3 difficult decisions Broncos will need to make this offseason

2. Navigating the salary cap

This is another very layered discussion for the Broncos, but there seems to be a common misconception about how the Denver Broncos can navigate the salary cap right now. According to Spotrac, the Broncos are currently just under $19 million over the 2024 salary cap. That means they will have to make some cuts and contract adjustments to get right before mid-March.

How are they going to do that? Well, there are probably some very easy ways, to be quite honest. Making Russell Wilson a post-June 1 roster cut would spread his $85 million dead cap hit over the next two years, and would be a net-0 on the Broncos' salary cap figure for 2024.

Knowing that this was a possibility last offseason, the Broncos undoubtedly wrote restructures into the language of their big-money free agents in 2023 (Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers, Zach Allen, Alex Singleton). It's possible they could get under the salary cap just by doing easy restructures on those players' deals in the offseason.

But beyond that, the Broncos have big decisions looming with players like Garett Bolles, who is set to count $20 million against the salary cap with no guaranteed money left on his deal. Do you approach Bolles about an extension? The Broncos could do that. They could also restructure or extend wide receiver Courtland Sutton and add to their cap space.

Other contracts that will be looked at include Justin Simmons, DJ Jones and Tim Patrick. The Broncos would be able to get under the salary cap just by cutting Jones and Patrick.

I think we'll see situations where the Broncos navigate bringing many of these players back on new contracts, but these are the decisions looming contractually to get the team in position to still add in free agency.