Often a practice of vanity, however, it is intriguing to see the grade that the Denver Broncos scores in respected NFL publications across the web.
While it may not be as useless as the NFL draft grades, given that draft choices must be viewed at a minimum through the scope of all of your rookie contracts, how a team decides to spend (or perhaps more importantly not to spend) its limited wage ceiling space, and how much value a team finds in each off-season, free agency notes can provide insight.
Some reputable signings will not work, while others that have been punished will end up being the difference for a team to make or lose the playoffs. Some of the minor moves can have a vast and positive impact on a team, such as perhaps the acquisition of the Broncos’ sleeper on the running back Mike Boone. But we won’t know until we can see the signings in retrospect in the future.
However, the notes are fun to read and even more rewarding when they indicate that the Broncos did a good job at the free agency. This is the case with Broncos GM George Paton.
Leading a team operating with plenty of pay cap space and using it to really make meaningful plays this off-season, Paton chose to retain his own employees (mostly) and solidified Denver’s biggest question mark at the beginning of the off-season. Focus on professional football, a site as skeptical of Drew Lock as anyone else there, couldn’t even speak ill of how the Broncos attacked the free agency, giving Paton a rare great note for his off-season maneuvers so far, while calling Kyle Fuller’s signature his best move.
DENVER BRONCOS: Great
Best Hiring: CB Kyler Fuller
The Denver Broncos didn’t make a lot of plays in this off-season, but it’s been smart and targeted, anyway. Denver gave priority to retaining key players in defense initially, putting the franchise’s mark on Justin Simmons’ safety before signing a new long-term contract that makes him the highest-paid safety in the game. They also signed again with Shelby Harris, one of the NFL’s most underrated supporters. Harris is coming out of the best season of his PFF career in terms of passing races, placing an 83.5 mark on that facet.
On the open market, the Broncos signed cornerback Ronald Darby with a modest contract and reportedly took 34 minutes to reunite Kyle Fuller with his former coach Vic Fangio, since the Chicago Bears released him for the cap.
Fuller’s best season came in Chicago under Fangio in 2018, a season in which he accumulated 20 combined interceptions and pass separations and allowed a passer rating below 70.0 when targeting. With the release of AJ Bouye, the duo completely remakes the cornerback group within a few days of work.
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The Broncos still have a number of questions, but for the most part, they are tertiary concerns. Who will be the team’s inline tight end? Can Boone be the second running back? Can linebackers Josey Jewell and Alexander Johnson play at a level high enough to take advantage of a great Denver defense?
And the depth on the secondary and defensive front? Will Ja’Wuan James remain healthy? And what will happen to the position of defender?
Time will tell, but given the off-season parameters so far, Paton is beating out of the park on paper. How does this work in practical application, we will not know for some time yet, but making smart moves to fill gaps in the list with schema adjustments, bringing back cultural leaders in the locker room and not jeopardizing the team’s long-term financial flexibility at the same time?
The free agency’s notes may not make sense, but Paton is doing a great job in his first year as a GM and doesn’t take notes to see that.
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