The Denver Broncos have been busy extending some of the players they feel are key to their success going forward. Wil Lutz received a deal on Friday of last week, and this evening, center Luke Wattenberg received a four-year deal that will keep him in Denver through 2029.
Wattenberg was given a four-year extension worth $48M, with $27M of that being guaranteed. The deal was first reported by Mike Klis of 9News.
Both George Paton and Sean Payton have emphasized the importance of investing in the trenches on both the offense and defensive sides of the ball. It started two seasons ago in free agency with both of them nabbing Ben Powers and Mike McGlinchey as key additions.
Last season, the Broncos invested in extending Quinn Meinerz, who the team feels is the best guard in football, and locked in left tackle Garett Bolles to an extension that likely keeps him in Denver for the remainder of his career.
Now, they’ve locked in Wattenberg, who they feel like has improved drastically year over year despite starting his career off early on at offensive tackle under Nathaniel Hackett’s tenure in Denver.
Under offensive line coach Zach Strief and Payton’s direction as a head coach, player development has been the premier focus of the organization as they look to build from within. Wattenberg is one of those players they believe has taken strides forward with.
Now he’ll be snapping the ball for Bo Nix for the long haul and get a deal done with Wattenberg now, as opposed to letting the market change their potential approach in NFL Free Agency in March.