Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.
Nik Bonitto is undoubtedly an important piece of the Broncos defense, but can the team really afford to devote even more financial resources to the defensive front seven? Couldn’t this large allocation of money to one area of the team hurt them in the other areas of roster-building? Additionally, although Bonitto is a talented rusher of the passer, he’s not a particularly good run-stopper, so do you see a scenario where the team would let him play out this final year of his contract and then turn to Jonah Elliss, who by all accounts is an ascending young talent and could very well turn out to be a better all-around player than Bonitto?
— Richard Cozzette, La Veta
Hey Richard, thanks for writing in and getting us going this week.
The answer is yes, they can afford it, and yes, it could hamper them in other areas if they don’t do their diligence in planning short-term and long-term. But the way the Broncos structured six major extensions over the past 13 months indicates that they’ve got the second part of that taken care of.
Keeler: If Broncos won’t pay Nik Bonitto, another NFL team will, analyst says
Denver is still carrying $32 million of Russell Wilson salary cap charge on its books this year. They have a clean bill of health on that front starting in 2026, however, and that will start the next cap lifecycle for the club. They’ll have decisions to make on players who are getting expensive cap-wise and don’t have a ton of guaranteed money left in their deals, like offensive linemen Mike McGlinchey and Ben Powers. They’ll have a list of starters who are hitting the end of their contracts that they’ll have to work through, like DLs John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach, ILB Singleton and C Luke Wattenberg. Then there will be a fresh round of guys entering the final years of their rookie deals in 2026 (WR Marvin Mims, CB Riley Moss, etc.). The names change, but those situations come up every single year.
In agreeing to six substantial extensions over the past year-plus — throw defensive tackle D.J. Jones in there, too — the Broncos have guaranteed more than $306 million and put considerable cap obligations on their books for years into the future. But, generally speaking, they haven't tied themselves in financial knots to do so, haven't taken big contracts for other key players off the table, and haven't handicapped themselves when it comes time to decide on quarterback Bo Nix's extension after the 2026 season.
In fact, they've lined up their extensions largely to time with that potential Nix watershed.
For dominant Broncos defensive line, it’s not whether they’ll all get paid — it’s where
The extension given to Allen means they need three years of high-quality play from him, but most of the other deals are workable to get out of after 2026 — not that the team wants to have to think in those terms, or that it's likely with players like Surtain and Meinerz.
Paying really good players rarely gets you in trouble, and it qualifies as a good problem to have if you can’t afford to pay all of your good players. That means you’ve got several of them. The salary cap quandaries settle in when you kick too much cap charge down the road or you give too many extensions or free-agent deals to the wrong players.
Denver did a little bit of the kick-the-can game last year to absorb Wilson’s historic dead cap numbers, and there are void years here and there on their recent extensions. Overall, though, they avoided restructuring deals this spring and summer and look to be in pretty good shape. That restraint is something that CEO and owner Greg Penner has talked about publicly before and is notable, particularly considering that itap what got Payton’s New Orleans teams in cap trouble over his final years there.
As far as Bonitto, isn’t the point of drafting a guy like him to hope that he makes big strides, becomes an upper-echelon player and then stays with your team long term? Itap going to be really expensive to sign him to an extension, and, sure, he’s not an elite run defender, but there just aren’t many humans on the planet that can impact a quarterback like he can. Thatap a skillset teams pay a premium for.
The other thing about Bonitto that I’m not sure gets talked about enough: He has improved dramatically in each of his first three seasons. He was largely lost as a rookie. He showed flashes but largely fell out of favor in the second half of that disastrous 2022 season. Then, in 2023, he was a good rotational player and a quality pass-rusher, but still limited against the run. He didn’t even start the first two games last year, but then he took another big jump and was one of the most feared pass-rushers in the game by the end of the season.
He’s also caught the market at nearly the exact right time, partially by design and partially by good fortune. He’s coming up on payday right in the midst of an explosion at the top end of the pay scale for edge players.
Elliss is a promising young player, and if he or Que Robinson eventually turns into a top-shelf guy, great. But Bonitto’s a premium player at a premium position right now, and that 99 times out of 100 — looking at you, Jerry Jones — makes him a player to keep in the building.
On kickoffs, why don't teams like the Broncos try to kick a line drive that lands inside the 20-yard line? It might be fumbled or go into the end zone for a touchback at the 20.
-- Ab, Cheyenne, Wyo.
Hey Ab, great question. Itap a matter of risk-reward and also the difficulty of the kick you’re describing. In order to land a squib kick in play without incurring a penalty, itap got to travel at least 45 yards in the air while also having a low trajectory. Thatap not easy to do. And, if you miss and the ball hits outside the landing zone, the opposing team starts with the ball at the 40.
There is a payoff if the ball bounces in the landing zone and gets into the end zone, forcing the opposing team to start at its own 20. Thatap the ideal. But itap difficult to consistently pull off.
For teams that are going to defend the return rather than just booting the ball out of the end zone, the go-to method last year seemed to be to try to land the kickoff right around the goal line. Thatap the best combination of making a returner think for a split-second and then also giving your return team the maximum amount of time to get down the field.
We’ll see if that trend holds true now that the ball comes out to the 35 on a touchback this year rather than the 30. Maybe shrinking the penalty for landing the ball outside the landing zone from 10 yards to five will make some teams more willing to try the squib route, too, depending on the situation. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll see a kicker somewhere turn into a true purveyor of the squib.
Hola, Parker, long-time fan from living in Castle Pines. Why keep four tight ends? It's not unheard of, but very unusual. The norm is three. Will they move one to the practice squad at some point and bring up another running back or receiver?
-- Rick Shannon, La Paz, Mexico
Hey Rick, thanks for writing in and good question. Pretty simple answer in my mind: At least part of the equation is Nate Adkins. He had tightrope surgery on his ankle and may not be ready to play Sunday. We’ll know more about that as the week goes on, but Payton seemed to indicate last week that he might need a little more time. At the same time, the Broncos didn’t want to put him on short-term injured reserve because that would mean missing four games. It tells you just how highly they value Adkins’ skill set that they’re willing to carry his 53-man spot on a deep roster for maybe a week or two.
At the same time, you’re probably not going to go into a game with two healthy tight ends, especially when your fullback is out for the season, too. So if you’re going to have a fullback up on game day, you have to spend one of your two practice squad elevations on Adam Prentice.
It will be interesting, given how much we expect Evan Engram to play and Adam Trautman’s status as the in-line guy who can do a little bit of everything, what role there is for Lucas Krull once Adkins is back.
Whatap still missing on this Broncos roster?
-- Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.
Hey Ed, thanks for writing as always.
There are a couple of areas where the jury is still out. In a broad sense, it remains to be seen just how much more explosive and dynamic the offensive skill groups are this fall. Engram is a clear upgrade at tight end, and the Broncos have high hopes for the combination of J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey in the backfield. Denver thinks its young group of receivers behind Courtland Sutton is going to take a big step forward this year and provide Bo Nix with a fleet of versatile, fast pass-catchers that put fear into defenses.
That all sounds great, and it may well end up being true. A year ago, it wasn’t. Marvin Mims Jr. came on strong down the stretch and Sutton had a really good year, but too often for much of the year, the only player you could imagine causing defensive coordinators headaches in game planning was Nix himself. If Troy Franklin does break out, Mims continues his ascendance, Engram hits the ground running, Harvey contributes right away and Dobbins stays healthy and explosive, then this offense is going to be scary. But a slightly more skeptical way of looking at the picture — and one I don’t think is overly pessimistic — is that they need maybe most of those things to happen in order to be a unit that defenses feel the brunt of drive in and drive out.
Punting also remains an open question until rookie Jeremy Crawshaw finds some consistency. And, to take your question literally, there’s no fullback on the 53-man roster. Overall, though, on paper it looks like a balanced, talented group with depth at a bunch of key spots.
Broncos offense two-deep: Bo Nix looks to ascend in Year 2 with new weapons
I know Marvin Mims Jr. is listed as the No. 2 receiver, but I feel like he's still going to be moved around the field like he was last year. Who actually lines opposite Courtland Sutton?
-- Mike, Denver
Hey Mike, yeah, Mims will move around the formation quite a bit, but the unironic answer to your question will frequently be … Marvin Mims. You’ve seen Troy Franklin’s role expand during preseason games to where he’s now playing outside at times, but also from the slot quite a bit. Pat Bryant can play outside or inside, sort of like Devaughn Vele, until he was traded last month. Trent Sherfield can be a power player at the point, in the middle of the field, or on the perimeter.
Itap still a little bit of an open question exactly what the snap share will look like after Sutton — and don’t forget that Engram is a major part of that puzzle, too — but if you’re talking straight-up, three-receiver alignment of some kind with Sutton, it could end up being a coin flip between Mims and Franklin between who’s in the slot and who’s outside.
