The Denver Broncos have done a great job of rebuilding the roster into one they believe can help them win games and meaningful ones at that. After the rough outlook of the roster following the 2023 season, Denver finds themselves in greener pastures while ascending.

Denver Broncos remarkable roster turnaround by George Paton, Sean Payton sheds light on bright future

The roster aftermath following the 2023 season created a negative outlook initially after Sean Payton’s first season as the team’s head coach. It had become clear that Russell Wilson was not the player at quarterback who would help Denver reach their goal of getting back to the postseason, but the process of finding a quarterback wasn’t necessarily a clear path either.

Despite the massive $55M in dead cap from exiting the Wilson deal early, Payton and general manager George Paton flipped up the proverbial chessboard after the season and began to reassemble things in their vision. One of the bigger pieces ended up being the pair identifying Bo Nix as the quarterback they felt could help them get back to competing for the postseason, and sure enough, he did.

A rookie quarterback and one of the youngest rosters in the NFL helped get the Broncos back into the NFL Playoffs, where they ultimately fell short against MVP Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills on a cold day. That cough medicine was a great experience for Nix, Payton, and other players inside that locker room.

Paton was able to take care of re-signing core pieces like Patrick Surtain II, Quinn Meinerz, and Jonathon Cooper, and followed that up by taking care of Courtland Sutton and Zach Allen during training camp. Nik Bonitto is likely to be next, though Paton expressed that he and the team prefer to keep those talks in-house as they have the other deals they worked on.

Coming into this season, the Broncos formulated their 53-man roster and assembled a 17-player practice squad (one international designation) into a roster that returns so much continuity — from last season, to this summer, and there’s a clear vision for the roster.

Denver is returning nine of 11 starters on defense from last year, with the two new additions being Talanoa Hufanga and Dre Greenlaw. Offensively, the Broncos’ offensive line returns every single starter from last season, which hasn’t happened for a while.

The pieces around Nix as he prepares for his second season are clear upgrades from his rookie year, factoring in the additions of Evan Engram, J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey, Trent Sherfield Sr., and Pat Bryant to go alongside Sutton, Marvin Mims, and Troy Franklin.

“We like our roster,” Paton said. “We like the depth of this roster. I think you could see that depth throughout the preseason. We extended leads with our second and third phase. How talented this roster is, we’ll see. Last year we were the 31st roster in the league, and we didn’t believe that. We have a strong roster, and obviously that’s day-to-day, that’s week-to-week. We feel we’re strong in the trenches. We feel like we have a franchise quarterback. We like the weapons we have on offense, and we play really good defense. That’s a recipe to win a lot of games, so we feel good about this roster.”

One thing that stands out as we’ve observed practice all summer and throughout the preseason is that several players have made big strides and growth in their ongoing development, and Franklin is one of them.

“The biggest thing, he had a really good offseason and getting stronger,” Paton said. “We stay in Phase 1 for five weeks, and that gives the players the opportunity to lift, get stronger. They’re not focused on meetings, they’re not focused on football. I think that was really important for [WR] Troy [Franklin] to get stronger, and then he took that momentum into training camp. The biggest thing with Troy is the confidence. He’s not thinking as much. Last year you could tell he was thinking, and now he’s playing fast, he’s playing urgent, the confidence, you see the big plays, the ball skills, the hands. So he’s just developing right in front of our eyes, and that’s a credit to him and the work that he’s put into it.”

With the season set to start next Sunday at home against the Tennessee Titans, we’ll get our first chance to see if the foundation of this roster can help the Broncos get off to a faster start in Payton’s third season.