The Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals have come to terms with a player swap trade.
The Broncos are sending DT Christian Covington to the Bengals in exchange for ILB Austin Calitro. Both Covington and Calitro never actually played in-game snaps for either or their respective teams as they were both newly signed additions this offseason.
Broncos trade DL Christian Covington and $1.5M salary to Bengals in exchange for LB Austin Calitro ($750K). 1st by @diannaESPN.
DeMarcus Walker beat out Covington for final D-line spot. Elway told me 2 days ago he would try to deal loser of Covington/Walker competition. #9sports— Mike Klis (@MikeKlis) September 4, 2020
Christian Covington’s salary for this upcoming season will be $1.5M while Austin Calitro, a second-year player, is only owed half as much money, $750K.
According to 9News’s Mike Klis, Broncos GM and President of Football Operations John Elway told him that he would trade the loser of the backup DT competition which involved both Christian Covington and Demarcus Walker. Walker obviously beat out Covington and therefore Covington was traded to the Bengals.
Demarcus Walker is a former second-round pick for the Broncos who selected him out of Florida State three seasons ago in the 2017 NFL draft. Walker has struggled early on in his career starting just one game while recording a total of six career sacks. However, Walker did burst onto the scene last season in a backup role to Shelby Harris and Derek Wolfe, playing excellently. It seems as if he is finally finding his way in the NFL as he is coming off of a very nice training camp, as well.
In Austin Calitro’s two years in the NFL, he has spent seasons with the Seattle Seahawks and Jacksonville Jaguars proving to be a solid tackler and good special teams player. Additionally, not only does the trade for Calitro fill a positional depth need for the Broncos at ILB, but it also gets rid of a player who would’ve likely been cut in Christian Covington.
This is the second time this week that Elway and Fangio have made the move to trade away a player that was likely to be cut as they sent Isaac Yiadom to the Giants for a 7th round selection earlier this week (click the link for more on that trade).
Elway and the Broncos coaching staff have many more decisions to make as they must cut the roster down to 53 players by the end of this weekend. The roster is currently hovering around 80 players so additional roster moves await in the coming days. I will certainly keep you all covered and in the loop.
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