Position by position wish list for Denver Broncos in Free Agency
Defensive End
Dre’Mont Jones
During the Combine, George Paton started out positive in discussing Dre’Mont Jones and contract talks. Jones, according to Paton is a “core player” and has had positive discussions regarding that new deal. Yet, the Denver Broncos defensive lineman has not come to terms on a contract. No deal is even imminent. Paton furthered the point saying it is likely Jones is heading to the open market.
Jones has gotten better every year and has every right to earn that big pay raise. That new deal could come from Denver or someone else. He is in that tier-two level for defensive linemen. What Denver may have struggled with is paying as a defensive end or defensive tackle. Jones is flexible to play both and plays both quite well.
It is still a very dangerous game to let Jones test the market and see who has an interest in him. Given the contract friend Bradley Chubb received from Miami, it is not out of possibility someone pays Jones the equivalent of that kind of deal. The likelihood of Jones returning is less and less if he hits the open market.
While the Broncos made the right decision to not tag Jones, it is still imperative they get a deal done with their “core player” before he hits free agency.
Marcus Davenport
Despite being aggressive to re-sign Dre’Mont Jones, the Denver Broncos still have to upgrade the defensive line in free agency to address depth. Randy Gregory is a very good player when he is on the field. That’s the key part. It is also important to not rule out considering depth behind the starters as a pass rusher. Like cornerbacks or offensive line depth, a team can never have too many pass rushers. The more a team has at pass rush, the more team rolls out productivity to get to a quarterback. Marcus Davenport would be one of those options.
Davenport had a disappointing season in 2022 statistically, but in a time when Denver Broncos need all hands on deck at pass rush, he would bring another horse to that room. Every once in a while a player will have that career year and they need to find it again. In 2021, Davenport had a great season with just a tick under ten sacks, 16 tackles for loss, and nine quarterback hits. His best-graded seasons were in 2019 and 2021 while only being 26 years old. That is still plenty young to land on a team who can take chance on that youth with a two or three-year deal.
In both solid seasons, Davenport was showing signs of potential. But make no mistake, Davenport’s year was a colossal disappointment for the Saints and him. It would be wise after that kind of year he takes his talents elsewhere and rebrand his image more with an aggressive style head coach. Maybe this is a head coach who saw his talents as a first-round draft pick in Sean Payton who is now head coach of the Denver Broncos.
Zach Allen
What to do with life without Dre’Mont Jones is a world I would rather not think about, but here we are. As mentioned before, if the Denver Broncos truly allow Jones to walk in free agency it would be nice to have a backup plan in case he joins another team. If this happens, a dream scenario would be targeting the likes of Zach Allen in free agency.
Allen has been tutored by future Hall of Famer JJ Watt and has turned himself into a player who will get a payday in free agency. Maybe not the Dre’Mont Jones payday, but he will be worthy of every penny if Denver can truly be that aggressive in filling this kind of need before heading into the draft. Allen started with the Arizona Cardinals as an interior defensive lineman but struggled at times to play at that strength. It was not until 2022 that Allen saw major improvements in that part of his game. It’s not to say he cannot play outside as a defensive end, but the Cardinals had him in the interior.
The smarts and intellectual part of his game is a positive for Allen. He did everything he could to be that sponge with Watt to soak up as much knowledge as he can learning from him. When you mix his intelligence and the ability to perform at any strength inside of the defensive line, he would be a smart addition to the Broncos.