This past week, the Denver Broncos signed wide receiver Courtland Sutton and now defensive linemen Zach Allen to sizable contract extensions. Both players are team leaders who were entering the final year of their contracts and have been performing at a high level for the team.
Around the league, we are seeing teams like the Bengals, Cowboys, and Commanders struggle to reach deals with their deserving veterans, which is leading to messy off-the-field drama, including players skipping offseason workouts, an ugly back-and-forth with the media, and even requests for trades.
Not in Denver.
The Broncos front office and ownership, led by the Walton-Penner Group, have been proving to the team and players around the league that if you play at a high level for the Broncos, they will take care of you when it comes to contract time.
In the past year, the Broncos have handed out a total of six contract extensions to their pending free agents.
- DE Zach Allen: 4-year deal worth $102 million with $69.5 million in guaranteed money
- WR Courtland Sutton: 4-year deal worth, $92 million with $41 million in guaranteed money
- OG Quinn Meinerz: 4-year deal worth $72 million with $45 million in guaranteed money
- EDGE Jonathon Cooper: 4-year deal worth $60 million with $32.1 million in guaranteed money
- CB Pat Surtain II: 4-year deal worth $96 million with $77.5 million in guaranteed money
- OT Garett Bolles: 4-year deal worth $82 million with $41.9 million in guaranteed money
These six players include five players originally drafted by the team and one signed via free agency. Not only are the Broncos taking care of their own players, but they are drafting well as well. None of these extensions came with much drama, none of these players missed practice, there were no trade demands, and they were all extended before they were able to hit free agency.
The players wanted to be here.
Good drafting, re-signing your own star players, and getting it done drama-free while doing what is best for the team and the players are traits you see from the well-run teams in the NFL. These extensions, added with how well the Walton-Penner Group has run this team, mixed with the culture Sean Payton has built here in three short years, make the Broncos a destination for the league’s top players.
We saw it this past offseason. Veteran stars like Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, Evan Engram, and J.K. Dobbins wanted to play for the Broncos. The players currently in the building want to play for the Broncos and are signing extensions before even testing free agency.
With Allen and Sutton now extended, the Broncos have edge rusher Nik Bonitto and defensive linemen John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach left as their top pending free agents. All three have been practicing all offseason with the Broncos, are not engaged in any drama with the team, and in the case of Bonitto, he seems confident a deal will get done.
Unlike the Cowboys and Bengals, the Broncos are a well-run team led by their ownership group and their deep pockets, Sean Payton and George Paton, and once again, the Broncos are a destination for the league’s top players.
The next thing on their list is becoming Super Bowl contenders.
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