Fans in Broncos Country have been absolutely begging for the team to get defensive lineman Zach Allen re-signed to a big-money contract all offseason long. Allen was the NFL's leader with 40 quarterback hits in the 2024 season, and has become a staple on one of the best defenses in the NFL.
As Allen was entering his third and final year of his initial contract with the Denver Broncos, it's been speculated that it was only a matter of time before the team got a deal done to keep him around. But what would that deal look like? There was some thought that Allen would get upwards of $30 million per year on a new contract, which makes the actual numbers look like highway robbery for George Paton and the Broncos.
Another win for everyone involved.
Zach Allen contract extension with Broncos looks like a major bargain
Another deal in Denver: Broncos are signing All-Pro DL Zach Allen to a four-year, $102 million deal that includes $69.5 million guaranteed, per ESPN sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 2, 2025
Allen was entering the last year of his deal, but no longer. pic.twitter.com/XTzKmLqp0G
The Broncos somehow managed to get Allen at just $25.5 million per season over the next four years, when the market value was skyrocketing well above that number.
Free agent Milton Williams, who played the past four years for the Philadelphia Eagles before signing in free agency this year with the New England Patriots, just got $26 million per year with $63 million in guaranteed money. It doesn't make any sense that the Broncos would get Zach Allen for less than the top of the market in this year's free agent class, but here we are. The kicker here is that while Allen's average annual value is less than Williams overall, he gets $6.5 million more in overall guaranteed money.
So, while Allen will count as a smaller percentage of the salary cap in average annual value going forward, he gets more actual money in his pocket. That's a huge advantage of having ownership with deep pockets.
This speaks to a number of different things. It speaks to the fact that the Broncos are some of the best negotiators in the NFL, and that player agents are more than willing to work with them on market values. It also speaks to the fact that players like Allen and Courtland Sutton want to be in Denver. These guys could let their contracts play out and wait for the biggest possible deal on the open market, but they are taking fair deals that aren't even resetting the market at their position groups
Now that the Broncos have gotten both Sutton and Allen new contracts, the focus will shift to Nik Bonitto and John Franklin-Myers. Those deals could be done before 2025 is over and the Broncos will have wiped nearly every prominent free agent on their team off the board for 2026.