The Denver Broncos have the best defensive line in the NFL, but could they end up trading one of those key players during the 2025 season?
The Broncos have not been afraid to make aggressive roster moves in recent years, which tells us that they could keep that up for the present and future. This team is right on the cusp of greatness, so they have to keep their foot on the gas in a big way if they hope to improve on their win total from 2024.
Well, the one downside here is that with the amount of good players the Broncos have, it's impossible to keep all of them due to the salary cap, and Denver has again been urged to trade one of their key defensive players before or during the 2025 NFL Season...
Broncos urged to trade DE John Franklin-Myers
Here is some of what Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report said about the possibility of the Broncos trading JFM:
"Denver Broncos defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers was a no-show at OTAs, spurring speculation that the 28-year-old could be a candidate for a holdout. But Franklin-Myers’ agent said that all is well with the eighth-year veteran.Gary Davenport
Franklin-Myers is coming off the best campaign of his career and entering a contract year. Given all the cheddar Denver has invested defensively this year (and the money still to be spent), extending Franklin-Myers could be tricky—and in the opinion of PFF’s Bradley Locker, that makes him a candidate to be shopped this summer.
With a potential replacement for Franklin-Myers already on the roster in third-round rookie Sai'vion Jones and plenty of demand for quality defensive linemen, shopping Franklin-Myers before he potentially walks in 2026 makes some sense."
With Zach Allen and Nik Bonitto each needing extensions and both simply being better players than JFM, the Broncos may end up allocating their financial resources to those two players. Both DJ Jones and Jonathon Cooper already got paid, so they have done some work to retain players along this unit for years to come.
Denver also has younger guys in the DL room like Sai'vion Jones, Que Robinson, and Jonah Elliss as well. Overall, the team's defensive line is not only the most explosive, but it also might be the deepest as well. In an ideal world, the Broncos are somehow able to keep John Franklin-Myers perhaps through the 2026 NFL Season.
However, for the long-term future of this team, the best course of action might be them trading him before or during the 2025 season and getting a draft pick back, as it would be best to do that than to just let him walk in free agency in the 2026 NFL Offseason.