For the first time in a decade, the Denver Broncos season came to an end after legitimate postseason success. Some can fairly easily argue that the Broncos would have gone to the Super Bowl with a healthy Bo Nix, but the time for those conversations has come and gone. The Broncos need to ensure that they are preparing for another run in the 2026 season.Â
The Broncos are out from under the dead cap disaster that was the Russell Wilson contract, and have some money to spend because of it. Add in having some fairly team-friendly contracts on the books already, and the Broncos are in great shape heading into the spring. For the second year in a row, Denver is looking to add to a playoff-caliber roster.
With that being said, the Broncos cannot afford to mess up this opportunity. Considering how awful the New England Patriots looked in the Super Bowl and some questions about their roster, the conference can be considered wide-open heading into next year. The Broncos need to be sure they avoid these three disasters in free agency and hit on the contract they hand out.Â
The Denver Broncos must avoid these three major mistakes in free agency
1) Not being able to take advantage of how cheap Bo Nix is against the cap
The Broncos find themselves in an incredibly advantageous situation with the contract situation around their quarterback room. Nix remains on a rookie deal and has it for three more years if you include the fifth-year option. It helps him to be one of the most valuable quarterbacks in football, possibly even the most valuable dollar-for-dollar.
Plenty of teams have won championships with quarterbacks on an inexpensive deal, doing so in large part because of the ability to surround him with legitimate talent. Spending that money poorly would entirely negate the benefit of having Nix on his current deal.Â
2) Whiffing on offensive additions again
The model for the Broncos appears to be fairly clear: draft defense, and acquire offense through free agency and trades. The issue, however, would be whether their offensive additions through free agency last year were enough to get them over the top. Missing the mark on the free agency offensive additions again this year would put them incredibly far behind the ball, possibly even shortening the contention window that opened for them just this past year.Â
It's easy to say that the Broncos have to avoid bringing in the wrong players on offense, but that's simply what the front office has to do.
3) Signing injury-prone mid-market players
The Broncos had done a great job of hitting on their top-dollar free agents in recent years, but the names that they’ve gotten towards the middle of the market have been much more hit or miss. Looking specifically at last year, most of their middle-market signings did not live up to their potential, due in large part to injury concerns that existed before they arrived in Denver - both J.K. Dobbins and Dre Greenlaw are examples of this.
Dobbins only played in 10 games this year, and Greenlaw played in just eight games this year in the regular season. Both players missed major time with injuries.
If the Broncos continue to raid the market of middle-market players who are always hurt, it could end in another championship-less season.