Jeff Legwold
Multiple Authors
INDIANAPOLIS — The Denver Broncos‘ decision-makers arrived on the NFL mix figuring out their present roster is near championship degree. The workforce completed only one win from the Super Bowl final season. And Denver is now poised to enter the offseason utterly freed from the document $85 million in lifeless cash prices that resulted from the release of quarterback Russell Wilson in March 2024.
“If I said, ‘I’m going [to] give you $50,000 to decorate your home or $200,000,’ your home’s going to look nicer. … If you’re a decent shopper, if you have more money,” Broncos coach Sean Payton mentioned. “I think the same takes place with our sport.”
But that does not essentially imply that the Broncos will soar into the offseason anticipating their all of the sudden substantial checkbook to repair all their points.
“In terms of free agency … I get a little worried about just the pure phrase of ‘aggressive,’ because you can be aggressive, but you want to do it in a smart way,” proprietor/CEO Greg Penner mentioned. “… We’ll definitely take an aggressive approach, but we’re also not just going to bring in somebody that’s not right for this locker room.
“I’d say we’ll be opportunistically aggressive.”
Wilson’s release put the Broncos in previously uncharted NFL waters. Denver took $53 million of the ensuing dead money charge in 2024 and $32 million this past season, salary cap bites that couldn’t be used to sign new players or keep some of their own.
That resulted in the Broncos carrying a little more than $89 million in dead money two years ago and a little less than $46 million in dead money last year. They thrived despite those obstacles, ending an eight-year playoff drought in 2024 and then compiling a league-best 14-3 record with an AFC Championship Game appearance in 2025.
The Broncos arrived in Indianapolis this week with a little more than $1 million in dead money. While that figure could rise if they choose to release a veteran or two prior to the opening of the NFL league year on March 11, they enter this offseason with more resources after excelling in antagonistic conditions previously two years.
“[I’m] happy with the way in which everybody else dealt with it, and checked out creating younger gamers and did not use it as a built-in excuse,” Payton said. “We consider correctly. We draft correctly.”
Part of the Broncos’ evaluation has been the extending and re-signing of their own players. They have re-signed eight former draft picks to high-profile extensions since the summer of 2024, including contracts to cornerback Pat Surtain II and edge rusher Nik Bonitto that each topped $95 million in total value.
They’ve also given second contracts to players who previously signed with the Broncos as outside free agents, such as defensive tackles Zach Allen (for $102 million over four years), D.J. Jones and Malcolm Roach. These re-signings have the Broncos entering the combine with less room under the expected salary cap (projected to be just over $300 million) than they had at this time last season.
Even with the $32 million dead money charge to Wilson, the Broncos had nearly $44 million in salary cap room entering last year’s combine. While they still have two weeks to maneuver before the league year starts, Denver currently has between $26 million and $30 million in cap space.
But the Broncos know the time is now to “push,” as common supervisor George Paton put it. That’s as a result of they’re nonetheless in quarterback Bo Nix‘s coveted rookie contract window.
Nix is getting into the third yr of his four-year rookie deal and is not eligible to have his fifth-year choice picked up (or get a second contract) till subsequent offseason. NFL common managers usually say that essentially the most flexibility in developing a Super Bowl championship workforce comes when the workforce’s long-term beginning quarterback remains to be on a rookie deal. Right now, Nix is slated to have the Seventeenth-highest cap hit of Broncos presently underneath contract for 2026 ($5.076 million). They would nonetheless have Nix underneath his rookie contract in 2027 earlier than both signing him to a long-term extension or choosing up his fifth-year choice for 2028.
“We’re always going to push it,” Paton mentioned. “All these other teams are pushing it. … We have to make really good decisions. We’re going to be aggressive. Regardless of whose contract is what, I think it’s really important. Now we’re going to be sound and prudent with our decisions.”
The Broncos’ checklist of wants consists of including extra explosiveness to an offense that completed close to the underside of the league in three-and-out share (25% of their drives, rating twenty ninth) and scored seven factors of their AFC Championship Game loss to the New England Patriots. Payton has additionally mentioned taking a tough have a look at the construction of Denver’s run game, and the Broncos have their two inside linebackers (Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad) poised to be unrestricted free brokers. An improve of the tight finish room, which offered solely three touchdowns final season, can also be on the docket.
But now the seek for options comes with a slice of economic freedom with Wilson’s deal off the books.
“I love the approach we took, which was none of us were ever going to make any excuses for that,” Penner mentioned. “So, we just looked at it as … ‘We’re going to have to be scrappy, and we’re going to figure it out and put a great product on the field.’ I think that we’ve done that. We’re in a good position now in terms of cap space … that’s exciting.”
