George Paton says the Broncos will be aggressive in free agency

Feb 7, 2023 - 7:00 PM

We’ve gotten a little clarity on the offseason plan the Denver Broncos will have under the leadership of general manager George Paton and new head coach Sean Payton. In an interview with the team media, Paton talked a lot about how he and Payton will work together and also discussed what they plan to do this offseason to improve the football team.

One of his points was that with so little draft capital, it is unlikely they will trade up in the NFL Draft. However, there is a possibility they might trade back to accumulate more picks. That strategy would all be determined by how the board falls during the draft, so no much we can assume there.

The key area that caused my eyebrow to raise was that he straight-up said they’ll be aggressive in free agency. That is likely the best strategy to get better in 2023 with so little to work with in the draft.

That is an interesting comment given the Broncos currently have just $11.9 million in cap space according to Spotrac. However, by moving on from veterans Graham Glasgow and Ronald Darby, along with running back Chase Edmonds, the Broncos would have just under $30 million in cap space. There would likely be a few more cap-saving moves along the way, which I think would give the Broncos plenty of ammunition to be aggressive next month.

People think the Broncos will be hamstrung by the Russell Wilson contract on the salary cap side of things, but the cap numbers on his contract do not balloon until 2025. So for the next two seasons, at least, they should have plenty of wiggle room to build out a roster. It’ll get interesting after 2025 when Wilson’s cap number rises above $55 million.

Where do you think the Broncos will free up cap space ahead of the free agency period?