, special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi spoke on how important it is to at least have an option behind a kicker. “The thing I found out as a young coach in this league is after spending 16 years in college, you had three kickers, three punters, all that,” Rizzi said on Saturday. “Obviously with the restrictions on gameday rosters, you have to have a contingency. We’ve seen it happen in other games across the league. I remember Houston’s the one that sticks out a couple of years ago. They had a running back kick a field goal in a game. So you have to have a contingency for anything. So obviously with Wil being in Canton, it was a perfect opportunity to get Brandon a couple of kicks, and he did a great job.”

Jones said besides youth soccer, he’s never kicked a football in any setting. “I didn’t kick in high school or college,” Jones said on Saturday. “I don’t know how I even got to kick… I think I just was joking with ‘Riz’ like, ‘Yo, I can kick if you ever need an emergency-kicker-type of situation.’ Then he called my bluff and put me to the test one day, I think it was some time last year. I made an extra point. Apparently there are a lot of guys on the team that can also kick, but I guess I just got the opportunity today. [I] went three-for-four, so not too bad.”

Fans were chanting for Jones as he lined up to kick, and went wild when he made the attempts. Jones admits he got nervous hearing the gathered crowd chant his name. “When the crowd started chanting my name, I got really nervous,” Jones said. “I’m like, ‘I’m about to shank this. This is not about to be good.’ Thankfully it went in.”

Jones wasn’t wearing kicker cleats, and he had tape wrapped around the outside of his cleats. “They were surprised because I spat before practice,” he said. “They were like, ‘Are you going to kick spatted?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, why not?’ It was all good.”

After football, Jones said he’d like to try kicking a futbol. “I played some club soccer, but I stopped in high school because I was like, ‘Let’s be real. I’m a football player,'” Jones quipped. “I always told people that whenever I get done playing, I’m going to try to — I just want to go through a tryout for an MLS team. I think I need to be humbled and for them to be like, ‘You’re not that good.’ Once we get there, we’ll see.”