The Denver Broncos must get these two contract extensions done as soon as they can

The Denver Broncos should be in the market for a couple of contract extensions for their two best players, and they should get them done as soon as possible. Denver has had a mostly quiet free agency period. They did not splurge on anyone like they did last offseason, but instead were much more frugal with their cap dollars.

A major part of that seemed to be because of the $85 million dead cap hit that they'll take on across two seasons due to the release of Russell Wilson. It's an NFL-record dead cap, and the Broncos play on taking a huge chunk of it this coming season. For the Broncos, it's nice to see that they're making strides to smartly get out of Wilson's deal.

However, that doesn't mean they have to just continue to be frugal, especially when you consider the team's two best players, who both came from the 2021 NFL Draft. CB Patrick Surtain II and OG Quinn Meinerz are the two best players on the Broncos roster and two players that the team must take care of for the long-term.

There's simply no question. Any possibility that the Broncos could have traded Patrick Surtain II seems to have gone by, and it may not have even been a conversation inside their facilities to begin with. For Meinerz, he's already established himself as a top-5 guard in the NFL, and he's set to enter his fourth season in the NFL.

Games in the NFL are won in the trenches, so Meinerz' long-term value to the Denver Broncos is obvious. Surtain is clearly the best CB in the NFL, so that kind of speaks for itself. And if the Broncos do wait on these extensions, they risk the price tags going up and up. And while I am sure Denver wants to keep each player for the long-term, they may prefer a slightly cheaper contract if they were extended now instead of right after the 2024 NFL Season.