Broncos add veteran center option to OL mix by signing Sam Mustipher to one-year deal

The Broncos continue to add veteran options to their offensive line group.

Denver signed center Sam Mustipher to a one-year deal, the team announced Thursday.

Mustipher, 27, spent 2023 in Baltimore and was in Chicago for the first four years of his career.

Mustipher went undrafted out of Notre Dame in 2019 and spent his rookie year on the practice squad. Then he played in nine games and starting seven for the Bears in 2020 before spending two seasons as the team’s full-time starter.

Mustipher appeared in nine games last year, started the second and third weeks of the season when starter Tyler Linderbaum was injured and drew praise from Ravens head coach John Harbaugh for his work in relief.

“Sam Mustipher deserves a lot of credit — a ton of credit,” Harbaugh said after Week 2. “He played so well and really just kept it going at a high level.”

Mustipher provides another veteran in the mix for Denver, which lost center Lloyd Cushenberry to Tennessee on a four-year deal worth up to $50 million early in free agency.

The Broncos have a pair of young players who will also compete for the starting job in Alex Forsyth and Luke Wattenberg.

This is the third offensive lineman the Broncos have landed in free agency. Mustipher joins swing tackle Matt Peart and interior offensive lineman Calvin Throckmorton.

Head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton have each spoken highly of Forsyth and Wattenberg.

Last month, Payton said those players were part of the reason Denver ultimately watched Cushenberry leave, even if it was through gritted teeth.

“If not for either of those two or both in the building, there’s a chance maybe we would have moved in the direction of extending ourselves, if you will,” Payton said. “But those are the two candidates today as we sit here that will have a good opportunity to win that job.”

Wattenberg started one game as a rookie in 2022 and had a tough outing. He showed improved play strength and comfort over a brief, 38-snap second season. Forsyth was a 2023 seventh-round draft pick who did not play in a game his rookie year but who drew unprompted praise from Payton a couple of times for his scout team work during the season.

“There’s a grit element to them,” Payton said of the young duo last month. “They’re both athletic and they’re both extremely smart, just as Lloyd is. It’s a position that requires not only a certain skill set, but a certain cerebral mindset.

“I think that both of those guys have that temperament, but they also have that understanding of what we’re doing.”