The Denver Broncos have been the NFL's most active team so far this spring, landing a future Hall of Fame coach, assembling a strong staff, and now being the most aggressive team in free agency. Coming off an embarrassing 5-12 season, the Broncos needed to hit the reset button in the worst way.
However, they aren't the only team making moves. Five different teams hired new head coaches, and there were over 20 coordinator hirings between the offensive and defensive sides. After that, this has been one of the more active starts to free agency in recent NFL history, and there have been some mammoth contracts handed out, and the number one overall pick was traded for this year's NFL draft.
All that being said, there is a good case to make that the Broncos' have had the most successful off-season in the NFL. There have been plenty of teams who have won the spring and lost the fall, and the Broncos must avoid joining that group. However, the Broncos are going to find themselves struggling to win in October and November if they can't win this March and April. All of that being said, here are three reasons that, so far, the Broncos are the biggest winner of the NFL's off-season.
1) Change of Leadership at the Top for the Denver Broncos
With the need for a restart came the need of a new CEO atop the Broncos' football operations. General manager George Paton worked out a deal with New Orleans' Mickey Loomis to bring in Sean Payton as the new head coach of the Broncos, giving them to type of stability and leadership at the top of the team that the Broncos have not had since the days of Mike Shanahan.
Sean Payton also brings a résumé of success and offensive innovation that is not like one that has come into the Broncos' head coaching gig in a long time. Ultimately, Payton and the Broncos are a new marriage that makes sense for both parties. For Payton, he takes the reigns on a historic franchise that is in desperate need of a revamp, one that he will lead the charge on. With him on his staff, he brings a mix of successful veterans and young new faces, a mixture that other Broncos head coaches have tried but have not succeeded at. He brings two experienced and sought-after coordinators Joe Lombardi and Vance Joseph, while also giving important roles to younger coaches like Zach Strief and Declan Doyle.
Payton's pedigree, new working relationship with general manager George Paton, and the coaches he brings with him will offer the Broncos a new reality that they have not had in a long time: continuity and continued success.
2) Free Agency Splashes While Maintaining 2023 Cap Space
The Broncos have made splash after splash so far in free agency. Whether it be adding to the offensive line, replacing pass rush that was lost to another team, or a new pass-catching and blocking back, the Broncos have been all over free agency so far.
Considering their lack of draft capital and abundance of expiring deals, the Broncos needed to be active in free agency. They were going to need to build an entirely new offensive line after having one of football's worst last season. They were going to need to either replace or retain Dre'Mont Jones, address a running backs room that had only an injured Javontee Williams, and work on a safeties room that had seen PJ Locke hit the open market (though Locke is coming back). On top of all that, they were going to need to find players to fit both a new offensive and defensive system. And to date, the Broncos have done that while maintaining more cap space for the rest of the free agency period.
Despite all of their moves, the Broncos have roughly $10 Million left in cap space, according to Sportrac. This allows them to continue to pursue some more moves, whether that be a larger contract for the likes of CJ Gardner-Johnson or maybe smaller moves that land more on the one-year side of things. Regardless of what type of deals they decide to use their remaining space on, the truth is that the Broncos have settled some long-term question marks, like with Mike McGlinchey, while also allowing them to add on to their 2023 roster and continue to improve. And to that I say, a job well done Mr. Paton.
3) George Paton's Lucky 3s.
George Paton has made a living in the third round. Since he took over drafting duties for the Broncos in 2021, he has made himself a living in the third round. In the two drafts he has led, the Broncos have had three third-round picks. Those selections? Three starters: Quinn Meinerz and Baron Browning in 2021, and Greg Dulcich in 2022.
The Broncos are slated to have two third-rounders this year, at numbers 67 (by way of the Colts) and 68 overall to go along with a 4th round pick. Paton had two picks in the fourth last year, with one of them being used on Pitt's Damarri Mathis, who is now a starting corner. Paton was able to find a ton of value in the middle rounds last year, and Mathis might be the best haul of the bunch, which is really saying something considering how strong Dulcich looked in his abbreviated stint before ending the year on the IR.
Overall, Paton has found good value on days two and three. Aside from the four aforementioned picks, he found Jonathon Cooper in the 7th round of the 2021 draft, and Caden Stearns in the 5th. Last year, he got solid rotational players in Delarrin Turner-Yell and Matt Hennigsen in the 5th and 6th rounds, and backup linemen Luke Wattenberg in the 5th.
As things stand right now, the Broncos have five selections in April: the two thirds, and one in each of the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds. If George Paton and Co. can strike on two more third-rounders this year, the Broncos could find themselves with two more important players going forward, and will continue to be able to grow for the future while winning in the immediate, which is truly the mark of a strong and healthy franchise. Based on his body of work so far with the Broncos, there is no reason to assume Paton won't be able to do just that.