Broncos poach Saints practice squad LB Anthony Chickillo
Anthony Chickillo signed with the New Orleans Saints as a Pittsburgh Steelers free agent over the summer, but a training camp injury kept him from competing for a roster spot in earnest. He ended up joining the Saints practice squad as one of several veteran players teams can retain due to new rules changes, along with defensive lineman Margus Hunt and wide receiver Bennie Fowler.
However, on Thursday ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Chickillo was leaving for an opportunity with the Denver Broncos. Denver recently lost all-star pass rusher Von Miller to an ankle injury, and they’ve been trawling rosters around the league looking for new additions to help fill that void. So for Chickillo, the odds of getting on the field are better in Denver than in New Orleans, where he’s buried on the depth chart.
This is a move that New Orleans could have blocked, had they chosen to. Teams are allowed to protect four practice squad players each week from being signed by another team, but they have opted not to do that through the first two weeks of the regular season. The Saints could have also signed Chickillo to their active roster, but they must have other plans in place.
The Saints now have several holes on their roster to address, speaking strictly from a numbers perspective. They have not replaced rookie punter Blake Gillikin on the 53-man roster after he landed on injured reserve last week, and Chickillo’s departure creates a vacancy on the 16-member practice squad. Stay tuned for corresponding moves as the Saints work to get back to full strength.
