Broncos draft previews
Offense: Quarterbacks | Running backs | Wide receivers | Tight ends | Offensive line
Defense: Defensive line | Outside linebackers | Inside linebackers | Cornerbacks | Safeties

Broncos’ in-house offseason moves: Moving Jonah Elliss to inside linebacker

Under contract: Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Que Robinson, Dondrea Tillman, Johnny Walker.

Need scale (1-10): 4. This number is influenced a bit upward in the wake of head coach Sean Payton saying last month that Elliss will get a look inside. Still, Denver’s got an enviable situation at outside linebacker thanks to Bonitto’s continued ascension into one of the NFL’s finest rushers, Cooper’s stalwart presence and the emergence of Robinson as a prime breakout candidate for 2026. Tillman has a knack for finishing and logged a pair of interceptions in 2025, though the Broncos are probably wise to keep him in his current role and not bank on getting a ton more out of him than they already are. He’s one of the best under-the-radar signings of the past handful of years. The Broncos don’t have to draft an edge this year, but it����ap a premium position and Payton and GM George Paton are always on the lookout. It would be foolish to rule out drafting a player at the position.

The Top Five

Arvell Reese, Ohio State

The first big question of the 2026 Draft arrives at No. 2 after the Las Vegas Raiders select QB Fernando Mendoza with the top pick. Does New York Jets GM Darren Mougey — Paton’s former top lieutenant in Denver — like Reese or Texas Tech’s David Bailey better?

They’re each premier talents. Bailey is a more fully formed edge rusher right now, while Reese draws Micah Parsons comparisons for his versatility and ability to make an impact from anywhere. Reese checked into the NFL Combine a shade over 6-foot-4 and 241 pounds and ran 4.46 seconds in the 40-yard dash. He won’t turn 21 until the end of training camp. He’s got all the tools.

David Bailey, Texas Tech

Bailey started his career at Stanford and then exploded in 2025 as part of the Red Raiders’ super-talented and highly compensated defensive front. He racked up 14.5 tackles and 19.5 TFLs. He’s exactly what NFL teams look for on the edge. Long, strong, fast and powerful. He checked into the combine at 6-4 and 251 pounds and ran 4.5 in the 40. He should make an impact right from the jump wherever he gets drafted, whether that����ap No. 2 overall to the Jets or elsewhere in the top 10.

Rueben Bain Jr., Miami

No conversation about Bain over the course of the fall and winter would last long before his arm length — or lack thereof — came up. But, man, just watch him play. He can contort his body, he’s powerful and he just finds a way to make life miserable for tackles. He helped power Miami’s terrific season. In recent months, he’s been one of several top draft prospects to train with former Broncos pass-rush consultant B.T. Jordan. Bain shouldn’t have to wait more than 10 picks or so to hear his name called.

T.J. Parker, Clemson

After the top three, there are a number of edge rushers who could populate the first round and the order will depend on what specific teams are looking for. Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell brings pure speed. Mizzou’s Zion Young is powerful. Miami’s bookend to Bain, Akheem Mesidor, is already 25 but is a well-rounded player. Parker is young — he won’t turn 22 until early in the season — and has ideal measurables (6-4 and 263 at the combine). He had just five sacks and 9.5 TFLs as a junior after 11 and 19.5, respectively, in 2024, but the ceiling is high.

Keldrick Faulk, Auburn

Faulk is another young player and he’s got a massive frame at 6-6 and 276. The counting stats took a step back in 2025 when he logged just two sacks and five TFLs in 12 games (he had seven and 11, respectively, the year prior), but Faulk’s got huge upside if he gets in a program where he can develop pass-rush refinement.

Broncos options

R Mason Thomas, Oklahoma

A somewhat undersized but fast and explosive edge rusher from Oklahoma who projects to get drafted somewhere in the second-round neighborhood? That might be a little on the nose for the Broncos at No. 62 four years after they selected Nik Bonitto out of OU at No. 64 overall.

Jaishawn Barham, Michigan

Played two years at Maryland and then two at Michigan and finished with a career-best 10 tackles for loss to go along with four sacks in 2025. He’s not a finished product by any means, but the athletic ability at 6-4 and 240 pounds might be worth stashing and developing. He’s not the same as Que Robinson because he played a lot more defensive snaps than Robinson, but similar in the sense that he’d be interesting as a toolsy project in the fourth or fifth round, depending on how or if Denver moves some of its picks around.

Logan Fano, Utah

The Broncos love Utes. They’ve drafted several, from since-traded WR Devaughn Vele and Elliss in 2024 to tight end Caleb Lohner last year. Fano is likely a Day 3 guy and is just the type of player Denver is usually attracted to late. He’s big at 6-5 and 257. He’s powerful but hasn’t put up huge sack numbers. The Broncos have been good at developing pass rush. Fano has most of the rest.

Mason Reiger, Wisconsin

Reiger spent five seasons at Louisville (he missed 2024 with an injury) before transferring to Wisconsin for his final season. He tied his career-high with five sacks last fall and added six tackles for loss. He’s a good athlete and jumped 40 inches vertical and 10-5 broad at the Combine at 6-5 and 251.

Josh Weru, IPP

The Kenyan rusher is a freak athlete. At the HBCU showcase this spring, Weru ran 4.45 in the 40-yard dash and logged a 41-inch vertical at 6-4 and 244 pounds. If you’re talking seventh round, maybe with one of the last two picks of the draft, why not see what you can get out of an athlete like that?

Kris Bryant’s last at-bat in Rockies pinstripes happened a year ago this past Sunday. April 12, 2025. Haven’t seen him since.

“Hey, look, I get it — baseball is a business,” Bryant’s father Mike told me during a short conversation last spring. “They want (Kris) hitting 40 home runs and hitting .300 … you got your Todd Heltons for that, and you’ve got your other guys. Kris is happy. When it’s all said and done, (Denver fans are) going to look back on Kris favorably.”

As a person? Without a doubt.

As a contract? As an investment? No chance.

Which is where the Broncos enter the picture, riding to the rescue on The Penner Sports Group, fronted by Broncos owners Carrie Walton Penner and husband Greg Penner, now possesses a 40% stake in the Rockies. As reported by The Post’s Patrick Saunders last Friday, the Walton-Penners are the largest minority investors for Colorado’s Major League Baseball team, topped only by the Monfort family, who retain team control.

The Broncos needed leadership and money to get out of the darkness and back into the AFC Championship Game. The Rockies need … well, everything. But more money and better leadership would be two welcome steps in the right direction.

Because, lest we forget, the Broncos had to bottom out before starting their three-year climb. The Penners and Waltons went all-in on Russell Wilson. They got a 5-12 train wreck in 2022 to show for it, all while fans counted down the play clock. At home.

Sean Payton wanted to wash his hands of Russ, who was clearly toast. So the Broncos ate $85 million in dead cap money over the ’24 and ’25 seasons for cutting Wilson, the kind of hit that’s supposed to punish a franchise for its free-spending folly.

Only a funny thing happened: The Broncos got better. Much, much, much better. And fast. Bo Nix hit. Nik Bonitto hit. Jonathon Cooper hit. Quinn Meinerz hit. Brandon Jones hit. Talanoa Hufanga hit anything within six feet of him. A lot of shrewd drafting, a pinch of smart free-agent signings and good coaching hoisted the Broncos from outhouse to penthouse.

The road is longer for the Rockies, who’ve lost 100 or more games for three straight seasons and will flirt with a fourth. The NFL is designed for parity, competitive socialism at its finest. Major League Baseball is the last of the major North American sports leagues without a salary cap.

But the Broncos couldn’t move forward until they chucked Wilson’s contract overboard and let Payton build a roster in his image.

And any hope for a new dawn in LoDo, any tailwind that pushes the Rockies forward, starts with getting Bryant’s seven-year, $182-million contract off the stinkin’ books. And as quickly as possible.

Not his fault, mind you. Nice guy. Amazing dude. Bryant’s spirit, like his smile, was always willing. His body, alas, had other ideas.

Since signing with the Rockies in March 2022, KB23 has played in only 170 games over the first four years of his deal. In what’s amounted to basically a full season of stats over the last 48 months, KB’s Colorado line to date is 632 at-bats, 29 doubles, 17 home runs, 61 RBI, a .244 batting average and a .695 OPS.

In other words, for $26 million per season, the Rockies have gotten 42 games a year of (.244 career batting average, .695 career OPS) in the middle of the order.

The surface takeaway from the Walton-Penner family’s investment was that all that sweet Walmart dough would wipe away debt. Most MLB clubs lost some serious change with the collapse of regional sports networks — the Rox reportedly collected at least $57 million from AT&T SportsNet in 2023, the last season of their old TV contract.

Given inflation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that $57 million in March 2023 would’ve been worth $58.98 million in March 2024, $60.39 million in March 2025; and $62.4 million in March 2026.

That’s an estimated $181.7 million shortfall for the Monforts, even before factoring in returns from the direct-to-consumer/subscriber model. You need cash to patch the wound and stop the bleeding.

The other purple elephant in the Monforts’ room, of course, is Bryant, a deal that’s aging the way

A bad idea at the time looks even worse now. Counting this season’s salary, the Rox still owe Bryant, now 34, another $81 million through the end of the 2028 season.

Word leaked that Bryant was signing with Colorado the same day that Wilson was introduced as the new QB savior of the Broncos in Dove Valley — March 16, 2022, a date that will forever live in Front Range infamy.

The Waltons and Penners quickly saw the error of their ways, although it helped that NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed beyond the signing bonus. MLB deals are. Bryant is repped by Scott Boras, and baseball divorces aren’t cheap. An injury settlement feels like the most logical path at this point. Which is why it’s also not hard to picture the Monforts asking Walton-Penner and her husband if they’d like to chip in to help the Rockies get past their version of the Wilson deal.

“It’s just been very frustrating (here),” the elder Bryant told me. “We came in with high expectations for him to really enjoy himself and it was killing him (to not play). Then to listen to the B.S. that goes along, people running their mouths about how he wasn’t worth the contract …

“It’s not like he was trying to play at 80% (health). He was trying to play at 50%. You can’t do that in this game. There’s just too many good pitchers. It’s a brutal game.”

With brutal realities. If the Broncos can make two of the worst deals in Denver sports history go away, that would be almost as impressive as sticking a fork in the Chiefs’ AFC West dynasty.

Most of all, though, his ex-Utah coaches believe he will succeed at inside linebacker in the NFL because of his DNA.

“I would never count any of Luther Elliss’ sons out,” said Freddie Whittingham, once Utah’s recruiting coordinator and now Michigan’s tight ends coach. “I would always bet on his sons.”

Indeed, the Elliss family is to tweener linebackers as the Manning family is to pocket-passing quarterbacks. Luther Elliss, the former Broncos defensive tackle and chaplain who’s helped raise a litter of 12 children, will swear he didn’t do anything special. But four Elliss brothers have reached the NFL, with one more, Elijah, in college. And most remarkably, fit the same profile: 30-year-old Kaden Elliss is an outside-turned-inside linebacker who just signed a $33 million contract with the Saints, and 27-year-old Christian Elliss is a larger ILB who just signed a $13.5 million contract with the Patriots.

23-year-old Jonah Elliss, now, will be the latest Elliss to try to make his money at inside linebacker. With a glut of edge options and further depth needed at ILB, Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters at league meetings earlier this week that Jonah Elliss will “take some snaps inside.” Privately, the move has been discussed inside the Broncos’ building since the 2025 season ended, multiple sources told The Denver Post at the February NFL Combine.

“Sometimes, that inside ‘backer position — one of the best in our league in San Francisco, Fred Warner, you saw him play more out in space, outside ‘backer,” Payton said in Arizona. “So, sometimes, you have to look at the skillset and then project where you think it can go.”

It’s a drastic shift. Jonah Elliss played just 3% of his snaps in three seasons at Utah (2021-2023) from the box, according to Pro Football Focus.

Quietly, though, the potential for this move has always lingered in his background, from his very bloodline to his maturation as a prospect.

“I’m excited to see how he functions there,” former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, now Michigan’s head coach, told The Post. “Because, like I said, he’s fully capable of it.”

A skill set that translates inside

Back in 2021, a then-210-pound Jonah Elliss committed to Utah out of Idaho, . At the time, the Utes weren’t sure if he’d step in immediately as an inside linebacker or grow into a defensive end, Kyle Whittingham said. Utah ended up moving him outside, where he racked up 12 sacks as a junior All-American, because of the scheme fit — not because “oh, he can’t play inside linebacker,” as Kyle Whittingham put it.

As Jonah Elliss went through the pre-draft process in 2023, there were “some teams” who were looking at him as an ILB, Kyle Whittingham said. Evaluators asked the former Utah coach how he thought Jonah Elliss could profile as an inside ‘backer, and he told them he simply played OLB at Utah because it was more valuable given their personnel.

“He’s certainly got the physicality to destroy blocks — block destruction is something he’s really good at,” Kyle Whittingham told The Post. “He’s also got very good just, flat-out speed … I think he’s got what it takes to be a very good all-around (inside) linebacker.”

Jonah Elliss has landed in a near-impossible path to starting edge snaps in Denver, as Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper have become one of the best OLB duos in the league. In two seasons since the Broncos drafted him in the third round in 2023, Jonah Elliss has shown plenty of flashes as a rotational edge rusher, but rarely played in any alignment except at OLB: 96% of his snaps came there in 2025, according to Next Gen Stats.

It’s easy to see his frame and downhill speed transitioning to ILB in Denver, if he makes a full-time switch. Bonitto has said previously that Jonah Elliss is a frequent winner of get-off timing drills in practice, and he’s missed just three tackles in two seasons, according to PFF.

The key to any success at ILB, now, will be his ability to cover in open space and read the middle of the field. The Post watched  all 31 of Jonah Elliss’ regular-season snaps when dropping back into coverage last season; he struggled at times in the first half of the year with his assignment in match-coverage situations, but improved dramatically over the course of 2025 in blanketing multiple opposing tight ends in one-on-one situations.

Jonah Elliss improved a *ton* in coverage throughout '25. Can see ' ILB vision for him.

Clip 1: 3rd-down stop vs. GB TE John FitzPatrick in space.
Clip 2: Blows up screen to Travis Etienne.
Clip 3: Blankets TE Brenton Strange, takes away 3rd-down Trevor Lawrence's read.

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans)

Jonah Elliss also played substantial reps early in his Utah career on the Utes’ punt-coverage teams, and has done the same in two years in Denver. His stickiness there, as Freddie Whittingham told The Post, is a “pretty good indication” that Jonah Elliss can cover.

“As far as football intellect and also the discipline to get in the film room and watch tape and learn and understand assignments and adjustments, and everything that the linebackers need to be able to understand,” Freddie Whittingham said, “I think they’re going to be able to count on that guy.”

A hole to plug at ILB

The question: how much Denver wants to count on Jonah Elliss at ILB. He is a legitimate asset even in a rotational edge role, with 7.5 sacks and 11 quarterback hits across his last two seasons. But Payton’s voluntary admission at league meetings suggests this won’t be just a specialty-situation role, which could influence the Broncos’ plans come April.

After the Broncos cut Dre Greenlaw, Denver has a clear hole at LB3 entering the draft. There will be a glut of options available at No. 62: Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, Cincinnati’s Jake Golday, and Mizzou’s Josiah Trotter are all potential young targets who could eventually grow into starters in Denver.

If defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and the staff like Jonah Elliss as a legitimate LB3 option who can also take some outside snaps, though, the Broncos could opt to go offense at the back of the second round — tight end, running back, offensive line — and sit on a linebacker like TCU’s Kaleb Elarms-Orr in the fourth round.

The move could also be a way to preserve Jonah Elliss’ body, as the 246-pound linebacker has an undersized frame for banging against opposing offensive tackles. He missed four games in 2025 with a variety of ailments, and Luther Elliss told The Post during the playoffs that Jonah is “really looking at how he trains” and could add “a little more finesse” to work on staying healthy.

It’s not the most lucrative option for his career, as the market for pass-rushers has exploded in recent years. But older brother Kaden Elliss just earned himself $11 million a season back in New Orleans — where Broncos head coach Sean Payton originally drafted him. And Jonah Elliss’ old college coaches believe he has the pedigree and profile to pull off the move.

“Athletically and mentally, if anybody can make that switch, it����ap a kid like him,” Freddie Whittingham said.

He played it slow during the first week of free agency, then got fast in a hurry by completing a blockbuster trade for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.

Payton and the Broncos have spent more than a year prioritizing retention, but he insists that assuming anything from 2025 will be the same in 2026 is folly.

This is the challenge of arriving on the doorstep of a Super Bowl only to come up short. What you did worked well, but not well enough. Ifs and buts are easy to come by, especially after quarterback Bo Nix broke his ankle in overtime of the AFC’s divisional round.

Change for change’s sake doesn’t make sense, but neither does stasis.

“The better you get, the harder it is to improve your team,” Payton said Tuesday at the NFL’s annual spring meeting.

He spoke and answered questions from that unique perch: Well-situated as a contender with a quarterback in the midst of his rookie contract and also warding off any notion of complacency.

Here are five takeaways from Payton’s 27 minutes with reporters:

The Broncos know the stakes of having QB Bo Nix in his rookie contract window

What Payton said: “Everyone would say, ‘Hey, you’ve got Bo on his rookie deal.’ Well, no kidding.”

What it means: Teams with talented young quarterbacks who are still cheap are in the best position to build a complete roster. There’s really no way around that fact. Nix is entering his third professional season and will play with a cap charge just a shade above $5 million.

The implication of what Payton said is that he senses an external notion that perhaps the Broncos didn’t get aggressive enough to build around Nix in the midst of this window.

The PG-rated version of his response: Baloney.

In his mind, though, the Broncos had already done much of their building when free agency opened in early March.

That����ap what the 10 contract extensions over the preceding 18 months were about. That����ap what the last-minute run of deals for unheralded-yet-important pieces like Alex Palczewski, Justin Strnad, Alex Singleton, and Adam Trautman were about.

Payton chided anybody who cast the offseason as wasted before Denver swung the trade for Waddle.

The numbers mostly back Payton up. The Broncos retained virtually every core member of their offense and defense. �ٱ�Ա����,��, is in the middle of the pack in cap space (No. 19 at $18.8 million) but ranks seventh in active cap spending. Only Seattle has less dead cap than Denver.

The Broncos have loaded up the roster; they are just betting that doing so with their own players is the better path to the Lombardi Trophy than bringing in extensive outside help.

Jaylen Waddle can be a force multiplier in multiple ways

What Payton said: “Whenever you get into a big-name free agent or a trade of this magnitude, the all-the-other-stuff is important research. When it comes to Waddle’s all-the-other-stuff, it was 10, 10, 10, 10. Obviously, he will help us.”

What it means: Waddle is a really good player. That much is obvious. The Broncos traded the rough equivalent of a first and a fourth-round pick for him because they think they’re acquiring much more than that.

Start with what Payton refers to as the “all-the-other-stuff.” Payton got glowing reviews on the receiver from former quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, one of the coach’s favorite former players and a trusted resource, as well as legendary former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Broncos corner Pat Surtain II and more. Payton calls certain players “force multipliers” in the locker room. Running back J.K. Dobbins is one. Defensive lineman Malcolm Roach is another. So, too, is Courtland Sutton. Denver thinks Waddle can be that, too.

He should have a similarly broad impact on the field. Payton said Waddle can play inside and outside and referred to his route tree as “extensive.” The coach’s favorite part about his new pass-catcher’s skill set: “He’s extremely fast and he stops fast.”

That����ap the kind of player who can not only make an impact on his own — the Broncos wanted a high-caliber route-runner and believe Waddle is that — but who can also make life easier for the other receivers and Denver’s running game, too.

He’s the kind of player who can improve a team even when a team is good enough, as Payton said, where improving becomes a more difficult challenge. That, ultimately, is why the Broncos paid the price for Waddle. He checks every box they set out to find.

A creative option at inside linebacker — and a breakout candidate on the edge

What Payton said: “You’re going to see (Jonah) Elliss take some snaps inside. That����ap something we’ve discussed relative to our depth on the edge.”

What it means: Perhaps the single most interesting personnel note from Payton is an impending position change for Denver’s third-year defender. Time will tell if the move sticks, but it says as much about another player on the roster as it does about Elliss himself.

This, in some ways, is a Que Robinson move. The Broncos think they might have stolen a really good player in the fourth round of the 2025 draft in Robinson, who is long, strong, plays tough against the run on the edge, but also has real pass-rush juice.

Robinson, though, was often a gameday inactive as a rookie behind Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Elliss and Dondrea Tillman. They’re all back for 2026. So perhaps Elliss can provide some quality play on the inside and free up time for Robinson in Denver’s OLB rotation.

Payton called the switch a matter of “looking at your assets” and lauded the skill set of Elliss.

The head coach noted that two of Elliss’ brothers, Kaden and Christian, have played in the middle of the field, and also that Zach Baun flourished in Philadelphia when he moved to the middle of the field.

If Denver gets anything resembling that kind of production, of course, the move will be a home run. At the very least, it’ll be a fascinating project to follow this summer.

Breaking news: The Broncos coach is not the warm and fuzzy type

What Payton said: “I don’t have anything warm and fuzzy in my golf bag. Except my towel.”

What it means: Payton was asked, essentially, if he could occasionally play the good cop with Nix or anybody else. He dropped one of his funniest lines of the day in response.

In more practical terms, though, Payton made an interesting comment in suggesting that Davis Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator and play-caller will likely change the complexion of Webb’s day-to-day relationship with Nix to some degree.

“Bo is in there with (new quarterbacks coach) Logan Kilgore now. Logan will be his warm and fuzzy.

Now, Davis and myself will be like, ‘Hey! What are you doing?’

One of the more fascinating subplots of the 2026 Broncos will be how Payton helps groom Webb as a play-caller. When Payton first took that role under his mentor, Bill Parcells, Parcells was extremely hands-on. Will Payton operate the same way? Will he push Webb to coach Nix in any form or manner differently now that he’s in the coordinator role rather than at the front of the QB room on a daily basis? Does Webb need to do anything differently now that he’s in front of the entire unit rather than one room?

Webb doesn’t have to have the same approach as Payton had when he was a young play-caller and Payton doesn’t have to have the same approach Parcells did all those years ago. But the similarities in both are readily apparent.

Sean Payton’s flag football coaching career will not go down as illustrious

What Payton said: “Well, that was humbling.”

What it means: Payton coached a bunch of NFL players and former players — including legendary former quarterback Tom Brady — against the U.S. national flag football team earlier in March. The tournament was originally supposed to be in Saudi Arabia, but was moved to Los Angeles due to the war in Iran.

What happened: The NFL guys got their clocks cleaned by the national flag football team. And Payton, who had Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh along as his defensive coordinator, had his eyes opened.

“You remember the ‘Home Alone’ series and Macaulay Culkin was inside the house? Well, the national team was Macaulay Culkin and I felt like Harbaugh and I were the two guys outside tripping over the garden hose. It����ap an entirely different game. It was cool to be around those guys.”

Payton left the weekend with a prediction regarding the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A.

“When this was announced, there was this feeling that there would be 10 NFL players on that roster and I’ll be surprised if there’s one,” he said.

The thing about windows, though, is that they close. Denver has two more seasons before it has to start thinking about a massive extension for quarterback Bo Nix, which will put considerable strain on their long-term cap. It’s no secret. The world knows it. Those inside the Broncos’ facility know it. Their time to strike is now, heading into 2026 free agency with roughly $28 million in current cap room — — and plenty of levers to pull to create more space and throw money around in the market.

It’s also no secret that the Broncos need more skill talent. They need to add a running back, tight end, and potentially wide receiver. They need a linebacker either in free agency or the draft, and quietly have some options at safety. In January, owner Greg Penner described Denver’s approach with a phrase that’ll come to define this offseason, whatever size of swing the front office takes: “We’ll be opportunistically aggressive.”

The legal tampering period of free agency, when teams can officially make contact with players and agents, begins at 10:00 a.m. MT Monday. New contracts can officially be signed come 2:00 p.m. MT on Wednesday. Here’s The Denver Post’s position-by-position Broncos guide to 2026 free agency, informed via numerous conversations with NFL agents and sources across the past two weeks.

Quarterback

Who Denver has: QB1 Bo Nix, QB2 Jarrett Stidham

Who Denver could lose: QB3 Sam Ehlinger

What Denver needs: Another QB in the room, and to re-sign Ehlinger

Key market options (former team in parenthesis): Zach Wilson (Dolphins), Sam Howell (Eagles), Teddy Bridgewater (Buccaneers)

This will depend entirely on whether the Broncos actually shop Stidham, and potentially save themselves $6.5 million in corresponding cap room. If they trade Stidham to a quarterback-needy team for some draft capital, Denver could easily look to re-sign Ehlinger and promote him to Nix’s official backup, after Ehlinger stuck to Davis Webb’s hip in 2025. The Broncos would clearly need another name to push Ehlinger in such a circumstance, though.

If that wouldn’t be a young draft pick, the Broncos could look to bring back Zach Wilson, who was part of a tight-knit group with Nix and Stidham in Denver in 2024. Paton also did plenty of work on longtime backup Howell in the 2022 draft, and former Bronco Bridgewater was Sean Payton’s trusted backup in New Orleans in 2018 and 2019.

Running back

Who Denver has: RB1/RB2 RJ Harvey, RB3 Tyler Badie (likely to sign ERFA deal)

Who Denver could lose: RB1/RB2 J.K. Dobbins, RB4 Jaleel McLaughlin

What Denver needs: A true RB1 or Harvey complement, and depth

Key market options: Kenneth Walker III (Seahawks), Travis Etienne Jr. (Jaguars), Rico Dowdle (Panthers), Tyler Allgeier (Falcons), Kenneth Gainwell (Steelers), Emanuel Wilson (Packers)

Here’s the spot that’ll draw the most buzz next week. The Broncos have already been connected to some of the top names on the market, clearly needing an upgrade in the room even if Denver brings back Dobbins on the cheap; the oft-injured veteran simply can’t be relied upon to play a full season. The Seahawks elected not to give Walker a one-year, $14 million franchise tag after a Super Bowl MVP, and the star RB could easily command upwards of $12 to $14 million on the market.

Would Denver swing on that price, though? Walker wasn’t good in pass protection last year (two sacks and nine pressures in 51 pass-blocking snaps, per PFF), and the Broncos need a third-down back whom Nix trusts. The 5-foot-11, 215-pound Etienne is a highly intriguing fit for Denver, a bigger back who’s dynamic in the passing game (six receiving touchdowns in 2025). The 25-year-old Allgeier is a power back without excessive tread on the tires who could be available at a lower price, but expect Denver to look elsewhere.

Don’t be surprised if the Broncos walk away with Dobbins, Harvey and a supplemental piece instead of swinging big here. Wilson is an interesting name, a 226-pound RB who ran for 496 yards in Green Bay last season.

Wide receiver

Who Denver has: WR1 Courtland Sutton, WR2 Troy Franklin, WR3 Pat Bryant, WR4 Marvin Mims Jr.

Who Denver could lose: WR5 Lil’Jordan Humphrey

What Denver needs: A high-upside complement to Sutton, or at least another trustworthy WR4/5 option

Key market options: Alec Pierce (Colts), Jauan Jennings (49ers), Wan’Dale Robinson (Giants), Rashid Shaheed (Seahawks), Mike Evans (Buccaneers), Stefon Diggs (Patriots), Romeo Doubs (Packers), Jahan Dotson (Eagles), Jalen Nailor (Vikings)

The Broncos like their current receiver room. The Paton-Payton braintrust has made that clear this entire offseason, and their firing of receivers coach Keary Colbert and hire of longtime Payton associate Ronald Curry signal that Denver believes in unlocking the potential of its current group rather than needing a drastic personnel overhaul. That being said, they need to add a piece here, whether in free agency or via a deep draft class.

Pierce is the true difference-maker on the market. There are few in the NFL like him, a 6-foot-3 deep-ball extraordinaire who racked up 1,003 yards last year on 21.3 yards per catch. Denver got an up-close look at him in a Week 2 loss to Indianapolis. But one agent The Post spoke with pinpointed Pierce’s likely market value at $27 to $30 million, which would be a steep price for a team already giving Sutton $23 million yearly. Don’t expect Denver to get into a bidding war for him.

The rest of the market is somewhat iffy. Jennings has the frame (6-foot-3), blocking prowess and red-zone ability (nine TDs in 2025) that Payton would love. Robinson will likely land somewhere in the $10 to $15 million range, and would bring a high-volume slot weapon that Denver doesn’t currently have.

Doubs is a definite potential fit for the Broncos here; Denver has interest in the former Green Bay receiver, an NFL source told The Post. He’s a big-bodied target who doesn’t demand the ball but has good red-zone production and can play in a variety of alignments. Keep an eye on Dotson as a potential depth piece, too, as Dotson’s agency CAA also represents Nix. He’s a former 2022 first-round pick whose production stalled out in Philadelphia, but he can block, play from the slot and hasn’t dropped a pass since 2023.

Tight end

Who Denver has: TE1/TE2 Evan Engram

Who Denver could lose: TE1/TE2 Adam Trautman, TE3 Nate Adkins, TE4 Lucas Krull

What Denver needs: A legitimate in-line TE who can complement Engram as a pass-catcher, and stay on the field on any down

Key market options: David Njoku (Browns), Isaiah Likely (Ravens), Cade Otton (Buccaneers), Chig Okonkwo (Titans), Dallas Goedert (Eagles), Daniel Bellinger (Giants), Charlie Kolar (Ravens)

Denver can’t simply run it back from 2025 and expect better production from Engram, who caught 50 passes for 461 yards in 2025, under new play-caller Davis Webb. The Broncos need a versatile weapon whom they trust as both a blocker and a matchup-threat receiver. Otton might just be that guy: he played in-line (attached to the offensive tackle) on nearly half his snaps in Tampa Bay in 2025, according to Pro Football Focus, and has caught 59 passes in each of the last two seasons.

Otton’s yearly value has been pinpointed in NFL circles somewhere around Jake Ferguson’s four-year, $50 million extension with Dallas in 2025. If Denver wants to spend at TE, he and Likely would be the most well-rounded options on the Market. Njoku and Goedert are likely past their primes, and Okonkwo’s not a blocker.

Bellinger had 88 yards and a touchdown for the Giants against Denver in Week 7, and is seeking $7 to $8 million yearly. Kolar is the most intriguing upside swing here, a 6-foot-6 blocker who was stuck behind multiple TEs in Baltimore in the receiving game.

Offensive line

Who Denver has: LT1 Garett Bolles, LG1 Ben Powers, C1 Luke Wattenberg, RG1 Quinn Meinerz, RT1 Mike McGlinchey, OL2 Alex Palczewski, OT2 Matt Peart, OT2 Frank Crum, C2 Alex Forsyth

Who Denver could lose: Nobody

What Denver needs: Maybe another swing tackle

Key market options: Wide-open

Denver doesn’t need to spend here, with its current starting offensive line set again for 2026. The Broncos could always look to cut or deal Powers to create cap room and have a ready successor in Alex Palczewski, whom they inked to a two-year extension Thursday. It’s more likely they look to the draft to bolster depth here, although they could certainly cut Peart to save over $3 million in cap room and target another backup tackle in free agency. Players like former Vikings veteran Justin Skule or Seahawks backup Josh Jones could be good value there.

Defensive line

Who Denver has: DE1 Zach Allen, NT1 D.J. Jones, OLB1 Nik Bonitto, OLB2 Jonathon Cooper, DE/DT2 Eyioma Uwazurike, DT2 Malcolm Roach, OLB2 Jonah Elliss, OLB2 Dondrea Tillman (likely to sign ERFA deal), OLB3 Que Robinson, DE/DT3 Sai’vion Jones

Who Denver could lose: DE1 John Franklin-Myers, DE/DT3 Jordan Jackson

What Denver needs: A cheap, productive interior defensive lineman to push Uwazurike, Roach and Jones

Key market options: Logan Hall (Buccaneers), David Onyemata (Falcons), Calais Campbell (Cardinals), Sebastian Joseph-Day (Titans), Rakeem Nunez-Roches (Giants)

The Broncos already have massive amounts of money tied up in their defensive line, and Franklin-Myers is already all but gone. His likely landing spot is Tennessee, where recently-acquired defensive end The thinking from agents who spoke with The Post is that Denver could bring in depth to help supplant Franklin-Myers, but will likely rely on its pieces already in the building to fill the void.

Ironically, the Broncos’ movements in the defensive-line market will depend on Franklin-Myers’ own movements. Agents are completely across the board on projecting Franklin-Myers’ yearly value in a weak class; one suggested $12 to $14 million, one suggested $16 to $18 million, and one went as high as $20 to $22 million. If teams end up bidding closer to that higher end, it could price the Broncos out of what they’d be willing to spend for another body in the room. Onyemata, Joseph-Day and Nunez-Roches could all offer cheap, veteran depth.

Inside linebacker

Who Denver has: LB1 Dre Greenlaw, LB2/LB3 Karene Reid, LB2/LB3 Jordan Turner, LB2/LB3 Levelle Bailey, LB2/LB3 Drew Sanders

Who Denver could lose: LB1 Alex Singleton, LB1/LB2 Justin Strnad

What Denver needs: An instant-impact starter, or at the very least a high-end LB3.

Key market options: Devin Lloyd (Jaguars), Nakobe Dean (Eagles), Quay Walker (Packers), Quincy Williams (Jets), Kaden Elliss (Falcons), Alex Anzalone (Lions), E.J. Speed (Texans), Bobby Okereke (Giants)

It’s a great year to need a middle linebacker. Denver could certainly look to a strong draft class to address this spot. But an NFL source who met with Denver at last week’s NFL Combine told The Post that the Broncos will have a “significant appetite” in the free-agent linebacker market.

That could mean they’ll take a monster swing on Lloyd, a 2025 All-Pro and the kind of playmaker that Vance Joseph would have a field day with in the middle of Denver’s defense. It could also mean they’ll re-sign Singleton as their green-dot defensive leader — he’s been pinpointed by multiple NFL sources at somewhere between $5 to $8 million yearly — and add another piece to compete for a starting job. Strnad is likely headed for new pastures, as he told The Post after the season he wouldn’t be back in Denver unless it was in a clear starting role.

The Broncos have interest in Anzalone and Speed, sources said, both potential green-dot options or LB3 pieces who will come in below the top of the market, where NFL sources pinpointed Lloyd likely to come in between $15 and $17 million annually. Dean is another interesting and versatile option who told The Post at the Super Bowl he likes watching the Broncos’ defense and would be interested in Denver in free agency if the price was right.

Secondary

Who Denver has: CB1 Pat Surtain II, CB1 Riley Moss, NB1 Ja’Quan McMillian, NB2/CB2 Jahdae Barron, CB2 Kris Abrams-Draine, S1 Talanoa Hufanga, S1 Brandon Jones, S2 Devon Key (likely to sign ERFA deal), S2 JL Skinner

Who Denver could lose: S2 P.J. Locke

What Denver needs: A third safety to replace Locke and potentially push Jones

Key market options: Tony Adams (Jets), Dane Belton (Giants), Kyle Dugger (Steelers), Andrew Wingard (Jaguars), Alohi Gilman (Ravens), Ifeatu Melifonwu (Dolphins), D’Anthony Bell (Panthers), Rodney Thomas II (Colts)

A notable Broncos development to track in free agency: Denver has expressed interest in adding a safety, several NFL sources told The Post this week. Locke is likely headed elsewhere after a nice fill-in stretch for the injured Jones late in 2025, and the Broncos want to add another piece to replace him, as Hufanga and Jones are both injury risks. Wingard is a name to watch here, a seven-year Jaguars veteran who recorded 84 tackles and nine passes defensed as a full-time starter in 2025.

The Broncos also did work on Melifonwu in last year’s free agency, and Denver tracked Bell’s status on the waiver wire as the Seahawks pulled him between the practice squad and active roster in 2025, sources said. At the very least, expect Denver to sign a depth safety who can also be a special-teams contributor.

Special teams

Who Denver has: K1 Wil Lutz, P1 Jeremy Crawshaw, LS1 Mitchell Fraboni

Who Denver could lose: Nobody

What Denver needs: Nothing

Key market options: Wide open

Denver need not spend much time here on specialists.

That was the last time these Broncos made a significant trade, with no in-season deals coming last season. As Denver approaches free agency with quite a few position groups already tied up for 2026, though, that surplus could come into play again for Paton and crew.

The Broncos have several assets at a variety of spots who’d present tantalizing value league-wide, and making a move could help clear up further spending power once free agency hits next week. The club currently sits with about $28 million in estimated cap space. Here are five potential trade chips that Denver could look to dangle on the phones.

Jarrett Stidham, QB

2025 stats: One playoff start, 17-of-31, 133 passing yards, one TD, one INT

Contract status: Expires after 2026

What the Broncos would save in cap room by trading him before June: $6.5 million

Denver will always be Stiddy City for that week in January. Faced with no other choice, the entirety of the Broncos’ fanbase rallied around their cucumber-cool backup quarterback in the AFC Championship Game after Bo Nix’s stunning season-ending injury. The building believed in Stidham, too. He just never quite got a fair shot. A highlight 52-yard bomb to Marvin Mims Jr. against the Patriots was mitigated by a disastrous fumble and a second-half snowstorm.

The Broncos have prioritized Stidham since head coach Sean Payton arrived in 2023, and Stidham has signed two separate two-year deals to stay in Denver as a backup. But NFL teams have poked around Stidham for years — the Patriots, in fact, checked on him before Stidham re-signed in Denver last offseason — and that teams have reached out to the Broncos on a possible Stidham trade.

Payton has said multiple times he feels Stidham could be a starter for several NFL teams; if there is indeed a team that views him that highly on the market, the Broncos could recoup a significant haul for him. This particular NFL Draft class is remarkably light at quarterback, which could further drive up Stidham’s value. Denver would be smart to at least entertain this, if it had a plan to replace Stidham (the Broncos could always look to re-sign QB3 Sam Ehlinger).

Ben Powers, LG

2025 stats: Eight games, 595 snaps, 15 pressures allowed, 2.5% pressure rate, 0 sacks allowed (per Pro Football Focus)

Contract status: Expires after 2026

What the Broncos would save in cap room by trading him before June: $8.4 million

Denver has employed the same starting offensive line for two years in front of Nix, but 2026 could mark a significant shakeup. The 29-year-old Powers is still a valuable asset and was quietly off to one of the best starts of his career in 2025 before a lengthy absence with a biceps tear. But the Broncos now have close to $76 million in total cap tied up to their starting offensive line alone, and all five of Powers, Garett Bolles, Mike McGlinchey, Luke Wattenberg and Quinn Meinerz are tethered to substantial long-term deals.

The Broncos have to get cheaper here, at some point. And Denver indeed has a younger, cheaper option in 26-year-old restricted free agent Alex Palczewski, who filled in capably for Powers for 10 starts in 2025 (and earned a random All-Pro vote for it). The Broncos could slap a right-of-first-refusal tender on Palczewski, a one-year deal worth $3.5 million that would enable Denver to match any team’s offer for him, and work toward a team-friendly long-term deal in the meantime.

Powers’ representation met with Denver last week, but the two sides haven’t spoken since, as of Wednesday. A source said they believe Denver could be pursuing trade partners for Powers. The Broncos also haven’t officially put forth a proposal to restructure Powers’ deal, the source said.

Jonah Elliss, OLB

2025 stats: 13 games, 2.5 sacks, 28 tackles, five QB hits, one forced fumble

Contract status: Expires after 2027

What the Broncos would save in cap room by trading him before June: $1.1 million

This is much less about any financial benefit and more about surplus. Denver is so stacked at outside linebacker that it had to finagle several elevations for fourth-round rookie Que Robinson last year as a fifth OLB on gamedays, and the building is high on Robinson’s potential. The Broncos will almost certainly re-up with reserve Dondrea Tillman on a one-year exclusive-rights deal, and will face the same logjam of depth in 2026.

The interesting name in the mix is Elliss, a 22-year-old 2023 third-round pick who’s flashed big-time pass-rush potential when healthy but has been banged up through his two years in Denver. There’s no greater path to snaps for him behind Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper. The Broncos could well look to shift Elliss to inside linebacker, given positional needs, or dangle him as a promising edge rusher with two years left on his rookie deal.

Riley Moss and Ja’Quan McMillian, CB

2025 stats: Moss: 17 games, 80 tackles, 19 passes defensed, one interception; McMillian: 17 games, 56 tackles, four sacks, two interceptions, nine passes defensed

Contract status: Both expire after 2026

What the Broncos would save in cap room by trading them before June: $3.7 million (Moss), specifics unclear (McMillian)

The NFL world now has a point-blank baseline on the trade value of quality corners, after the Rams gave up several arms and legs on Wednesday to swing a trade for Chiefs All-Pro Trent McDuffie.

Yes, neither Moss or McMillian have nearly the resume to draw similar capital as McDuffie got. But Kansas City received a first-round pick, a fifth-round pick and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft for McDuffie — and a third-round pick in 2027. The Broncos love having a variety of options to develop at cornerback, but they’ll soon have to make some complicated decisions in their secondary. Moss and McMillian will both hit unrestricted free agency after 2026, and the Broncos wouldn’t love first-round pick Jahdae Barron to sit behind both of them for a second straight season.

This isn’t a likely option. Moss’s camp strongly believes he’ll be back in Denver in 2026, and McMillian is an incredibly valuable asset as the starting nickel in Vance Joseph’s defense. But a route will need to be paved for Barron soon enough.

They won 15 games. They reached the AFC Championship in their second-straight playoff appearance. And their roster cements them as an annual contender, faster than anyone thought possible.

Which makes it obvious which big move should happen next.

Give general manager George Paton a contract extension.

You haven’t always liked him. You still might not like him. And if you bought a Russell Wilson jersey, you may never like him.

Too bad. He’s really good.

And, it is time for co-owner and CEO Greg Penner to reward him.

“It is overdue,” coach Sean Payton explained Tuesday. “It will get done.”

Paton is set to enter the last season of a six-year contract. Are the Broncos really going to let the man who drafted the Oregon Duck quarterback enter 2026 as a lame duck?

Penner is too smart for this. The parties have talked. There is no concern that it won’t get worked out. And it should. For several reasons.

Though he is not looking for credit, a new deal validates the vision Penner had for Paton. The GM has evolved, improved from the owner challenging him.

When people ask what’s the rush or are curious why Paton is in line for another payday, they bring up Nathaniel Hackett and Wilson. Paton hired the failed coach, acquired the failed quarterback and ultimately paid Wilson $121 million for two seasons.

He got it so wrong we all assumed — myself included — that Paton would be fired after the Walton-Penner group no longer needed his expertise to navigate a coaching search. Or that Payton would bring in somebody he knew from New Orleans.

Instead, Penner gave Paton a second chance, exercised patience, creating a triangle of leadership. Paton and Payton report to him and have flourished working together.

They watch more film together than Siskel and Ebert. Paton creates equilibrium. He is measured. Payton, especially on game day or when forced to listen to jazz music in San Jose, is nuclear.

The partnership is “very complementary,” as Penner put it. And there’s more depth to Paton that most realize. Under Penner, he has become better at the manager part of his role. He holds people accountable, and not surprisingly, it has helped the Broncos rebound.

Don’t believe it?

These numbers should change your mind. Over the past five years, Paton has secured second contracts with five players he drafted: All-Pros Pat Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Nik Bonitto and starters Jonathon Cooper and Luke Wattenberg. Bo Nix is on track to become the sixth after next season.

John Elway signed three players to contract extensions in the previous 10 years — Von Miller, Derek Wolfe and Garett Bolles. A fourth, Courtland Sutton, agreed to a new deal under Paton in 2021.

Paton has found his groove, a point driven home when wandering through the Indiana Convention Center, where so much talk focuses on misses, whiffs and busts.

That is why Elway hired him. Paton had a track record for acing the draft and keeping homegrown prospects in the fold.

There is no question that Penner appreciates what Paton has done. He admitted as much when I asked him a few weeks ago, saying, “We’d love to have both (Paton and Payton) here long-term.”

Penner trusts Payton. They can have open, honest conversations.

So why make him wait any longer?

Finding a date to talk with Paton’s representative, who has been busy with coaching contracts, appears to be the biggest obstacle. That is a wrinkle that is easily ironed out.

In a sport where continuity and stability pay dividends, Paton shifted perceptions this season.

The Broncos won their first division title and playoff game in a decade. That does not happen without a balanced roster, one that produced victories even when Surtain and starting running back J.K. Dobbins were sidelined.

Seriously, how many teams are deeper than the Broncos right now?

It is a testament to Paton that his process withstood failure. With ownership in flux and feuding under the Bowlen family, Paton took his shot with Hackett and Wilson. He missed. And admits it.

But instead of waiting for a pink slip, he rolled up his sleeves. While critics believe Payton runs the draft, that thinking misses clear facts. Like the 2021 class.

This group has helped form the foundation of this team. And with Payton clear on what he wants from players as competitors and learners, Paton has become even better at identifying fits.

This is not just a football story. In a transactional business, Paton excels at relationships.

It is not just how he does his job, but who he is. He holds people accountable, but treats them well. His confidence has been built over decades of hard work. During his first combines, he ran errands and kept the suite stocked with snacks.

He has never lost his love for the game or forgotten his roots. He treats people the way he wants to be treated. It inspires fierce loyalty and helps those around him reach their potential.

You don’t think relationships matter? Paton has signed 11 players to contract extensions since July 2024 for nearly half a billion dollars. Money is always the driving force, but so is the faith that players and agents have when Paton gives them his word.

Not surprisingly, he received an ‘A’ grade from the NFLPA players survey released Thursday.

The Broncos are back for a number of reasons. Most have become obvious during games with the man on the headset and the improved talent on the field.

Whatever the terms of his contract, Paton has certainly outperformed them.

It is time, past time, for a new one.

The Denver defense will look at least a little different come the 2026 season, but it has a deep, talented core set to return.

The 2025 group was a unique one, disruptive to an elite level and good at virtually everything except taking the ball away.

Here is a look back on the regular season and what can be learned for the future.

Five key defensive numbers

18.3 — Points per game allowed (No. 3 in the NFL)

4.5 — Yards per play allowed (No. 1)

68 — Sacks (Franchise record and most in the NFL)

34.6% — Rate of drives against that ended in a score (No. 7)

6.8% — Turnover rate forced (No. 28)

High Point

There are a few to choose from over the regular season. Denver’s return from the bye week in Washington was anything but pretty defensively until Nik Bonitto made one of the plays of the season, batting down a deciding two-point conversion attempt in overtime and sealing the Broncos’ eighth straight win. Pat Surtain II’s flying interception against Green Bay sparked a dominant second half. Joseph’s group held five opponents overall to less than 200 yards, then recorded five takeaways against Buffalo in the divisional round of the postseason and kept New England to 206 yards in the AFC title game. No game was more dominant, though, than the Broncos’ 13-11 win against the New York Jets in London. Denver racked up nine sacks, including three in the final 4:19 alone. Jonathon Cooper and Brandon Jones closed the game out with a fourth-and-10 sack of Justin Fields, who finished with minus-10 net passing yards. The Jets’ offense stunk all year, so it wasn’t the highest degree of difficulty, but the win got Denver back across the ocean with a three-game streak in hand. That run, of course, eventually ballooned to 11 games.

Low Point

The Broncos had a formula that worked most of the season: Win on third down and in the red zone and pressure the heck out of opposing quarterbacks. Week 16 against Jacksonville and Trevor Lawrence provided a bit of a scare heading into the postseason. Denver’s defense had already lagged a bit after the bye week — the Commanders and Packers each scored 26 points and at times gave the Broncos fits — but Lawrence led one of the few offensive outings that really cracked this group open. The Jags went 4 of 5 in the red zone at Empower Field. They converted 8 of 15 on third down. Lawrence was sacked five times but hardly seemed to notice, throwing for 279 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for another. That made him and the Jags offense one of only two to score more than three touchdowns on the regular season against Denver’s defense — rookie Jaxson Dart and the New York Giants were the other and it prompted head coach Sean Payton to issue a warning: Force turnovers in the postseason or else.

MVP: DT Zach Allen. There are several worthy candidates in this group. Bonitto came up one vote shy of All-Pro status and logged a career-best 14 sacks. Pat Surtain II missed 3.5 games with a partially torn pec but carried on as the finest corner in football when healthy. What Allen did in the middle of the Broncos’ defense, though, is difficult to overstate. He led the NFL in quarterback hits with 47, eight more than Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett in his record-setting 23-sack campaign. It����ap the most hits credited to a player since Nick Bosa’s 48 in 2022 and the second straight year Allen’s led the NFL. He had the second-most pressures (59) among defensive tackles, too. In three years with the Broncos, Allen has posted an 11.3% pressure rate or better, hit the quarterback 112 times, averaged 63.3 pressures per year and missed just one game. A foundational player.

Tough Season:  ILB Dre Greenlaw. This is more about injuries and availability than about performance. In fact, Greenlaw himself described his first year with the Broncos as being “very tough.” It started only a month after signing a three-year deal in free agency with a quad injury. Greenlaw and the Broncos thought he was past it when training camp start, but recurring issues ended up costing him the first six games of the season. At the end of his first game of the season, he got suspended for a game. Then a Week 16 hamstring injury cost him the final two games of the regular season. In between, Greenlaw was a force against the run and not used a ton in coverage. It sets up an open question about whether he’s in the Broncos’ defensive plan going forward.

Under the radar: ILB Justin Strnad. Greenlaw’s addition got a ton of offseason attention, but Strnad just quietly keeps getting better and better. He played the best football of his career in 2025 and stamped himself as a bona fide starter going forward. Good timing, too, considering Strnad’s a free agent and should command solid money either from Denver or elsewhere. The 2020 fifth-round pick is strong enough to play against the run, has improved in coverage and is a terrific blitzer. He logged a career-best 4.5 sacks this year. Pretty impressive for a player who went nearly three full years without playing a single defensive snap from mid-2020 into early 2024.

Overall conversion rates allowed – Broncos under DC Vance Joseph

Run Defense

Five Key Numbers

3.9 — Yards allowed per rush (T-2 in the NFL)

18.8% — Rush attempts against that went for loss or no gain (No. 6)

30 — Rushes of 10-plus yards allowed (No. 2)

0.87 — Yards before contact allowed per rush (No. 2)

0 — 100-yard rushers allowed the final 15 games of the regular season

The Good

They are not the most heralded players on the roster, but Denver’s interior, primarily the early down trio of defensive linemen D.J. Jones, Malcolm Roach and Eyioma Uwazurike, did a lot of heavy lifting in 2025. Jones was a key, last-minute retention before free agency began back in March and he rewarded the Broncos with high-level play and leadership in Year 9. Roach’s game continues to expand, but he did his normal terrific work against the run. Uwazurike was suspended for the 2023 season, played 63 snaps in 2024 and then broke out this year. All three are under contract for 2026 and they will all have key roles, not just against the run but likely also in making up for the seemingly inevitable loss of John Franklin-Myers to free agency. Roach and Uwazurike, in particular, will likely see upticks in their roles. In 2025, though, this trio provided stalwart work against the run.

The Bad

It didn’t go bad on the Broncos against the run very often in 2025, but they got an early wake-up call from Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts in Week 2. Taylor ripped off a 68-yard run and racked up 167 overall in Indy’s walk-off win against Denver. After that, Denver didn’t allow a rusher more than 80 yards. The Broncos overall did a good job against mobile quarterbacks, though Washington’s Marcus Mariota gave them fits with his legs in Week 13. And though this is primarily a regular-season retrospective, it����ap at least worth mentioning that Buffalo’s James Cook ran for 117 in the divisional round and that the Bills and Patriots averaged 163 rushing yards in the playoffs after Denver went from Week 3 onward not allowing more than 143 in a game. Patriots QB Drake Maye’s five first downs plus a touchdown on seven carries in the AFC title game were critical.

The Unknown

The Broncos do have a talented core set to return in 2026, but there are some holes to fill in the run game. Franklin-Myers is primarily a pass-rusher but his likely departure via free agency will mean changing roles for guys who have been counted on to stop the run. One of the biggest uncertainties defensively is what will happen at inside linebacker, where Strnad and Alex Singleton are free agents and Greenlaw is under contract but would not be difficult to move on from. Any substantial change in personnel, particularly in the middle of the field, can alter the chemistry of a group. Communication originates from the ILBs and emanates outward. If that group is overhauled and JFM departs, there will be a lot of learning to do through the spring and summer. Still, this is a unit that����ap well-positioned to be stout against the run again in 2026.

‘Stop’ rate played among NFL DLs

*A ‘stop’ is a tackle on a winning defensive play (negative EPA). Rates among top 70 DLs in stops. 

Credit: Next Gen Stats data 

Pass Defense

Five Key Numbers

62.3% — Pass rate against Denver in 2025 (Second-highest in the NFL)

40.7% — Pressure rate generated by the Broncos (No. 2)

4.8 — Passing yards per play allowed (No. 1)

-0.17 — EPA per pass attempt allowed (No. 7)

10 — Interceptions (T-18)

The Good

Not many teams rush and cover better than the Broncos. They broke a franchise record in sacks for the second straight season, got at least half a sack from 17 different players and paired that fearsome rush with one of the deepest sets of cornerbacks and best overall secondaries in football. They have transformed in the past two years from a mostly anonymous group to one that features four players named to All-Pro teams in the past two seasons — Allen, Bonitto, Surtain and safety Talanoa Hufanga — and is widely recognized as one of football’s best.

They’ve got more cornerbacks than they can get on the field, nickel Ja’Quan McMillian has solidified himself as one of the best in the business and even when safety Brandon Jones went down with a torn pectoral late in the year, P.J. Locke filled in admirably. On the front seven, Denver has developed enviable depth at outside linebacker. GM George Paton called fourth-round rookie Que Robinson the 2025 draft pick with maybe the most upside of the class and he was behind the second-line pair of Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman this fall. This is not an easy group to throw the ball against and the challenge may not get much easier in 2026.

The Bad

Two buckets here. The Broncos, for all their strengths and elite numbers overall in pass defense, struggled to deal with opposing tight ends. Denver allowed the seventh-fewest passing yards overall in the regular season and the sixth-most yards to opposing tight ends. Especially after Jones got hurt, teams tested Hufanga and Locke in coverage as often as they could. Joseph talked in detail about how he tries to combat the issue and part of the susceptibility is just how aggressive and man-heavy Denver plays. Still, it is an unsolved issue at this point.

The second is penalties. The Broncos committed a lot in 2025 and among the most high-profile were a series of defensive pass interference penalties against cornerback Riley Moss. The group took issue with more than one, but Moss also acknowledged a need to play with better technique and grab less. The penalty total dropped as the season hit the back stretch and Moss played well overall as the most-targeted corner in football, but he had occasional lapses in tackling, too, especially against Jacksonville.

The Unknown

The Broncos have an interesting set of decisions to make in the secondary and it could lead to either major change this offseason or could still be a year away yet. They revolve around McMillian, Moss and rookie first-round pick Jahdae Barron. Barron was drafted as a nickel primarily who can also play outside. McMillian is a restricted free agent whom teammates think should have been an All-Pro in 2025. Moss is a really good player — talented, athletic and wired to handle the attention opposite Surtain — but also at times got himself in trouble in coverage. He’s going into the final year of his rookie contract.

McMillian is going to command top-scale money, if not in the form of an extension this offseason, then a year from now as an impending unrestricted free agent. Barron’s going to play at some point, but in April, he looked like a potential McMillian replacement and now McMillian looks like exactly the type of player you want to extend and keep around. So does Barron compete with Moss outside? Do they keep it status-quo this year, let Moss walk in free agency and turn loose Barron and Kris Abrams-Draine to compete for the job across from Surtain? Do they entertain the idea of trading McMillian?

Nothing except putting a premium tender on McMillian has to happen in the coming months, but the way the Broncos sequence their moves here will be interesting nonetheless.

A record sack season

“I mean, to be honest, I don’t think I would be back here if it����ap not in a starter role,” Strnad told The Denver Post Monday, clarifying that he won’t return to Denver if a starting ILB job isn’t part of the equation.

Less than 24 hours after Denver’s loss to New England, a variety of key Broncos trudged out from bagging up their lockers Monday to speak with reporters, still yet to process a blizzard of emotions from a snowy 10-7 loss in the AFC title game. Left tackle Garett Bolles called it “one of the most crushing losses I’ve ever faced.” Outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper said it’d eat at him “for the rest of my life.” Stage two of the five stages of grief is anger, and it will burn for every month of the offseason in Denver.

The next stage, however, is bargaining. And quickly, these Broncos will be forced to make long-term decisions on a host of key faces who now head towards free agency. Key among them: Strnad, Alex Singleton and the rest of the ILB position, as Paton has to weigh the benefit of veteran continuity against injecting some new life into the middle of a top Denver defense.

“Obviously, the best thing to do is run it back,” Singleton said. “We were the best defense in the league this year. We held a team under 200 yards in the AFC Championship Game. That����ap what we expect every week. I think we can do that every game next year. To be back here, and to be able to do that, would be super special.”

Still, the Broncos’ linebacker room was beset by injuries often enough to turn the position into a carousel. Singleton is 32 and suffered a torn ACL in 2024. Strnad is 29, and his expressed position puts Denver in a bit of a bind. If the Broncos wanted him back, it’d likely mean cutting ties with Greenlaw — the oft-injured veteran .

“I think he’s as good as the top-paid guys in the NFL,” Singleton said of Strnad. “I mean, I hope we’re both back here. I think between the three of us, it would be really fun to run it back and do everything we can. But yeah, I hope he gets everything he deserves because he deserves it.”

Big decisions elsewhere

The Broncos also have major decisions to make on the defensive line. Perhaps they’ve already made them. Veteran defensive end John Franklin-Myers, who finished the year with a career-best 7.5 sacks, confirmed that Denver never initiated conversations with him about a potential extension at any point this season.

“And – who cares?” Franklin-Myers said. “They had other people in mind, or situations in mind. And I know my contract may be a little different than those guys’ contracts. So who really knows what the reason is, and who really cares?”

Indeed, Franklin-Myers played out 2025 as the odd man out on Denver’s defensive line, as Zach Allen, Nik Bonitto and Malcolm Roach all earned preseason or midseason deals. All-Pro Allen told reporters that he’ll one day buy a beach house and call it the “JFM house,” because their partnership on the Broncos’ defensive line helped him get paid.

Denver hasn’t seemed willing to shell out the dough necessary to keep Franklin-Myers, though. The defensive lineman’s camp is looking at Dolphins DT Zach Sieler’s 2025 extension — three years, $64 million — as a potential floor for free-agency negotiation. And the Broncos have a pair of younger, cheaper options in third-round rookie Sai’vion Jones and ascending backup Eyioma Uwazurike.

Players up and down the roster, though, see Denver as uniquely well-positioned to be buyers in free agency. Former Broncos QB Russell Wilson’s $32 million in dead-cap weight is finally off the books. The Broncos currently have $27 million in cap space in 2026, according to OverTheCap, with the clear potential to cut or restructure multiple deals.

“To be the richest player ever, right?” Singleton joked when asked about his goals with free agency. “We have a lot of free Russell money, right?”

One obvious need for these Broncos? Skill talent, after they finished Sunday’s game with two receivers — Elijah Moore and Lil’Jordan Humphrey — who were midseason scrap-heap pickups. Left tackle Garett Bolles said plainly that Denver needed “a couple more playmakers.” The Broncos could certainly elect to bring back RB J.K. Dobbins, who’s near a full mend from a season-ending Lisfranc injury suffered in November.

“People want to come to Denver,” Bolles said. “I mean, I’ll be shocked to see how many free agents want to come here. We got a young team. We got a quarterback. We got the best O-line in football – I don’t care what anyone says. We do.”

Long faces stretched to most every corner of the locker room Monday, a group that climbed tantalizingly close to a Super Bowl. But all are in agreement that the window for this Denver organization is wide-open, with a “win-now” mentality, as tight end Evan Engram said.

“We’re in a great spot,” Engram said. “We’ll be in a good spot for a while.”

Tell me with a straight face that Nix fumbles the ball away in a panic, to set up the Patriots’ only TD of the day.

Tell me with a palm on The Good Book — doesn’t amount to points.

Tell me with hand over heart that the Broncos’ final drive of the first half, before Mother Nature took over the game, gets more out of a third-and-4 at the Patriots’ 34 than Stidham scampering out of bounds for a 2-yard self-sack.

By my math, if Nix plays, it’s 13-0 Broncos at the break. Maybe more. Probably more.

Then the third quarter comes, that insane squall rolls in, and Drake Maye spends the second half throwing into the teeth of a Front Range blizzard.

“That’s, again, a ‘what-if,'” Broncos punter Jeremy Crawshaw told me after Denver’s incredible season ended with a 10-7 loss to the Pats, and Maye, in a chilly AFC Championship Game. “But we all had full trust in Stiddy to do the job today. And we wouldn’t have anybody else do that.”

No knock on Stiddy, either. His 52-yard pass to Marvin Mims Jr. on the Broncos’ second drive was an absolute beauty. When it comes to pure deep shots, No. 8 might be the best option coach Sean Payton has in the QB room.

But when it comes to everything else, it’s advantage: Nix — a fact underscored once that winter hellscape rolled into Empower Field. It was always going to be a big ask of Stiddy to knock out the AFC’s No. 2 seed on short notice. But asking him to beat the snow, too, proved to be one ice-covered bridge too far.

“(The Broncos) will probably say it was all about what they didn’t do,” Pats left tackle Will Campbell told reporters after the game. “But our defense has been underrated all season.”

True, but that defense also had a little help. Injuries are a loser’s excuse, granted, yet the Broncos closed out a 15-4 campaign with some absolute doozies.

No Nix. No J.K. Dobbins. No Troy Franklin. No Brandon Jones. Denver faced New England without its QB1. Without its leading rusher during the regular season. Without its No. 2 wideout in terms of catches. When the football gods finally came for Payton, they didn’t miss.

Although Payton has no one to blame for Sunday but himself, in retrospect. That aforementioned fourth-and-1 at the 14, with the Broncos up 7-0? Saints alive. It’s one thing to have to draw up a winning game plan with Stidham in eight days. It’s another to try and get cute in the middle of a back-alley brawl.

““It just felt like we had momentum to get up 14. It felt like we had a good call,” the coach explained later.

Was it, though? Stidham is 6-foot-3. If you don’t trust him to wiggle forward 6 inches for a first down at your opponent’s doorstep, you probably deserve to lose some of the trust from your fan base.

From the fourth-down stop to Stidham’s backyard-pass fumble, the Broncos’ deepest wounds Sunday were self-inflicted. That fourth drive is going to sting for a while. You have to strike while the Stiddy is hot. Sure, the Broncos’ run game had slowed down once they’d crossed the Patriots’ 40. But they’d run it five consecutive plays with three different rushers — tailback RJ Harvey, fullback Adam Prentice and Stidham — for 21 yards to the Pats’ 14. Why give up the ghost?

Stiddy was admirable in a pinch, especially as the conditions worsened. But this was a game you should’ve led 10-0 or 13-0 and spent the second half handing off.

“I think the big thing was that first half, that first half momentum and field position didn’t yield what it needed to yield,” Payton said later. “We needed more than that, and (our reflections) start there.”

It was awfully hard to see much upside through all that snow. But if there was, it’s that this feels like the next phase in the Broncos’ revival under Nix and Payton — not the end.

Denver went into Week 1 with the eighth-fewest number of players among NFL rosters who were aged 29 or older. Nix is 25 and on a rookie contract through 2027. CB Pat Surtain II, RT Mike McGlinchey, DL Zach Allen, WR Courtland Sutton, LT Garett Bolles, OLB Jonathon Cooper, OLB Nik Bonitto, S Talanoa Hufanga, DB Jahdae Barron, DL D.J. Jones, LB Dre Greenlaw, G Quinn Meinerz, DL Malcolm Roach, Harvey, Crawhsaw, and K Wil Lutz are all signed through the end of the 2027 season. The window is still wide open here. Even if it’s freezing outside.

“As a young team, it’s only up from here,” cornerback Riley Moss told me. “Every guy’s confidence is up. Every guy’s goals are higher. And so, yes, it (stinks) to lose, but if there is probably a positive that would come from it, (it’s that) we were in this game. We know what the standard is now. And we know what to expect.”

We expect to see Nix vs. Maye in the postseason again — and in a fair fight, hopefully. If No. 10 plays on Sunday, the Broncos are planning for Santa Clara right now. There’s snow doubt.