Revisiting the Denver Broncos keeping their roster largely the same

Like most in Broncos Country, I was quite puzzled when Free Agency opened, and the Broncos’ activity centered around basically resigning everyone possible from last year’s roster that weren’t under contract for 2026. Jonathan Franklin-Meyers was never going to get signed due to the price tag, but outside of him, the Broncos made deals with everyone. Queue the Oprah “You get a contract” meme.

While I still have reservations about some of the players they resigned, I’m starting to see this in a different way post-draft.

After Super Bowl 50, the Broncos quickly fell off a cliff and wandered in the wilderness for years. We swapped coaches, quarterbacks, and roster spots in every corner of the team, trying to find a winning formula. This led to players all over the roster switching schemes every year and having to get used to different styles of coaches.

What this team has now is culture and continuity. Sean Payton and George Paton are betting on those two “C’s” being the key to success in 2026.

The more I think about it, the more I think they may be on to something.

The defense was nails last year. Keeping that roster intact means every opponent is going to have a tough outing against a team that has another year under their belt in Vance Joseph’s scheme. They have all offseason to find solutions to the weaknesses in coverage by the ILB position.

The offense also grew with Bo Nix as the year wore on, both with and without JK Dobbins. Now the team has an added explosive weapon in Jaylen Waddle and a backup plan at RB #1 with Jonah Coleman. They have one of the best offensive lines in football, which makes the sky the limit for more points this season.

This new draft class, by and large, has the perfect environment to learn and develop. I see very little pressure on any of them to be immediate starters. This year, they can cook, come in on a few snaps here and there to help out, and grow into impact players of the future.

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