90 Buffalo Bills players in 90 days: DT Cortez Broughton

The Buffalo Bills have plenty of depth at defensive tackle, as they’ve done a nice job adding viable veteran pieces to their rotation. As a result, the depth chart here looks about as close to settled as it does anywhere else along the roster. Even the question marks are strong, as the team has solid depth from top to bottom along the interior defensive line.

In today’s edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss a player on the back end of the DT depth chart — someone who will try to make a name for himself this summer.

Name: Cortez Broughton

Number: 94

Position: DT

Height/Weight: 6’2”, 293 pounds

Age: 26 (27 on 9/2/2023)

Experience/Draft: 3; selected by the Los Angeles Chargers in the seventh round (No. 242 overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft

College: Cincinnati

Acquired: Signed with Buffalo practice squad on 12/6/2022

Financial situation (per Spotrac): Broughton signed a reserve/futures contract with the team in January. That one-year deal is worth a total of $942,500, which is also Broughton’s cap hit if he makes the 53-man roster. Of that total, just $2,500 is guaranteed, so that would be the dead-cap charge for the Bills if Broughton is released.

2022 Recap: Broughton began the year with the Kansas City Chiefs, but he was waived on July 27 after failing his physical. There doesn’t appear to have been an injury involved — it just seems as if he either wasn’t healthy or fit enough to pass the team’s conditioning test, according to reports from last July. He remained unsigned until December, when the Bills added him to their practice squad. Broughton hasn’t appeared in a regular-season game since 2021, when he played three defensive snaps for the Chiefs in one game.

Positional outlook: Broughton is one of a host of defensive tackles vying for a spot in the rotation, joining Ed Oliver, DaQuan Jones, Tim Settle, Jordan Phillips, Poona Ford, Eli Ankou, Kameron Cline, DJ Dale, and Kendal Vickers on the current roster.

2023 Offseason: Broughton is healthy and participating in team activities at present.

2023 Season outlook: Barring some injuries or something crazy, Broughton is among the longest of shots to make the 53-man roster, as it’s likely that the team might cut a player here with actual game experience if they choose to keep only four defensive tackles like they have in previous years. The top five is probably Oliver, Jones, Ford, Phillips, and Settle — not necessarily in that order, but probably pretty close — and I don’t see one of the other players beating those guys out unless someone is injured. That leaves Broughton fighting for a spot on the practice squad moving forward.