The Denver Broncos finished the 2023 season with a 8-9 record and missed the playoffs for the 8th straight year. It was an up and down season for the Broncos as this team started 1-5, then forced 16 turnovers in 5 games to improve to 6-5, then dropped a game against the Texans to fall to 6-6, before finishing the year on a 2-3 run to finish with an 8-9 record. There were some very high highs during the 2023 season – like not just beating the Kansas City Chiefs – but beating them by double digits, and like going into Buffalo on Monday Night to win with a score of 24-22. But there were also some very low lows, and the lowest by far was a 50 point loss in Miami in which they allowed over 700 yards of offense and allowed 70 points in the process. And despite the Broncos finishing 29th in yards allowed defensively and 27th in points allowed per game last year – I don’t think the 2023 season was all that bad for them. Obviously when you allow 70 points in one game – that’s going to significantly skew your totals for the year – but I really like the Broncos future – meaning 2025 and beyond. They’re in a difficult situation at the moment because of a few decision they made – but this is a team that’s going to be tough to beat on any given Sunday. How far will they go this year – or how many wins will they get? Well, we’re going to break everything down in today’s video. Now let’s begin
And we are starting today’s’ video by breaking down who the Broncos lost in free agency and who they brought in. And technically before that – what needs to be noted with the 2024 Broncos – is they have the most dead cap money out of any team in the entire league. And if you are not aware – dead cap means money allocated to players that are not playing for the team this year. And the Broncos have over $67.8 million in dead cap money which equates to about 26.5% of the teams salary cap in players that are not playing for Denver in 2024. So that has to be remembered when discussing free agents they brought in – because – the money they are paying former quarterback Russell Wilson – which is a grand total of $53 million dollars – would go a long way – and this is all per Spotrac dot com by the way. They’re also paying Randy Greggory $7.1 million, and former safety Justin Simmons $3.75 million. The biggest lost for this franchise in free agency was former Center Lloyd Cushenberry as he signed a 4 year $50 million dollar deal with the Titans. And replacing a Center to me – is similar to trying to replace a quarterback. Obviously you’re not going to be able to see the difference between Lloyd Cushenberry and Luke Wattenberg the way you’d be able to tell between a 2013 Peyton Manning and Paxton Lynch – but in the sense of when you have a good center – normally they don’t leave. And there’s a reason the Chiefs just made Creed Humphrey the highest paid center in football. And there’s a reason they opted to pay him over corner LJarius Sneed. Good centers don’t leave. But I understand the Broncos letting Lloyd Cushenberry walk because he had a great contract year – and I do want that to be noted – is he was a liability at times in the first few years of his career before really breaking out in 2023. But replacing the player Lloyd was from 2023 to 2024 – is going to be difficult. And another player that left the Broncos in free agency was long time linebacker Josey Jewell. Jewell has been a really solid player for Denver for years and the reality of playing on a team that hasn’t had a lot of team success and unfortunately in jewel’’s case – never made the playoffs – well – it’s kind of caused him to be underrated or under appreciated for the past few years. Jewell is a player who – in a lot of ways – you don’t really appreciate until he’s gone to see the type of Impact he makes on a play to play basis. He’s a very high IQ player, he reads his keys well, and as cliche as it may sound for a former Iowa player – he’s a very hardworking player. Everyone knows how good of a player Justin Simmons is – and unfortunately he was released by Denver this offseason and he too will be missed. Simmons ended his Bronco tenure as a 4 time all pro and multiple time pro bowler and I would like to think he will be inducted into the teams ring of honor after his playing days are over – but having to replace both Jewell and Simmons – players on different levels of the defense – was always going to be a difficult task. And technically yes – they also released Russell Wilson – but everyone already knew that – so I didn’t want to spend too much time on Russ other than acknowledging he is no longer on the team – which again – if you are watching this video as a fan of the Broncos – you obviously know this. Now for players they brought in – I really liked the addition of wide receiver Josh Reynolds – with context of course.
Josh Reynolds had a little over 600 yards with the Lions last year and on just 40 receptions – had 32 first downs. A lot of the time when it was hell or high water – he was the guy Jared Goff would look to. Not every time of course -but more often than you would think. And I like this signing because of what it represents for Bo Nix in his rookie year. He can be a safety blanket and a guy who catches 40 or 50 meaningful passes throughout the 2024 regular season. They also brought in safety Brandon Jones from the Dolphins who was a 3rd round pick back in 2020. I think Jones is a solid player and a guy who is only 26 years old. And in the best case scenario he starts for this team for the next 3 or 4 years. That was about it for the Broncos in free agency and that was the reason we prefaced their free agency with the dead money part because – naturally – when you have as much money allocated to players not playing for your team – you are going to be at a disadvantage from the start. They also traded former first round pick Jerry Jeudy to the Browns this offseason too. But pertaining to the 2024 Broncos defense – I think this unit is a little better than what the consensus is nationally. In a normal situation – I think rankings are what they are – and sure some context is needed – but this team allowed 400 or more yards just once in the final 12 games of the 2023 season – and obviously when you allow 700 in one game that’s going to skew a lot of your statistics. They also allowed 30 points just once in the final 12 games which was to the Lions – who were one of the best offenses in the league last year – and are very much a team that could go to the Super Bowl this year. In an era where the quarterback is emphasized more than ever before – being able to defend the pass is critical – and some would say the Broncos have the best corner in all of football in Pat Surtain. After that – there may be some questions with 2022 4th rounder Damarri Mathis, but what I will say positively about the 2024 Broncos defense – is – I love this pass rush and I think they are a very underrated unit. They had 3 players with 45 or more pressures last year in Nik Bonitto – who I absolutely loved coming out of Oklahoma back in 2022, Jonathan Cooper – a player who took a big jump last year, and Zach Allen – a player who had a career high in pressures, and quarterback hits in his first year with the team last year. They also have edge Baron Browning in a contract year – who has played well over the past few years and I expect that to continue in 2024. And not only that – but I also expect the defense to play well – again for the most part – this year too. There were a lot of things that went against the defense in 2023 and the offense not being able to consistently sustain drives was one oof them. The Broncos offense finished 26th in the average plays per drive and they also finished 26th in the average yards per drive too. They didn’t help the defense out and I expect that to change this year because I truly think the Broncos offensive line is underrated – and not only that – but I also think Javonte Williams will have a bounce back year.
We’ll talk more about Javonte Williams specifically in a minute, but from this perspective alone – I think it will help balance Denver out more in 2024 – than they were in 2023. Now for the defense – I do have concerns with the secondary outside of Pat Surtain and Brandon Jones. It was nice seeing them utilize PJ Locke in different roles last year. Whether it was him lining up in the box, or even occasionally in the slot, or of course at safety – 2024 will be a true opportunity for PJ to breakout and to be a starter in the league for the next few years. But not every player will pan out and be a star. We of course wish him the best in his career – but it’s the NFL. Anything can happen. Not only do I need to see more from PJ than an 8 game span in 2023 – which again he looked good during that span – but the corners outside Surtain are cause for concern. If Pat goes down even for a game – then I really worry about how the corners will hold up. I think Levi Wallace is an average player on his best day – and there’s a lot of games where Levi is simply not having his best day. I also have concerns with second year player Riley Moss, and the concerns were previously mentioned with Damarri Mathis.
And all of this plays into why the Broncos are in a difficult situation entering the year. This isn’t just – “Bo Nix rookie quarterback rebuild and we’re going to win 3 games and accept that we stink”. It’s far *far* from that. This team finished 8-9 last year and had a tremendous amount of things go against them. But why I think they are in a difficult situation is their division – collectively – got better from 2023 to 2024. Every team made improvements and this was already in a division that had 3 teams win 8 games – and a team in the Chargers who brought in a great head coach and significantly improved from January until now. And when you are in a division with Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert – you obviously need great corners. And I worry that the Broncos will get into games this year where opposing offenses pick them apart because their corners aren’t as good as other NFL teams – aside from PS2 of course. I think they’ll be a very tough team to beat, but their corners are a cause for concern.
