With about one week of training camp in the books, the Denver Broncos will soon begin to prepare for their first preseason game, which is on August 14th and against the Atlanta Falcons. The game will begin at 5:00 MDT, so the Broncos will have much of the week to prepare and to travel.
Thus far, there have been some injuries that have popped up, but nothing outside of Matt Henningsen's Achilles injury appears to be serious. The Broncos have also seen some position battles come into view, as the team has gotten some notable performers at spots like wide receiver with Pat Bryant, running back with Jonah Coleman, and perhaps even defensive line.
The Broncos did not re-sign John Franklin-Myers in free agency, as he scored a deal worth over $20 million per year with the Tennessee Titans. Franklin-Myers replacement along the defensive line may also end up being the most obvious answer.
Denver Broncos' John Franklin-Myers replacement might simply be Eyioma Uwazurike
It's not that other guys in Sai'vion Jones and Tyler Onyedim have not impressed given their situations, but Eyioma Uwazurike has simply beed someone who has made a ton of plays along the defensive line, and that's maintained throughout camp thus far.
In 17 games for the Broncos in 2025, Uwazurike racked up 3.5 sacks, 39 total tackles, five tackles for loss, and five quarterback hits, filling in nicely as a rotational piece. He did this in 409 snaps, which was 36 percent of the total snaps on defense.
Perhaps quietly, Uwazurike played a hefty amount of snaps last year even with the Broncos defensive line being among the best in the NFL. And in camp thus far, he's earning some pretty strong reviews:
DJ Jones on Eyioma Uwazurike: “Speaking of Enny, he can’t be blocked. He’s a grown man.”
— MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) August 5, 2026
His camp performance has been consistent as well, as he's getting into the backfield and simply creating the plays you want to see in a future starter. Standing at 6-6 and weighing 320 pounds, Uwazurike is a mountain of a man and could bring some much-needed size to the room.
The Broncos have more of a "NASCAR" defensive line than they do a muscle car defensive line, if that makes sense, and what makes Uwazurike stick out even more is the fact that he does have a high motor and possesses both pass rush and run defense chops.
Now, even if Uwazurike ends up winning this starting defensive end job, the Broncos still may prefer to deploy more of a rotation along the DL in 2025, as Franklin-Myers actually never played 50 percent of the defensive snaps in either year of his two-year stint with the Broncos.
With that said, Franklin-Myers was an unbelievable pass-rush threat, and it's surely no coincidence that Zach Allen had the best two seasons of his career with Franklin-Myers on the other side. With the Broncos entering their second week of camp, it's clear that the potential solution to this position is Uwazurike, the battle-tested veteran.
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