After a seriously disappointing 2022-23 season, the Denver Broncos have decided to clean house with their coaching staff. They have already found their new head coach in Sean Payton, but he is still in the process of assembling his staff. While Payton fills in the rest of his coaching staff, general manager George Paton has important roster decisions to make before the official start of the 2023 offseason.

The Broncos have 17 players set to become unrestricted free agents. While there are some key players the Broncos certainly need to re-sign this offseason, there are also some players that they need to move on from. Let's take a look at three such players the team would be better off moving on from this offseason and see why that's the case

3 players the Broncos need to move on from this offseason

DE Dre'Mont Jones

Dre'Mont Jones appearing on this list might come as a shock to some, considering he is a pretty solid part of the dominant Broncos' defense. Throughout the 2022 season, though, there were rumblings that Jones was not happy with the current state of the Broncos. With how poorly the season went for the Broncos, it's pretty hard to blame him, and he certainly wasn't the only frustrated player on the team.

But after the coaching staff was cleared out and Payton was hired as the new head coach, Jones took to Twitter to further express his feelings. Fans were quick to catch Jones liking negative tweets about the Broncos, as well as his own teammates, which is obviously never a good sign.

It was particularly interesting to see Jones like that last tweet about the Broncos' trade for Payton, considering he was quoted as saying “I think Sean is going to be a great fit. I’m excited to see what he will do.”

Jones' passive-aggressive, borderline crybaby attitude isn't a welcome sight for a team that is trying its hardest to turn things around. Payton will likely come in and instill a polar opposite mentality within the team, so Jones' attitude probably won't be tolerated for long. If he maintains this attitude, and he wants out of Denver as badly as he's hinted, the Broncos might as well hold the door open for him on the way out.

OL Dalton Risner

It is hard to put Dalton Risner on this list considering he was born and raised in Colorado and is living out his childhood dream playing for his hometown team. Unfortunately, that dream should come to an end sooner rather than later this offseason.

Risner was drafted in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft, but he hasn't quite lived up to his second round billing. His highest-rated season on the offensive line was in 2021, where PFF gave him a grade of 68.5, which isn't exactly great. Even worse for Risner, his worst PFF-graded season (61.1) came in his contract season in 2022.

With how abysmal the Broncos' offensive line was in 2022, they might be better off completely rebuilding it. This would mean moving on from Risner and letting him hit free agency. It'd be nice to keep a Colorado kid in Colorado, but he just hasn't performed well enough to earn a good contract extension.

P Corliss Waitman

Many football fans know just how key field position is in the NFL. Despite how little punters see the field, they play a key role in backing up the opposing offense as far as they possibly can.

Ahead of the 2022 season, the Broncos held a little training camp battle between punters Corliss Waitman and Sam Martin. Martin, who had been punting for the Broncos since 2020, suddenly had to punt to save his job. The two battled throughout the preseason, and most thought Martin had punted well enough to keep his job. The Broncos thought otherwise and decided to steer down the cash-friendly route and keep Waitman over Martin.

It didn't take long to see that this decision was a huge mistake. Martin would go on to have a great year with the Buffalo Bills, while Waitman struggled with his consistency throughout the season. His lack of experience as the field goal holder also began to show, as he had issues holding the ball for Brandon McManus on several occasions. In terms of punt gross average, Waitman was tied for 21st in the league, per PFF. His longest punt of 59 yards ranked 32nd in the league.

The Broncos will obviously need to let Waitman walk, and look for a better-performing punter in 2023 and beyond. Again, they may not see the field much, but punters sure do play a key role in deciding field position. So knowing that, the Broncos should probably allocate a bit more of their salary cap towards a good punter after Waitman's ugly 2022 campaign.