The Denver Broncos have honestly put up a front office masterclass with the financial side of things during the Russell Wilson dead cap seasons. Now that the 2025 NFL Season is over (it's been over for months), the final chunk of Wilson's dead cap came off the books, so the Broncos are free from that behemoth of a contract.
It was an unfortunate mistake that the team somehow managed to dig themselves out of. During those years when the $85 million was on the books, which was the total dead cap, all the Broncos did was win 24 regular season games and make the playoffs, coming just one game within the Super Bowl in 2025.
Right now, the Broncos are in a solid financial position and do have a ton of big-time contracts on the roster, as General Manager George Paton has not been afraid to reward players who are deserving of such deals. There is also an advantage with the salary cap now for the Broncos, as Bo Nix is playing on a rookie deal. With that being said, while the Broncos may not have a bad contract, the worst one is quite obvious for 2026, but it's probably not who you think.
Denver Broncos DT DJ Jones has the worst contract on the team for the 2026 season
If you had wondered which player was going to appear in this article, you may have first said Alex Singleton or Evan Engram. Singleton landed a two-year deal worth $15 million this offseason. It comes with $11 million fully guaranteed. If needed, the Broncos could get out of this deal after the 2026 season, but at the end of the day, it's not a ton of money, only a short-term deal, and, if nothing else, Singleton's knowledge of Vance Joseph's complex defense does make him valuable in that regard.
Engram, while not living up to his contract, did help the Broncos become a lot more productive at tight end in 2025. He hauled in 50 passes for 461 yards. While his $11.5 million per year deal should have yielded better production, he largely did what was asked of him.
Defensive tackle DJ Jones, however, does seem to have a rather inflated contract for the play they get. Yes preface this by saying that Jones is a good, solid football player. He's always stout against the run and has been able to eat up double teams by opposing offensive linemen. Jones has been a good player in this league for a long time, and he's been a fixture along the Broncos defensive line since 2022.
He's already entering his fifth year with the team. However, he only played 40 percent of the defensive snaps in 2025, seeing the field for 431 total defensive snaps. In his Broncos tenure, it's the lowest snap count since signing with the team.
In 2022 and 2023, Jones played in 560 and 568 defensive snaps, but that has since been reduced to 465 and 431 snaps over the past two seasons. Sure, that's fine in terms of preserving his health over a full 17-game season, but he's currently playing on a three-year deal worth $39 million. The $13 million per year amount and $26 million in fully guaranteed is rich.
His cap hit also increased to $14.57 million for 2026. It was just $6.6 million in 2025. According to Over The Cap, his valuation amount is just $4.12 million, so, according to their data, which you can read more about here, Jones is essentially robbing the Broncos.
Fortunately, many other teams have bad contracts at positions like quarterback, and when you start overpaying at that position, disaster ensues. At the end of the day, the Broncos are paying Jones a bit more than what he is worth. He's simply a part-time run stuffer at this stage of his career, and I am not sure that is something worth $13 million per season.
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