ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos lost the AFC Championship Game less than 24 hours before linebacker Alex Singleton succinctly summed up the team’s offseason strategy.
“Obviously the best thing to do is run it back,” Singleton said.
As the first official week of free agency ends, the Broncos have run it back to almost exactly the team that finished tied for the league’s best record at 14-3 before falling one game short of the Super Bowl. The Broncos are the only team that hasn’t signed an outside free agent.
Neither coach Sean Payton nor general manager George Paton will likely address the team’s offseason work publicly until the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix at the end of the month. But both offered a preview of the homegrown free agency approach at the combine while also pointing to the long list of contract extensions the Broncos have done with their own players over the past year and a half.
Paton said those moves had been “really important,” while Payton called it “a busy year.”
So far, the Broncos have decided to sign 17 of their 21 players who were slated to be unrestricted, restricted or exclusive rights free agents. That included their leading tackler (Singleton) and leading rusher (J.K. Dobbins), as well as linebacker/special teams standout Justin Strnad.
Keeping players in Denver has been the unquestioned theme of the Paton/Payton regime over the past 19 months, one backed by the substantial checkbook of the Walton-Penner ownership group. After spending heavily on outside free agents in 2023 (Payton’s first offseason), signing players such as tackle Mike McGlinchey (five years, $87.5 million), guard Ben Powers (four years, $51.5 million) and defensive tackle Zach Allen (three years, $47.75 million), the Broncos have mostly stuck to maintaining their own.
The Broncos ended up signing 13 outside free agents in 2023 but have dialed it back considerably since. Safety Brandon Jones was the only free agent from elsewhere who signed a contract worth more than $10 million in 2024, while last year the Broncos signed tight end Evan Engram, safety Talanoa Hufanga and linebacker Dre Greenlaw to mid-level deals before inking Dobbins to a one-year contract in June.
Starting in July 2024, the Broncos have signed nearly two dozen players to contract extensions or new deals to stay in Denver. The top 17 contracts included a combined $320.5 million guaranteed at signing, according to salary cap data confirmed with multiple salary cap evaluators in the league. That list of extensions includes the team’s core, with All-Pros such as cornerback Pat Surtain II, Allen and edge rusher Nik Bonitto signing extensions worth at least $96 million.
“Just think if we didn’t get those guys wrapped up, what we’d be facing,” Paton said earlier this offseason. “It’s really important to get ahead of it. … There are a lot of All-Pros and Pro Bowlers. There are a lot of good players in that list. We are identifying the right players, the right makeup and the right people.”
Along with locking up their best players, the Broncos know they must position their salary cap to handle the looming extension with quarterback Bo Nix, who’s eligible for a long-term deal after the 2026 season. The prime time to negotiate the extension with Nix — which will almost certainly involve nine figures worth of guaranteed money — is before the 2027 season, as his fifth-year option would be engaged after that season concludes.
The truest test of the Broncos’ run-it-back approach might come on offense around Nix. Payton identified three “musts” to address this offseason, with running back and tight end joining linebacker.
The Broncos re-signed three tight ends in Adam Trautman, Nate Adkins and Lucas Krull to go with Dobbins at running back. But considering the Broncos finished their season with one touchdown in their loss to the Patriots in the conference championship game (albeit without an injured Nix), the run-it-back approach in free agency might face criticism if the offensive production doesn’t increase.
The Broncos chose Dobbins, who led the Broncos with 772 yards before being sidelined for the season due to a Week 10 foot injury, over free agent backs such as Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III and 1,107-yard rusher Travis Etienne Jr. But Dobbins hasn’t played more than 13 games in a season since 2020, his rookie year.
Right now, the Broncos return a tight end group that had a combined three touchdowns last season, with no player averaging more than 9.2 yards per reception. The leading receiver in that room, Engram, had 50 receptions for 461 receiving yards and one touchdown.
“I do think the tight end position can bring a lot more than it did this year, honestly, even speaking for the other guys in the room,” Engram said at the end of the season. “But at the end of the day, what we’re asked to do we have to focus on that.”
There are options at running back and tight end in the draft and the Broncos have nine picks, including five of the first 130. And both Payton and Paton have both said they see the offseason as a multi-month process that involves signings throughout the spring and summer along with the draft, not a frenzied first few days of free agency.
“Sean has talked about the musts and you have to get those filled with good players,” Paton said. “Those are the ones that you attack on offense, defense and special teams. We have musts for all three phases.
“It doesn’t always mean through free agency or always mean through the draft … you are always looking, and it never stops. There is always something out there that hopefully can help you.”
