The year ‘round football folks told us that Monday was going to be one of the most exciting days on the NFL calendar. The Denver Broncos must have missed that memo.
The Dove Valley brain trust, including general manager George Paton, head coach Sean Payton and the rest, were just watching – in terms of looking outside their own locker room, at least – on the first day of NFL free agency. Aside from re-upping running back J.K. Dobbins to a new contract, the Broncos were unwilling to get into bidding wars for high-priced skill-position guys. Who knows how hard, if at all, they pursued standout running backs like most recent Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III of Seattle or Travis Etienne, formerly of the Jaguars. Walker ended up with, gulp… Kansas City, and Etienne landed in New Orleans. Both could have bolstered the Broncos’ run game.
Instead, the Broncos went into full Colorado Rockies mode, and locked in solely on their own. They re-signed a key defensive back, Ja’Quan McMillian. Brought back two tight ends, Adam Trautman and Nate Adkins, offensive lineman Alex Palczewski; both their starting inside linebackers in Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad, and to complete things, the locked up their third-string QB, Sam Ehlinger.
They lost D-lineman John Franklin-Myers to free agency (who got big money from Tennessee) and released oft-injured linebacker Dre Greenlaw. Otherwise, it looks very much like they’re simply going to run it back.
You can understand the urge to do so. They made it to the AFC championship game (without the injured Dobbins) and could have made the Super Bowl if quarterback Bo Nix didn’t get hurt and miss the AFC title against New England. A healthy Nix and a healthy Dobbins probably get them past the Pats and into the Super Bowl.
So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
Perhaps. Then again, the Broncos had almost all the breaks go their way last season, so maybe some tweaking could be in order, just in case the football gods have a different darling in mind for next season?
If we’ve learned anything from the Colorado Rockies over the years, it’s that overvaluing your own players doesn’t work out too well. Despite the fact that the Denver front office obviously likes Trautman and Adkins, for example, those who have watched them play feel… differently. We’d like to see someone like Kenyon Sadiq in predominantly orange.
The NFL draft is coming up, and Denver has a full slate of picks available, although Sadiq will be long gone by the time Denver’s turn arrives. And the trade season is upon us as well, giving Paton and Payton an opportunity to upgrade the Broncos’ talent at a number of positions in two different ways. Given that so many of us were waiting for the time they could make some serious roster upgrades after shedding the Russell Wilson albatross of a contract, the start of free agency was a letdown. Only time will tell if that feeling lingers on after training camp starts.
