Broncos players and coaches returned to work rested after a full week out of the office.
Two men who apparently got no such reprieve over the Denver bye week: General manager George Paton and vice president of football administration Rich Hurtado.
Instead, they negotiated and finalized three in-house player extensions for core pieces to Sean Payton’s puzzle. Defensive lineman Malcolm Roach, center Luke Wattenberg and kicker Wil Lutz aren’t superstars, but each is a key player in his own right, each was set to hit free agency after the season and now each is signed with the Broncos through at least 2028.
In locking up this particular trio, the Broncos continued a massive, year-plus run of retaining their own players. They’ve now done 10 in-house extensions over the past 16 months starting with right guard Quinn Meinerz in late July 2024.
The same themes that have percolated throughout those deals are present in this latest group.
Denver trusts its ability to develop players regardless of where their careers started.
Payton and Paton believe in the culture that exists in the present locker room.
The club has a deep commitment to retaining high-quality players on the line of scrimmage.
And last but certainly not least, there’s no time like the present to pay players when you’ve got a quarterback in the heart of his rookie contract.
Wattenberg, who received a four-year deal worth $48 million ($27 million guaranteed) Tuesday, was a fifth-round pick out of Washington by Paton in 2022. Roach started his career with Payton in New Orleans as an undrafted free agent out of Texas in 2020. He signed a modest contract with Denver before the 2024 season and parlayed it into a three-year, $24 million extension with $14 million guaranteed on Wednesday.
They are not the most heralded players in their respective position groups on this team — Meinerz is a multi-time All-Pro offensively, Zach Allen received a four-year, $102 million deal this summer and almost every other starter on both sides of the ball is a bigger name.
What they are, though, are good players who have a steadiness about their games.
They are also now the seventh and eighth line-of-scrimmage players to land extensions from the Broncos in the past year-plus.
The others, in order of extension, Meinerz, OLB Jonathon Cooper, LT Garett Bolles, DT D.J. Jones, Allen and OLB Nik Bonitto.
“It’s huge. That’s the formula to win in this league,” Allen told The Post on Wednesday. “It’s been like that for a while now and the teams that have been successful in the past few years, they’ve really invested in the o-line and d-line.
“The fact that they’re rewarding guys in the building sends a huge message. It shows guys that if you come in, work hard and do it the right way, you’ll get rewarded.”
The Broncos have done a massive amount of rewarding recently. Those eight have deals total $527 million in contract value and $300 million in guarantees. They range from $100-plus million pacts for Bonitto and Allen to more meat-and-potatoes agreements this week for Wattenberg and Roach — though $72 million ($41 million guaranteed) in deals plus $16.1 million more for Lutz is hardly a slow week, and $12 million per year ties Wattenberg for fifth-most among centers in football.
When Payton first arrived, the Broncos almost immediately spent big in free agency to land Allen plus offensive linemen Mike McGlinchey and Ben Powers.
Since then, the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group has greenlighted more than a half a billion dollars in contract value to build, fortify and retain continuity in the trenches.
“I said this internally when I came here, really those two key positions are so important,” Payton said Wednesday. “You’re building your front on defense and on offense. If you don’t pay attention to it, it becomes challenging to do a lot of the other things you want to do.
“The offensive line can kind of permeate the building. And then the defensive line, the way they’re playing including the outside ’backers, it’s hard to find those types of players in free agency every year without paying a hefty fee.
“Keeping that continuity, I think, is important.”
Wattenberg has turned himself from an underpowered rookie into one of the game’s best pass-protecting centers and he’s regarded as among the smartest players on the team.
“You see the curve still going up,” Payton said.
Allen marvels at the way Wattenberg’s developed his game.
“Luke’s definitely a top center in this league,” Allen said. “When we were in training camp, it was like, ‘this guy’s a problem.’ It was really great to see his growth. He’s a guy, since I got here, in three years to see how much better he’s got every year — and how much better his body’s developed.
“He’s really coming into his own. I’d say it’s a pretty similar trajectory to me where you come in and you’ve really got to work it both on and off the field.”
Roach, meanwhile, is a high-end run defender who continues to add bits and pieces of pass-rush ability to his game. Not only that, but he’s an emotional and vocal centerpiece to a defensive group that was good early in the season but quick to note the impact of his absence when a calf injury cost him the first five games.
Since his return, the Broncos have been elite against the run and overall.
Denver’s defense is allowing an NFL-low 3.6 yards per rushing attempt by opponents and that number is 3.3 since Roach returned to the lineup Week 6.
“We always say, if you can just be great at your job — I know what my job is,” Roach said. “Coming here, they told me that from the beginning, you know, we need to stop the run better. I said, ‘that’s something I can do.’ … It started to come together slowly last year but this year I feel like it’s really clicking and I think we’re seeing the fruits of the labor.”
The Broncos are now in a position where they can not only rely on their front-lines through this season, but they should continue on with high levels of continuity into the future.
The only major contributor at this point who looks likely to hit free agency is John Franklin-Myers — the Broncos got three extensions done among prospective free agents over the bye but have not approached Myers about a deal. The starting quintet on the offensive line will only get more expensive next year and Denver has high-quality depth in Alex Palczewski and Frank Crum, so it’s possible the team could explore its options there. The only player whose contract could be considered at risk among the starters is Powers, who doesn’t have guaranteed money left beyond this season.
Those decisions will come in the winter and early spring, but for now Paton and Hurtado got quite a jump on their offseason to-do list.
Not surprisingly, the work started in the trenches.
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