The Denver Broncos are approaching the NFL Free Agency period in a great spot to make a ton of noise. With a healthy amount of cap space and the ability to create more, the time is now for the Broncos to get aggressive and to load up the roster as much as possible.
The patience with which the Broncos navigated the fallout of the Russell Wilson contract has left the team with no more dead money because of that deal - the books are completely clear from that massive mistake. Not only that, but the Broncos already have an excellent roster and an up-and-coming franchise quarterback that nearly led his team to the Super Bowl.
Well, the Broncos in-house free agents don't necessarily make life hard for the team, as they got ahead of the game during the season with a trio of contract extensions that really make the front offices look like geniuses now.
The Denver Broncos got ahead of the game with these key contract extensions
The Broncos got to work during the bye week during the regular season. During this time, the team extended a trio of key, underrated players on the following contracts:
DT Malcolm Roach - three years, $27.8 million
C Luke Wattenberg - four years, $48 million
K Wil Lutz - three years, $16.1 million
Denver ended up extending all of Roach, Wattenberg, and Lutz during the bye week, keeping all of them with the team beyond 2025. All three players were slated to hit the free agency market this coming offseason, but not anymore.
One huge reason why the Broncos look like geniuses is that these three players all play key roles on the team and are, frankly, underrated. Roach is excellent against the run and offers upside as a pass-rusher. Wattenberg is one of the more intelligent centers in the NFL and has formed obvious chemistry with the rest of the offensive line, and Lutz is one of the more consistent kickers in the league.
Not only are these underrated players remaining with the team for the next couple of seasons at least, but the Broncos also prevented any sort of bidding war with other teams by locking them down during the season. Free agency is typically the time that teams overpay for players, and while the Broncos could have retained one or more of these players had they hit the open market, the price would be a lot higher than the contract they signed during the season.
This is yet another example of the Broncos front office making a solid move. While none of the three players are necessarily the 'best' at their respective positions, all three are above-average at what they do and are massive pieces of this puzzle.
Denver now won't have to worry about any of them departing in free agency and can turn their attention to other in-house free agents they'd like to re-sign, perhaps guys like John Franklin-Myers and Justin Strnad.
This is how a juggernaut of a team remains one. The front office has not only navigated other contract extensions well, like when they extended Courtland Sutton, Nik Bonitto, and Zach Allen, but they also dove into some more under-the-radar moves that should only make life easier in free agency.