SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Trent Sherfield Sr. tracked the ball toward the front corner of the end zone.
He knew he’d be tight up against the sideline but thought he had room.
As quarterback Jarrett Stidham’s throw approached, Sherfield expertly used the little bit of space he’d left himself to the outside to create a crack of daylight between himself and San Francisco cornerback Dallis Flowers. Then reached up.
“I knew I was tight to the sideline,” Sherfield recounted afterward. “So I immediately looked right at the ref and, sometimes, the refs, they can be wrong, but I looked right at him just to see if he threw his hands up, he threw his hands up, and he made a great call.
“I knew I came down with it, so it was just a matter of my feet being in bounds.”
They were — or at least it was close enough for the original touchdown call on the 34-yard pass to stand upon review. Sherfield finished the Broncos’ preseason-opening win with three catches for a team-high 73 yards, including the highlight-reel, toe-tap score.
Not bad for a special teams player.
At least, that was the book on Sherfield when he signed a two-year deal worth $6 million with Denver this spring.
Sure, he’s going to be counted on heavily in all phases of the kicking game throughout the season. So far in training camp, though, he’s showing to be more than that. Potentially quite a bit more.
“I’m definitely trying to be a complete football player — not one, not the other — but a whole football player,” Sherfield said.
Part of what Sherfield said attracted him to Denver was having special teams coach Darren Rizzi in place and also the fact that head coach Sean Payton is “an offensive guru.”
Not only that, it turns out, but Sherfield fits an exact mold Payton values having on his roster. So much so that the journeyman, who is playing for his sixth team in six seasons, is in line to hold a potentially major role in the Broncos’ offense.
Payton likened him to a pair of receivers he had for years in New Orleans in Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem. Both had more prolific receiving resumes in the NFL than Sherfield so far. Henderson went for 700-plus yards four times in New Orleans, while Meachem went for 620 or more three straight years before signing with San Diego as a free agent. But the profiles, Payton says, are similar.
“(They) were guys that could run and block,” Payton said. “So you can look at that and say, ‘They’re going to run the ball when they’re in there,’ but they can come off of heavy play-action, and there were a lot of shot plays.”
Sherfield’s shown the same ability.
“When you get a free agent, there’s maybe some things he even surprises you with, and he’s had a good camp,” Payton said. “He’s a very serious player. Very focused player. ‘Intentional’ would be a good word to describe how he approaches the game.
“That role is clear, then. There’s a lot you can do with that.”
That certainly doesn’t sound like a player headed for the roster bubble.
Sherfield’s run is also a reminder that Lil’Jordan Humphrey, now with the New York Giants, played 50% of Denver’s offensive snaps a year ago, filling a similar blocking-heavy role. Sherfield may not fill those snaps one-to-one, but he’ll get a big chunk of them.
Then there’s the fact that he’s being counted on to be an upper-echelon special teamer, too.
“Every time he’s been a free agent, I’ve evaluated him and tried to get him on my side,” Rizzi said recently. “I’ve joked around with him when he got here that — finally, we’re together. I was sick of playing against him.”
There are a lot of good special teams players in the league, but there aren’t a ton who play wide receiver or running back. That makes Sherfield’s value to the roster puzzle all the greater.
“You look at some of the skill guys offensively, receiver, running back, a lot of those guys don’t play special teams in college, so they’re kinda diamonds in the rough,” Rizzi said. “He’s a guy that’s a proven commodity. He’s excellent, excellent last year in the coverage aspect, he’s always been a good blocker on offense, and in the return game he brings an added toughness.”
Sherfield’s career-high in catches for a year came with Miami in 2022. That was after playing for Arizona for three seasons and San Francisco in 2021. Then, after the Dolphins, he played for Buffalo in 2023 and Minnesota last year.
The fit in Denver is showing through already.
“I thought it was a no-brainer for me to come here,” he said. “For now, it is home, it feels like home and I’m going to do my best to continue to have it feel that way.”
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