FOOTBALL

Brandon Jones' signing gives the Denver Broncos four former Texas players from 2018 team

Austin American-Statesman

Texas defensive backs Brandon Jones, bottom, and Caden Sterns, top, team up to tackle TCU wide receiver Jarrison Stewart during their 2018 game at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Jones and Sterns have reunited, along with former Longhorns P.J. Locke and Lil'Jordan Humphrey, as members of the Denver Broncos.

More than five years after suiting up together as Longhorns, a quartet of former Texas players find themselves together again, wearing a different shade of orange.

On Monday — the first day NFL teams could sign free agents this offseason — former Miami Dolphins safety Brandon Jones agreed to a three-year deal with the Denver Broncos. There he'll join former Longhorns Caden Sterns and P.J. Locke in the Broncos' secondary. Jones, Sterns and Locke all started in 2018 for Texas, the season that ended with the Sugar Bowl win over Georgia.

There are five Longhorns from that 2018 Texas team playing in Denver; wide receiver Lil'Jordan Humphrey also is on the Broncos roster.

Jones wasn't the only Longhorn to make free agency news on Monday. Linebacker Jordan Hicks will spend his 10th NFL season with the Cleveland Browns and wide receiver Devin Duvernay, who was an All-Pro kick returner for Baltimore, agreed to a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

UPDATE (3/12/24 at 12:30 p.m.): Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported on Tuesday that former New Orleans defensive lineman Malcolm Roach will also sign with Denver as a free agent. And if you were wondering if Roach played for the Texas Longhorns in 2018, he did.