Malcolm Roach, the undrafted Broncos tackle Sean Payton signed twice

Malcolm Roach

Photo: All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Born	June 9, 1998 Baton Rouge
Occupation	Footballer
Individual awards	All-Big 12 honorable mention

Malcolm Roach finished the afternoon on top of Patrick Mahomes, and he only got the chance because somebody else made a mistake. The Kansas City Chiefs had already thrown what looked like the winning touchdown at Empower Field when a false start on their right tackle erased it and pushed them back five yards. On the replay of fourth down, with seconds left, the Denver Broncos defensive tackle came through the middle of the line and buried the quarterback for a loss. Denver won by four points and moved into first place in the AFC West.

That snap is a fair summary of his career. Nobody picked him in the draft, his time with the New Orleans Saints kept bending around injured reserve, and he is still not technically a starter in Denver. What he has had since leaving college is a head coach who would not stop believing in him. The question his sack leaves open is whether the Broncos have built something durable around players like him, or have simply kept winning coin flips.

Roach grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was born on June 9, 1998, to Nancy and Mike Roach. His father coached him at Madison Prep, and Texas recruited him out of Louisiana as a defensive end. He arrived in Austin in 2016, drew honorable mention for Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and spent most of his four seasons on the edge of the line. In January 2019 he announced he would return for his senior season instead of entering the draft. He left as a team captain and an All-Big 12 honorable mention, with 134 tackles, 22.5 of them for loss, and eight sacks over four seasons.

The 2020 draft passed without his name. New Orleans, then coached by Payton, signed him as an undrafted free agent in late April, and he made the roster out of training camp, debuting in the season opener against Tampa Bay that September. His strangest highlight came a year later in Charlotte, where a defensive tackle intercepted Sam Darnold in a 26-7 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Then the injuries took over. Roach went on injured reserve in November 2021, was released and re-signed to the practice squad that December, opened 2022 on injured reserve again and did not receive a qualifying offer the following March. The Saints brought him back a week later; he ended 2023 on injured reserve too. Four seasons in New Orleans added up to 41 games and a single sack.

Payton had left the Saints after the 2021 season and taken over the Broncos in 2023. In March 2024 he brought Roach to Denver on a two-year, $7 million contract, and for the first time Roach played every game of a season: 17 appearances, 43 tackles, 2.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. General manager George Paton said in January 2025 that the signing “could’ve been our best addition of the offseason in free agency.” Payton went further in June 2025, saying he did not recall that kind of leadership from Roach in New Orleans and adding: “One of his great traits is he doesn’t have bad days.”

A grade 2 calf strain put him on injured reserve before the 2025 opener, and he returned in October. In late November the Broncos signed him to a three-year extension through 2028 worth up to $29.25 million with incentives, $14 million of it guaranteed. He finished with a career-best four sacks in 12 games, then saved his loudest work for January: a sack and a half of Josh Allen and a fumble recovery in the 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills, and half a sack of Drake Maye in the 10-7 AFC Championship loss to the New England Patriots.

The underdog story is the easy version, and it flatters everyone in it, Roach included. Payton’s trust came before the production, not after it. Denver guaranteed $14 million to a rotation lineman whose best regular season had produced four sacks, and the qualities the coaches keep citing, energy and a voice the whole practice field can hear, never appear in the numbers fans check. The Kansas City win sharpened the problem. The Broncos have now won 15 straight one-score games over two seasons, yet their offense went three-and-out on all three third-quarter drives and has converted 10 of 48 third downs across the last four wins. A defense asked to rescue the game every week will eventually meet a Sunday when nobody on the other side false-starts.

Payton does not sound worried. “He’s got a lot of juice,” he said in August, comparing Roach to running back J.K. Dobbins: “you hear him before you see him.” Going back to the day Roach went undrafted out of Texas, the coach added, “the improvement at his position for him has been remarkable.” Roach had framed the stakes himself after the 2025 season. “My first year here last year, it was just proving it to ourselves,” he said in January. “This year was knowing what we had, but just wanting to show the world that.”

Through eight games of 2026 he has 3.5 sacks, half a sack short of his best season. The Kansas City win was Payton’s 200th as a head coach and left Denver at 6-2, half a game ahead of the Chiefs. Next on the schedule is a trip to Carolina, the franchise against which he made the only interception of his career, with a contract that runs through 2028 and a coach who has now signed him twice.

Tags: sports, athletes, NFL, Patrick Mahomes, American football players, Denver Broncos, Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints, Texas Longhorns, Malcolm Roach

Related People

Related People

Discussion