The Denver Broncos have a few contract extensions that they should look to get done when the offseason begins. Let's dive into three of them here. The Broncos have gotten busy with extensions recently, extending players like Garett Bolles, Quinn Meinerz, Jonathon Cooper, and Patrick Surtain II. This team is not messing around with rewarding their players.
And it's nice to see; as there are many teams across the NFL who like to be a bit cheap in this regard. The Broncos are not one of those teams and are going to reward the players who are deserving of new deals. The large contractual work is done, as the Broncos do not have a high-profile free agent to negotiate with. The two biggest ones for Denver would have been Meinerz and Cooper, but they will not touch the open market.
However, Denver can get a bit ahead and look to extend these three players when the offseason rolls around.
3 contract extensions the Broncos must get done when offseason begins
Zach Allen, DE
Only under contract through the 2025 NFL Season, Zach Allen should receive votes for the Defensive Player of the Year award. He finished 2024 with the best year of his career, racking up a career-high 8.5 sacks, 15 tackles for loss, and 40 QB hits. 40!
Allen did all of this in just 16 games as well. Let's be honest with ourselves - Zach Allen is a top-5 defensive end in football at this point and is someone who needs to remain in Denver through the rest of his prime years. He's turning 28 years old in August, so he's surely got a few more high-end years left.
Extending Allen another two years through the 2027 season would give the Broncos at least three more years of their energizer-bunny defensive end.
Nik Bonitto
Nik Bonitto broke out in a huge way in 2023 and followed that up with an even better season in 2024. He managed to score two defensive touchdowns while racking up 13.5 sacks, 16 tackles for loss, and 24 QB hits. When Bonitto came into the league, one of the knocks on him was his inability to set the edge as a run defender, so he became more of a pass-rush specialist. Well, it's clear Bonitto has taken that next step into being one of the more well-rounded edge players in the NFL.
Now, the Denver Broncos don't technically have to rush to get an extension done, as he is still on his rookie deal through 2025, but with the Broncos recently taking care of some of their home-grown players like Patrick Surtain II, Quinn Meinerz, and Jonathon Cooper, it would make a lot of sense for them to continue that trend with Nik Bonitto.
Wil Lutz, K
Let's talk about just how good Wil Lutz has been for the Denver Broncos in the two years he's been with the team. He is under contract through the 2025 NFL Season, so Denver should seek to tack on another couple of years beyond 2025. In 2024, Lutz was money, nailing all 46 of his extra points and going 31/34 on field goals, which is a 91.2%. That's the second-highest percentage of his NFL career.
In his two-year Broncos' career, Lutz has gone 61/68 on field goals, which is just shy of 90%. Having a high-end kicker like this is not something the Broncos have had in quite some time, so it's imperative that Denver keeps Lutz locked-down. And as the team plays in more high-stakes games, they'll be lucky they have such a solid kicker like Lutz.