Broncos Contracts

As I continue to take a look at Broncos with expiring contracts, next up from players who are contributing remarkably over the course of the 2023 season is Josey Jewell. He's a player that I think poses a conundrum due to the previous contract that he signed to stay in Denver.

The Broncos are going have a series of contract decisions to make in the coming offseason--both on contracts that are set to expire, and some that are not set to expire. Thus, over the coming days, I want to take a look at some of the players in question to try to set some baselines for when I build my annual offseason road map for 2024 once the Broncos' 2023 season has concluded.

I'll start with pending unrestricted free agents for 2024, and I'll start with the one who is having a remarkable season just at the right time for his future contractual security: Lloyd Cushenberry.

Update - October 6: The Broncos were able to trade Randy Gregory to the 49ers for a swap of 2024 6th and 7th round picks. The 7th rounder Denver gave up should be the Rams' original 7th from the Kenny Young trade. Per Mike Klis, the Broncos will pay all but $840,000 of Gregory's 2023 salary.

It's a bit of a surprise to see a player with the type of contract that Randy Gregory had cut after Week 4 of the regular season without some unusual aggravating factor (such as the Raiders cutting fellow 2022 free agent edge rusher Chandler Jones), but that's what the Broncos decided to do. Adam Schefter cited a "focus on young players" in first breaking the news, with Benjamin Allbright following up by saying that "[t]his was Sean Payton sending a message".

Around this time last year, I took a brief long term look at where the Broncos could be headed. With training camp starting tomorrow, I felt that it would be a good idea to expand this to an annual effort to coincide before training camp. The goal here will be to break down the take into a look at three time spans when roster questions will come up:

• Immediate: questions that need to be (and likely will be) answered before the upcoming regular season. This may include a few training camp battles, but my take will be lighter on those battles, as they will be covered heavily elsewhere in any case.
• Next offseason: questions that need to be kept in mind for after the conclusion of the upcoming season.
• Further beyond: possible questions that could come up with the roster in multiple years in the future.

At the conclusion of each Broncos season, I pave out a road map as to what my suggestions are to improve the roster. By this time of year, most relevant roster decisions have been made. Thus, as always, it’s a good time to evaluate my road map as compared to what the Broncos actually did, keeping me honest and making sure that I address anything I got wrong.

Last week, I gave you an explanation of all the signings the Broncos made in free agency. Here, I'll offer some brief opinions on these signings--though I still want to reserve a fair share of analysis after the draft, when my 2023 road map can be properly evaluated.

This was an unusual start of the new league year for the Broncos where they were extremely active on the unrestricted free agent market. I cannot recall seeing such a blistering pace in a very long time. There is reason behind why the Broncos did this, of course. But because there were so many signings over a short time frame, I decided to do something a little different this time around: take a pause, let the details of the contracts arrive and sink in, and then proceed with discussion all at once.

I'll break this effort into two pieces. This first part will be a factual look at the contracts that were signed. This article will then be followed up by a second part in where I offer my opinion on what they all mean.

2022 ended up being one of those Murphy's Law seasons for the Broncos that's liable to strike at any moment to any NFL team. It's also particularly cruel that it had to strike at the time where they're not reaping high draft picks from it, but at least they went into the season knowing that they would not be reaping such regardless of record. The team got caught in two very vicious negative tail end distributions to end up with a 5-12 record.

The first was a ridiculously high amount of injuries. I'm not sure if I can remember a Broncos season that had this magnitude. The Broncos were regularly leading the IR department throughout the season. In sum, the Broncos saw their starting running back, their #3 and #4 wide receivers, their starting left tackle and center on the offensive line, and one each of their starting edge rushers, linebackers, and cornerbacks spend considerable time on injured reserve. And this doesn't even get into multiple games missed by almost every major wide receiver and offensive linemen on the team, as well. There are very few teams that could come out of those type of injuries with a good record.

And the second was an unusually bad choice at head coach, with Nathaniel Hackett becoming the very rare coach that didn't even make it out of his first season. And this was quite deservedly so, as he looked like he was in over his head from the start of the season and just continued to progress more toward that conclusion as the season progress. Unlike, say, Josh McDaniels, Hackett did not contain non-coaching aggravating factors, but it was evident that the Peter Principle remains a constant. I hope Hackett can find a good job elsewhere in the NFL even if he proved quickly he is not head coaching material.

Resolve the first tail end distribution with better luck, and the second with better skill, and there's a great chance for the Broncos to bounce back. But as with every team with every offseason, there's always work to be done, and as always I'm here with my opinion through my annual offseason road map.

One of my least favorite NFL discourse routines is when observers concoct various trade scenarios approaching the regular season deadline. The discussion is entertaining, to say the least, but as is regularly demonstrated each season, the actual trades that happen are usually far less substantial. As such, I've been reluctant to add more fuel to the fire. But when someone as highly respected as Adam Schefter (as relayed by Andrew Mason) says that "he would be 'surprised' if the Broncos didn’t trade away at least one player before the trade deadline", then I suppose there may be an obligation to comment.

I'll just discuss a few players, in order of most to least likely to be traded.

As the Broncos' 2022 regular season commences today, MarsLineman has a very good post up on sister site Biomechanical Review analyzing Randy Gregory, and here is the ultimate conclusion:

For a team like Denver, which is likely now entering a championship window, Gregory can offer some meaningful playmaking– both in run defense and as a rusher– as long as he is utilized correctly (not as an every down player), and kept healthy. And a deep roster of edges/ pass rushers behind him is a necessity. Thankfully Denver seems to have taken these factors into consideration when building significant depth at OLB.

However, long term expectations should be kept in check. Gregory will be turning 30 this upcoming season, and it’s possible, perhaps probable, that a steep decline in effectiveness is lurking around the corner. Once Gregory starts to enter his 30s, his reliance on sacral area borrowing may significantly limit his effectiveness– once his burst starts to fail, he will be unable to win his matchups with the same combination of raw effort/ strength. Hopefully Gregory can contribute meaningfully in the short term, while managing and maximizing a shrinking pool of ‘burst’ over the longer term.

I'd like to briefly add a few contractual observations that support the findings here, and suggest that the Broncos may be in concurrence with the idea that Gregory's five year contract on paper may in practice be much shorter.