You might be tired of us talking about the weakest positions on the Denver Broncos roster, but with football now less than a week away, these positions are unfortunately going to stick out like a sore thumb. Ideally, we're totally wrong, and the weaker positions somehow develop, but it doesn't seem likely given the presence of current personnel.
Anyway, the Broncos have a massive game to open up the season, as they'll be in Arrowhead to face the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that shockingly won just six games last year and missed the playoffs for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era.
The Broncos aren't really missing anything that would prevent them from winning the division again, but that also does not mean the roster doesn't contain a weakness, and as Week 1 approaches, this unresolved roster concern could truly haunt the team during the 2026 season.
Denver Broncos underwhelming moves at ILB this offseason still need talked about
Once again, we're talking about the inside linebacker position, but it's flat-out ridiculous that the unit still looks as it does approaching a legitimate Super Bowl-or-bust season. While the Broncos 'run it back' mentality this offseason was far from the worst thing they could have done, it definitely got a bit out of hand when you look at the linebackers.
Let's get this part out of the way - re-signing Justin Strnad was a wise move. He's proven himself to be a reliable, starting-caliber player at the position and is quite good at getting into the backfield and creating negative plays. Strnad might not be a household name across the league, but he's been quite good in what has been asked of him since he began to get notable snaps in 2024.
With that said, re-signing Alex Singleton felt like a massive failure, not only because he's simply not a good player at this stage of his career, but also because of how many other better options there were on the free agency market, which included a slew of players the Broncos missed out on:
Devin Lloyd
Quay Walker
Nakobe Dean
Tremaine Edmunds
Kaden Elliss
Devin Bush
Leo Chenal
Demario Davis
Alex Anzalone
While spending a ton of money in free agency doesn't always correlate to success the following season, I'm not sure it was at all unrealistic to think that the Broncos should have ended up with one of the players listed above
This free agency class at a nice mix of youth, production, upside, and veteran presence, so it's a bit baffling why Denver decided to re-sign a declining player, and it's not like the front office came away with an encouraging LB prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft. Both Red Murdock and Taurean York were brought in as a Mr. Irrelvant pick and an undrafted free agent, but unsurprisingly, neither made the final roster, with Murdock returning to the practice squad.
It's just really tough to understand what the process was at this position this offseason, and, as it's been for years now, it's slated to be the weakest on a defense that doesn't otherwise have a weakness or major hole.
We could be trending toward a time where a major in-season ILB addition is needed, and if that does happen, it'll be a direct indictment on the front office's malpractice this offseason.
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