Coming off a season in which they finished 8-9, the Denver Broncos are over the salary cap and they have several key players scheduled to become free agents in March.
Consequently, general manager George Paton has said the team will not be active in the early stages of free agency, and he has also hinted that Denver could lose a few in-house starters this spring.
The Broncos already had limited depth in 2023. After losing players this offseason, the roster’s depth will be even thinner. Paton plans to use the NFL draft and undrafted free agency to beef up that depth in April.
“The depth, and I don’t want to use that as a cop-out, but you need depth in this league,” Paton said last week. “We budget for anything that comes along, cap wise. The depth gets affected when you don’t have draft picks because you are not going to go buy depth. You need to draft depth and develop depth.
“We’re always looking for young depth. They’re cheaper, and they are typically healthier. To answer your question, the depth of your team needs to come from the mid-to-late rounds and college free agency. Nate Adkins [is a] depth piece [as well as] ‘Palcho’ [Alex Palczewski], the tackle.”
The Broncos obviously aren’t looking for depth in the first round of the NFL draft when they select 12th overall — that player needs to be a starter. Denver will fill out depth in the middle and later rounds of the draft, though. The Broncos currently hold six draft picks and Paton has hinted the team could acquire additional picks through trades this offseason.
The 2024 NFL draft will be held in Detroit from April 25-27.
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