Other top options, from Kenneth Walker III to Travis Etienne Jr., quickly fell off the board during the early week\u2019s legal-tampering period of free agency. Dobbins remained, as his own market started to climb. And the Broncos moved quickly to secure their 2025 leading rusher, and certified Payton Guy, on a two-year deal.<\/a><\/p>\n That single sequence has encapsulated Denver\u2019s dealings \u2014 or lack of them \u2014 through the first week of free agency. The reigning No. 1-seeded Broncos are approaching unprecedented levels of run-it-back roster retention. As of Friday, Denver is the only team in the NFL to not have signed a single external free agent. Not only that, but the Broncos have signed back 16 of their own 22 players set to hit free agency since late February.<\/p>\n The sheer wave of Payton favorites re-upping on minimum deals \u2014 tight end Nate Adkins, fullback Adam Prentice, receiver Lil\u2019Jordan Humphrey, running back Jaleel McLaughlin \u2014 has washed in heaps of online vitriol from Denver\u2019s own fanbase. Internally, the Broncos\u2019 brass went into free agency aligned without expecting to make a massive splash in the market. Externally, the Broncos\u2019 lack of activity gives the impression of an organization that is relying fully on its Payton-era foundation for a Super Bowl leap, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n The reasons for this week\u2019s developments are multifaceted. But the overall reality is simple, lying in the hands of the head man still pulling the strings despite passing off the play-calling reins<\/a>.<\/p>\n Asked their impression of the Broncos\u2019 approach, one NFL assistant coach told The Post: \u201cSean obviously likes his football team.\u201d<\/p>\n Growth inside the building<\/p>\n There\u2019s plenty left to play out, from the trade market to April\u2019s draft. Denver, after all, first signed Dobbins in June 2025. But data indicates the Broncos have taken a particularly unique strategy on the first go-around of the free-agent carousel.<\/p>\n According to player data collected and analyzed by The Post, Denver currently has 94% of its total snaps from the 2025 season under contract. In the last 10 years, no team that\u2019s made the AFC Championship Game has gone into the following season retaining more than 83.2% of its snaps from the previous year (the 2019 Kansas City Chiefs set this mark).<\/p>\n \u201cGood call,\u201d one NFL agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, remarked. \u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n Denver, of course, was the furthest thing from broken in a 14-3 season in 2025. The issue: its offense, by all accounts, was continually bent out of shape. Payton fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and receivers coach Keary Colbert after a 14th-place finish in points per game in 2025 and appointed a separate play-caller \u2014 31-year-old Davis Webb \u2014 for the first time in his 18-year head-coaching career.<\/p>\n At the NFL Combine, Payton was asked whether coming so close to a Super Bowl appearance influenced him to consider a big offseason swing or simply to stay the course. He directly acknowledged that the Broncos played the margins too thin in a season of white-knuckle moments at Empower Field.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom my lens, we won a lot of games by one score or less, right?\u201d Payton said then. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not naive enough to think those games couldn\u2019t have swung, and you could grab any two or three. But where\u2019s the meat on the bone?<\/p>\n \u201cThe meat on the bone,\u201d he continued, \u201cexists with our takeaways. That has to improve<\/a>. Our run-game consistency, our meat on the bone relative to a number of things that we won despite maybe \u2014 not being as good as others.\u201d<\/p>\n That has quickly become the defining quote of Denver\u2019s offseason, for better or worse. Despite Payton\u2019s acknowledgement that the Broncos couldn\u2019t simply stand pat, they have simply \u2026 stood pat. In fact, they\u2019ve only lost production. Defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers, who was everything from a key pass-rusher to a behind-the-scenes mentor, left for a monster three-year, $63 million deal with Tennessee<\/a>. Backup safety P.J. Locke went to Dallas. Denver cut linebacker Dre Greenlaw to save cap room<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are a few explanations for this confusing puzzle. Piece together hints from across the past year, and Payton and general manager George Paton are clearly focused on development from young, cheap talent under a new-look staff. That starts, of course, with a continued third-year leap from quarterback Bo Nix.<\/p>\n Payton made it clear at the combine that Nix wasn\u2019t a factor in the decision to pass play-calling duties to Webb; people close to Nix, though, have told The Post that Nix was generally supportive of the move.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s certainly things we want to be better at,\u201d Payton said at the combine, speaking on Denver\u2019s offensive operation. \u201cBut it\u2019s also being quicker. And look, it\u2019s only if there\u2019s someone that you feel like is good enough to do that, and (Webb) will have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n The Broncos are also plenty high on their young receiving corps of Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims Jr. and Pat Bryant<\/a>, with the potential to hand-pick another weapon come April: Indiana star Omar Cooper Jr. visited Denver for a pre-draft visit on Friday<\/a>. Rising second-year back RJ Harvey will have every opportunity to show he can improve as a runner from an equally dynamic and shaky rookie season. 2025 third-round pick Sai\u2019vion Jones, who received just 39 snaps in the middle of a logjam in his rookie year, could also make a push in training camp for Franklin-Myers\u2019 role on the defensive line.<\/p>\n Denver has room for growth in its tight-end crop, too, despite preserving a middle-of-the-road group for 2025. Veteran Evan Engram is tight with Webb dating back to their shared playing days in New York, and Engram had a 58-yard catch-and-run in Webb\u2019s preseason play-calling showcase against the Cardinals in August<\/a>. 2025 seventh-round pick Caleb Lohner, meanwhile \u2014 a raw big body who spent his rookie year on the practice squad \u2014 <\/a>is training in Texas this offseason with former Packers Pro Bowl receiver Donald Driver, Lohner\u2019s uncle Mike told The Post.<\/p>\n Another possible hidden wrinkle to Denver\u2019s offseason: the 2027 draft is already generating substantial buzz in the NFL. The Broncos will likely receive a fourth-round compensation pick in \u201927 with Franklin-Myers\u2019 departure, which becomes particularly valuable given the strength of next year\u2019s class. This would not be a foreign strategy.<\/p>\n The Jaguars, who\u2019ve also been notably quiet in free agency, have let star running back Travis Etienne and linebacker Devin Lloyd walk specifically to acquire 2027 draft capital.<\/p>\n \u201cI think on its surface, you would think, \u2018Oh, OK, you\u2019re going to make picks in 2027,’\u201d Jacksonville general manager James Gladstone told local reporters Thursday<\/a>. \u201cWhereas, in reality, those draft picks and having more of \u2019em actually allows you the luxury of remaining in the hunt at different intervals throughout the entire calendar year, for acquiring players.\u201d<\/p>\n Cap considerations<\/p>\n The Post sourced 10 different NFL agents for their thoughts on Denver\u2019s lack of activity early in free agency. The clear consensus from those sitting across the table: the Broncos haven\u2019t taken a bad approach, given they were a Bo Nix fractured ankle and an AFC title game winter wonderland away from a Super Bowl appearance.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had a great season,\u201d one agent texted. \u201cIt makes sense to me to build off of what you already have.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would you not bring that entire team back (?)\u201d another agent texted. \u201cGood chance they win it all if no Injury (sic) and maybe even just if no blizzard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is odd,\u201d another agent mused. \u201cThey probably see it, like \u2014 it\u2019s not worth overspending on anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n That point is key. Two NFL sources who spoke with Denver earlier in the week told The Post that the Broncos weren\u2019t willing to spend more than $10 million per year at running back and $6 million per year at tight end. That ruled out the dynamic Etienne, who signed for four years and $52 million with New Orleans. That also ruled out Chig Okonkwo \u2014 a skilled tight end the Broncos called about, according to a source \u2014 who ended up signing for three years and $30 million with the Commanders.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not stinginess for the sake of stinginess. At his end-of-season presser, Payton likened the Broncos\u2019 financial freedom from Russell Wilson\u2019s contract<\/a> to renovating one\u2019s house.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I said I\u2019m going to give you $50,000 to decorate your home, or $200,000, your home\u2019s going to look nicer, I think, if you\u2019re a decent shopper,\u201d Payton said.<\/p>\n Denver, though, really has closer to $50,000.<\/p>\n Much of the Broncos\u2019 cap room has already been gobbled up by a rollicking run of long-term extensions across the past year, locking in core pieces from Zach Allen and Nik Bonitto to Luke Wattenberg and Malcolm Roach. The Broncos really haven\u2019t had much to spend after extensions for Alex Singleton, Justin Strnad, Dobbins and Trautman \u2014 and need to keep an eye towards possible in-season extensions for key players like Mims, Riley Moss, and Ja\u2019Quan McMillian.<\/p>\n The Broncos, too, may have to consider future renegotiations with All-Pros Pat Surtain II and Quinn Meinerz, who Denver extended at such bargains in 2024 that both are now making well below their market value. Surtain\u2019s now the fifth-highest-paid cornerback in the NFL via average salary, and Meinerz is the ninth-highest-paid guard in the league<\/a>.<\/p>\n The draft and the trade market still beckon, and Paton and Denver\u2019s front office head into April with enviable capital: nine total picks, after being awarded two seventh-round compensatory picks for losing free agents in the 2025 offseason<\/a>. There\u2019s still time, as owner Greg Penner said in late January, for the Broncos to be \u201copportunistically aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus far, though, Denver\u2019s been all opportunistic and hardly aggressive.<\/p>\n![\"Quarterback](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TDP-L-BroncosVsPackersFB-121425-TH-64.jpg\")
Quarterback Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos attempts a pass during a game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, at Empower Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n![\"Quarterbacks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-JAGUARSAO1_5061x.jpg\")
Quarterbacks coach Davis Webb of the Denver Broncos speaks to Bo Nix (10) during the first quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n![\"Zach](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-COWBOYSAO2_8785x.jpg\")
Zach Allen (99) of the Denver Broncos locks in before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n