If there is one area where the Denver Broncos have put in serious work in the past few months, it has been extending their pending free agents. The majority of these extensions have the company on the defensive side of the ball, and today’s news is no different. The Broncos extended their second defensive lineman this year, this one being tackle Malcolm Roach.
Roach was set to hit the open market at the end of this year and would have been an attractive name. He has come into his own under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and is an important piece to the Broncos' run defense. With his new three-year deal, he has found a home with the Broncos.
Elsewhere on the Broncos' defensive line, the news of this deal could raise some red flags and sound alarms. Roach was not the only Broncos defensive lineman set to hit the agency, given that he is without a new contract extension, but he might be the final one extended. For Roach’s running me upfront, today’s news couldn’t mean that he will be playing for a new team at the start of the 2026 season.
The extension of Malcolm Roach might bring an end to the Broncos career of John Franklin-Myers
John Franklin-Myers is the final pending Broncos free agent of note who has not been signed to an extension, not counting the currently injured JK Dobbins. The Broncos brought JFM in last spring before the 2024 season, and he has more than the team ever could have hoped for. He is following up his seven-sack performance the previous year with another strong season, getting to the quarterback. With two straight strong seasons under his belt, he is setting himself up for a nice payday in free agency.
The issue for the Broncos and Franklin-Myers is going to be whether or not they believe he’s a quality football player, but if they are willing to pay what it’ll cost to keep him. Over the past few years, their snap decisions and free agent decisions have made their philosophy on the defensive line clear: play your elite player as much as he can go and rotate everyone else in and out. JFM has played far fewer snaps than the likes of Zach Allen and is typically closer to Roach in snap count than he is to Allen.
For JFM, he is going to get absolutely paid this spring, and deservedly so. He has been one of the major reasons the Broncos' defense has been able to sack at the rate they have, but his success might reach a point for his price tag will simply be too steep for the role the Broncos view him in. If this ends up being the case, which it seems somewhat likely to be, his time in Denver will come to an end whenever the Broncos are eliminated from the playoffs, but the move to bring him in will go down as one of the more underrated moves in the history of the Denver Broncos.