It was not a shock that the Denver Broncos didn't re-sign John Franklin-Myers in free agency, as he was simply pricing his way out of Denver and scored a deal worth over $20 million with the Tennessee Titans.
Denver was simply not going to match the offer he got, and it's something that the front office surely expected. Franklin-Myers, despite only playing about half the snaps in two years, still had 14.5 sacks and 33 quarterback hits in his two seasons with Denver.
His production was notable and helped the team's defensive line turn into a top-3 unit in football. Well, with his departure, the Broncos don't currently have a clear-cut replacement plan, but head coach Sean Payton may have spilled the beans on that when talking to the media after Wednesday's training camp session.
Denver Broncos may deploy a 'committee' approach to replace John Franklin-Myers
Payton indicated that there could be 'two, three players' replacing Franklin-Myers on the defensive line. It is important to note that Franklin-Myers played 46 percent of the defensive snaps in 2024 and 49 percent in the 2025 season:
Sean Payton said there are two or three players to replace John Franklin-Myers pic.twitter.com/IONWAMKL5i
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevens) July 29, 2026
The logical solution here that Payton could be alluding to would likely be a rotation of Eyioma Uwazurike, Sai'vion Jones, and Tyler Onyedim. Jones is a second-year player who didn't play much as a rookie, and Onyedim is a rookie.
In 2025, Uwazurike managed to get on the field for 36 percent of the defensive snaps, so he did see the field in a notable way. I suppose at the moment, the most logical solution here would be Uwazurike 'winning' the starting job, but perhaps sliding into Franklin-Myers role of playing, roughly, 50 percent of the snaps, allowing Jones and Onyedim to fill in the cracks.
This would bring an obvious advantage of the team having fresh bodies along the defensive line throughout the game, but I suppose a disadvantage would be not allowing any of the players to get into a rhythm. Sure, there could be enough snaps to go around for all three players, and going to a potential committee approach would certainly show off the depth of the defensive line.
And this isn't an insignificant thing, either. Franklin-Myers' insertion onto the defensive line in 2024 and 2025 helped the Broncos rank 3rd in points allowed per game, and they were also quite stout against the run both years as well, along with being the top sacking team in the league.
Franklin-Myers was an exceptional player for Denver, so the potential trio of Uwazurike, Jones, and Onyedim filling in will have massive shoes to fill.
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