Last year, the Denver Broncos took on a $53 million “dead money” salary cap hit after coach Sean Payton opted to release quarterback Russell Wilson.
With limited remaining cap space, the Broncos weren’t able to make many big splashes in free agency, so they were forced to field a young squad in 2024. Going forward, that could prove to be a positive for the franchise.
“Sean was all-in last year,” general manager George Paton said on Jan. 15. “We had no choice. We could’ve taken less of a [cap] hit last year, but we wanted to take [a bigger] hit because we were going to go young. Sean emphasized that to the coaches. We’re playing our young players. The Riley Mosses of the world. The Nik Bonittos. We’re playing our young players, developing them.
“That came from Sean, and I and Greg [Penner]. He understands the importance of the draft. Some of his best years are because of some of those drafts that he had. The 2017 draft… I can’t remember the years, but he talks about them a lot… Sean understands the importance of draft, develop. We did it this year, but if there is a veteran out there that we like and can help our football team, we’ll certainly be interested.”
Denver plans to be measured again during free agency this spring, with the team continuing to focus on drafting and developing long-term talent. That is a winning formula for teams that draft the right players.
After adding Bo Nix, Jonah Elliss, Marvin Mims, Riley Moss, Nik Bonitto, Pat Surtain, Quinn Meinerz and Jonathon Cooper in the last four drafts, the Broncos certainly appear to be capable of drafting their way to success going forward.
