The Denver Broncos took care of plenty of in-house business during the bye week, with coach Sean Payton and GM George Paton handing out contract extensions to kicker Wil Lutz, center Luke Wattenberg and defensive tackle Malcolm Roach.
Maybe we should be calling it the buy week, but there’s still some work to do going forward. The Broncos still have several viable extension candidates who probably won’t get to cash in during the season, but Nick Kosmider of The Athletic chipped in with this useful summary of the candidates.
John Franklin-Myers, defensive end. Franklin-Myers is the odd man out to date, but it certainly isn’t his fault. He has 4-1/2 sacks to date, and he’s been a great complement to defensive end Zach Allen, who has six.
“There’s been a clear correlation of my play and playing with JFM,” Allen said. “He’s just a special talent and when you have both of us, it makes each of our jobs easier. I’ve been really fortunate to play with him.”
Franklin-Myers’ situation will be especially interesting to watch. He’s 29, and he couldn’t get the New York Jets to pay him, either, but he’s one of those front-seven pieces that coaches quickly come to love.
Will Franklin-Myers be the last man standing when the game of contract musical chairs comes to a close? The Broncos still have to consider an extension for Pat Surtain II, and the end of Bo Nix’s rookie contract is looming. That’s basically the definition of a tough business decision going forward.
Justin Strnad and Alex Singleton, linebackers. These two won’t be easy, either. Singleton is a tackling machine, and his heroic backstory about returning from surgery for testicular cancer makes him the essence of a character guy you’d want to have around.
The same goes for Strnad, who stepped in for Singleton last year when Singleton went down with an ACL injury, and he did the same this year when free-agent linebacker Dre Greenlaw was struggling to overcome a quad injury .
The questions are the same as those pertaining to Franklin-Myers. When you consider all the moving parts and pieces here, it becomes much easier to understand why the Broncos made the other moves they did during the bye week.
J.K. Dobbins, running back. Dobbins might be the toughest call of all in some ways. His work at running back has been essential for an offense that frequently stalls, but now he’s trying to come back from a Lisfranc foot injury in time for the playoffs. There’s a lot that could happen with him going forward, but his extension could be a tough call, too.