The Denver Broncos have assembled one of the strongest rosters in the NFL. It's taken years to get to this point, but the Broncos are a shining example of how an NFL team is built for Super Bowl status. This roster has a great mixture of NFL Draft picks, free agency signings, and calculated trades.
The one thing that hurts a team like this, though, is having so many quality players, and not enough cap space to take care of them all. Obviously, with the salary cap, no NFL team can pay everyone, and this is especially true for teams that are paying top-dollar for quarterbacks.
The Broncos did see a major piece of the defense leave in free agency, as John Franklin-Myers seriously priced his way out of Denver. This front office was never going to pay Franklin-Myers over $20 million per year, so they surely expected his departure. Well, could the Broncos soon see a major offseason mistake at this position rear its ugly head?
Did the Denver Broncos do enough at defensive end in the offseason?
Losing Franklin-Myers was expected, and the main addition that this team made in response was to take Texas A&M defensive end Tyler Onyedim in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. Onyedim joins second-year defensive end Sai'vion Jones, and veteran Eyioma Uwazurike in the room.
Uwazurike is entering the final year of his rookie contract with Denver, and did carve out a nice season as a rotational player. He finished with 3.5 sacks, 39 total tackles, five tackles for loss, and five quarterback hits.
He also did not miss a game for Denver. Outside of him Jones only played in 33 snaps in the regular season, so he could honestly still be viewed as a rookie to a degree. None of the three mentioned have legitimate starting experience in the NFL, and seeing as the Broncos have not made another move at the defensive end spot, the coaches are clearly hoping that one of these three wins the starting job and leaves no doubt.
But what if that does not happen?
As possible as it is that this vacancy is filled by someone already on the roster, it's firmly possible that it doesn't happen, leaving the Broncos with a major question mark at a hugely important position. This could honestly force Denver to turn to the free agency market for some last-minute help, or it could even force the front office to swing another trade.
Interestingly, the Broncos initially traded for Franklin-Myers to occupy that spot, so I suppose since they've done it once, it could be done again. While Franklin-Myers didn't even play 50% of the defensive snaps in any year of his Broncos tenure, his pass-rushing upside was obvious.
Even with Zach Allen and DJ Jones being high-end players and among the best at what they do, this position, opposite Allen, could end up needing some late reinforcements. Ideally, that is not the case, but if it does happen, this would then emerge as a notable offseason mistake.
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