It’s finally time to return to the Denver Broncos Position Preview series.
The first big wave of offseason moves is now behind us, but we still have the NFL Draft and the subsequent rounds of free-agent desperation, along with some tremendously important contract situations, to keep an eye on.
How will these upcoming tentpole events on the NFL calendar impact the defensive line room, and how might Denver’s front come together for this upcoming season? Let’s look.
Zach Allen
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
Describing Zach Allen’s 2024 campaign as anything but ‘a career year’ would be disingenuous.
Allen played a higher rate of snaps than any other defensive lineman in the league and finished second in the season-long snap tally at his position, trailing only Jalen Carter, who is several years younger and needed three additional games to surpass Allen’s usage rate.
Plus, the second-year Bronco made the most of his time on the field, finishing third among interior players in sacks and first in quarterback pressures. His remarkable production even earned him his first-ever All-Pro nod as he made the second-team squad.
Zach Allen is the best interior defensive lineman the Broncos have had since Malik Jackson in 2015. pic.twitter.com/gPut89p8B9
— Frankie Abbott (@FrankiesFilm) February 23, 2025
Making matters even better for Allen was that he accomplished these feats the year before his contract expires, meaning it will be the most recent data point when his agent and Denver’s front office come to the negotiating table this summer.
Not only was he stellar and rewarded with acclaim in the process, but he also earned a generational amount of wealth this season.
Grade: A+
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
Just how much are the Denver Broncos going to pay Zach Allen?
Letting this situation simmer for the entirety of 2025 would be a poor strategy, considering Allen is far from the only key free agent the Broncos will have to negotiate with, and burning the franchise tag on him would kneecap their cap flexibility and aggressiveness next offseason.
Plus, with Allen improving seemingly every year of his career so far, waiting should only increase his price. That’s always somewhat true with the cap rapidly inflating, but it’s especially so when considering what a second All-Pro-caliber season would do for Allen’s leverage and standing in the league.
Zach Allen nuking a drive by himself with a run stuff and a pressure pic.twitter.com/795xCek0wn
— Derrik Klassen (@QBKlass) September 17, 2024
Make no mistake, Allen will get paid this summer, but it won’t be market-setting money. A year from now, after another elite season? He would have the leverage to argue that he deserves a deal at the very top of the wildly expensive defensive line market.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
Smart teams pay their players early, and the Broncos have followed that model so far, but Allen’s demands will be the steepest George Paton has seen outside of Russell Wilson. This will also be one of Paton’s most critical financial decisions since Wilson, as dragging his feet could cost Denver as much as $10 million annually.
It might hurt in the immediate future, but the Broncos need to just get the deal done and send the fleet of Brink’s trucks to Allen’s address. Even if he demands $30 million annually, that sum should be canceled out almost entirely by cap inflation as the cap climbs $30-$40 million over each of these next two seasons.
He is an amazing player at a premium position with plenty of seasons left in the tank. NFL teams just don’t let that out the door. So if we already know the ultimate destination, why not just cut to the chase, save time, money, and everyone’s feelings, and just fork over the bag now?
D.J. Jones
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
After a disappointing 2023, D.J. Jones had a resurgent 2024 campaign that reminded the Denver Broncos why they signed him in the first place and motivated the front office to re-up on their investment.
Jones was the best run defender on a defense that sorely needed all the help it could get against the ground. He was also a more impactful pass rusher than he had been in the past. While Zach Allen became the star of the unit, Jones and Malcolm Roach became its unsung heroes — doing the dirty work at an extremely high level and enabling the flashier play of those around them.
Among a unit of superstars, no defensive linemen on the team brought me more joy to watch this season than DJ Jones. If he isn't back in Denver next season I hope he ends up with a true contender. pic.twitter.com/OF1WBBsnky
— Frankie Abbott (@FrankiesFilm) February 5, 2025
The one blemish on Jones’s 2024 resume worth discussing and monitoring over these next few seasons was his limited play time. This past season, Jones played the lowest snap count of his career as a starting defensive lineman, despite not missing a game. That would be one thing if it was merely a product of a loaded defensive line, but that’s clearly not the case when considering the snap count Denver was forced to give Allen.
Instead, this seems to be a product of his age, now 30. One would hope he can handle more snaps in 2025, but if not, that should give the Broncos extra motivation to add to the room.
Grade: B+
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
The major cloud hanging over the D.J. Jones situation this offseason has already been remedied, with the team and Jones agreeing to a three-year deal worth $39 million.
Now, the dilemma facing the partnership between the Denver Broncos and Jones is maximizing his value while on that contract. Defining what that even looks like is somewhat sticky, though, and one needs to look no further than last year for an example of this.
Jones had maybe his best season in orange and blue on a per-snap basis, but he also played nearly 20 percent fewer snaps than he had in any of his other Broncos seasons. Is that maximizing his value?
On one hand, that’s the avenue to providing the room its highest ceiling, as you’re getting the best versions of everyone. But when you’re forced to lean on Jordan Jackson and risk injury to Zach Allen as a result, that becomes a problem.
On the other, wearing Jones down could rob you of your best run defender by exposing him to greater injury risk, and it could also sap his effectiveness as he has less energy to expend on each individual play.
What is the solution to this problem? That’s what the Broncos must unearth this offseason.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
With the roster in its present state, there should be pressure on D.J. Jones to play more next season. The Broncos are lucky to have avoided injury, with Zach Allen absorbing so much wear and tear, and they shouldn’t look to run that strategy back.
That said, to maximize the talent and Denver’s sizable investments in the room, they should strive to limit everyone’s time on the field so you’re getting their best snaps whenever they are out there.
The only way to square those ideas is to make another serious draft investment in the defensive line. This would make it so the fifth man in the room was either the highly drafted rookie or Malcolm Roach, meaning the team would be more confident giving that No. 5 player snaps than they were with Jordan Jackson this past season, which should create a trickle-down effect that benefits the entire defensive roster.
Now, any discerning member of the audience will hear ‘trickle-down’ and go, “Wait, isn’t that scam perpetrated to manipulate and take advantage of the working class?”
Yes, but this isn’t economic theory; it’s snap-count theory. Here, the Broncos would be financially incentivized to spread out those snap counts, not only to protect and maximize their current stars but to develop their next wave on the defensive line too, especially with Franklin-Myers’ future in doubt.
John Franklin-Myers
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
2024 was a hectic season for John Franklin-Myers. It started with a tense contract standoff between him and the New York Jets, which resulted in the Broncos snagging him on draft night for a 2026 sixth-round pick — one of their best additions from this past cycle
Franklin-Myers quickly won over Broncos Country after arriving in the Mile High City by becoming the go-to pass-rush specialist on the interior of the line. 69.04% of his snaps came against the pass, the highest rate of any defensive lineman on the team, which demonstrates that the team clearly had a vision for how they wanted to use him.
Not only that, but Joseph’s usage of Franklin-Myers was perfect.
Adding John Franklin-Myers to this team was a major reason the defense ended with a franchise record 63 sacks. He was fantastic. pic.twitter.com/r1tbaUjhYH
— Frankie Abbott (@FrankiesFilm) February 5, 2025
On a per-snap basis, he was the most productive interior pass rusher in the NFL this season, with a league-leading pass rush productivity score (a Pro Football Focus metric that looks at the rate you’re creating pressures, quarterback hits, and sacks) among his position group (minimum 300 snaps). The four linemen immediately following him on that list are Milton Williams, Chris Jones, and Quinnen Williams.
With another heated contract negotiation looming, Franklin-Myers has only made himself more valuable, no matter where he winds up playing in 2026.
Grade: A
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
From a resolved contract situation with D.J. Jones to the extremely murky contract situation swirling around John Franklin-Myers.
The former Jets star has made it incredibly apparent this offseason that he’s unhappy with his current deal and expects the Broncos to rectify that situation before the fall.
Or JFM
— John Franklin-Myers (@J_FranklinMyers) March 6, 2025
With us being just 12 months removed from Franklin-Myers forcing his way out of his last team, this is a situation Broncos Country should keep an eye on. History could easily repeat itself this draft season. A contract restructuring or extension is possible, either of which would tell us a lot about how competitive the Broncos think they are right now.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
Endorsing the admittedly shady elements of NFL finances and contract negotiations always feels slimy, but the Broncos should stare Franklin-Myers down or do some creative accounting to give him some more guaranteed money for the 2025 season.
They should not extend him, and they should not trade him.
Franklin-Myers is too talented and too important to the Broncos’ current build for them to ship him out this offseason, but Nik Bonitto and Zach Allen need new deals, not to mention Malcolm Roach, and D.J. Jones just inked a lucrative raise. There will have to be an odd man out, and right now, it makes sense for Franklin-Myers to be that odd man out.
If the Broncos make a first-round investment on the defensive line and add Derrick Harmon or Walter Nolan, that could free them up to move on from Franklin-Myers this summer, and ensure they aren’t letting him depart for nothing come next spring, but doing so would land them in the exact same snap predicament outlined in the Jones section above.
The least painful way to move into the next era of this defensive front without skipping a beat likely involves a defensive line selection in the first three rounds of this year’s draft, paired with another youth addition in 2026 when Franklin-Myers leaves.
That would give Denver a solid five-man rotation for each of the next two seasons, limiting the stress placed on D.J. Jones and Zach Allen while also positioning the defense for sustained dominance in the future.
Malcolm Roach
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
The release of Russell Wilson forced the Denver Broncos to be frugal in 2024 and place a small number of affordable but well-reasoned bets on untapped potential, and their Malcolm Roach gamble paid off brilliantly.
Roach was a key rotational presence who added necessary size and run-stuffing ability on early downs while also being a respectable pass-rushing presence on third and fourth downs. He and Jones were the rugs in the Big Lewbowski’s abode — they brought the whole room together.
#Broncos DT #malcolmroach wins big with the Stab Lift. Roach put that long arm in the guards chest and made em shoot his hands. Soon as hands were presented, Malcolm lifted that elbow, ripped past and picked up the sack. Great interior rush! pic.twitter.com/KFxLBvJacd
— Jalen Bates (@coachjalenbates) March 27, 2025
Prior to signing with the Broncos, Roach was barely hanging on in New Orleans, signing a series of near-minimum one-year deals, but he now finally seems to be blossoming here in Denver, at age 26.
While this is excellent news for Roach, it might be troubling for Payton, Paton, & Co.
They signed him to what is now the league’s 69th-largest defensive line contract, and Roach is going to be able to demand much more than that when he hits the open market at 27, if his 2025 looks anything like this past season did.
Grade: A
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
How do the Denver Broncos go about paying Malcolm Roach, or is it best to let him walk?
#Broncos DL Malcolm Roach in coverage might be the highlight of the night. pic.twitter.com/EVHTP1sBTc
— Ryan McFadden (@ryanmcfadden_) October 18, 2024
With John Franklin-Myers, it makes sense to play hardball. He’ll be turning 30 the first year of his next contract and he projects to be highly expensive.
Roach feels like a more complicated matter, even if he’s been less outspoken about his displeasure. He’s younger, of course, but he’s also an ascending talent, while Franklin-Myers is closer to being on the back nine. He also shouldn’t be nearly as expensive, making it much more feasible to pay him, along with Allen and Bonitto.
That said, if the Broncos do want him as part of their long-term plans, should they sign him this offseason, or should they wait? Typically, teams should pay their players as early as possible to get a cheaper price tag, but with Roach coming off a career year, Denver might be best served sitting back and letting him prove for a second consecutive season that he’s worth a dramatic pay spike.
The problem is that’s probably more likely to result in a steeper price than a lower one.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
This is one of the toughest suggestions to come up with for any player we’ve looked at so far at any of the positions.
Following the draft, we’ll have a much better idea about the future outlook of the Broncos’ defensive line room, but as it stands now, Roach is a player they should try to bring back, and signing him this offseason is probably the most cost-effective route.
Denver’s defense is excellent, but it’s built on a defensive line that is almost as shallow as it is fierce. If the Broncos want to maintain that strong play opposite Bo Nix and the offense, they’ll have to keep investing in their defensive line.
Great play here by Malcolm Roach NT for the Denver Broncos
— Kyle (@KyleVreen) November 8, 2024
-Prepare ✅
-Trust Your Preparation ✅
-Relentless Pursuit ✅
Backside 1-Tech chasing down the pin & pull sweep. 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/vjykBVYIMc
Unfortunately, they have an even greater need for youth on offense, and that will understandably demand most of their draft focus. The draft isn’t the only way to invest in that group, though. Re-investing in in-house talent is another, and with their draft resources spread thin, they should look to keep their defensive line as a strength by retaining Malcolm Roach.
Jordan Jackson
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
After hanging around the NFL as a practice squad player the first two years of his career, Jordan Jackson earned a spot on the Broncos’ active roster and was a regular contributor in their defensive line rotation. Jackson appeared in every single game, with no fewer than seven snaps and as many as 31 (which he got in the Week 12 victory against the Raiders).
Jackson served as an ‘innings-eater’ for Denver’s front, playing largely on early downs so that the other linemen — particularly John Franklin-Myers — could be kept fresh to maximize their passing-down impacts.
The problem is that he was pretty underwhelming in that role. His 3.5% run-stop rate was the lowest among all of the Broncos’
Now, as a practice squad call-up that suddenly had to play a few hundred snaps, Jackson came through and wasn’t a constant sieve, and that’s about as much as a reasonable fan should expect in that context. But, as we start discussing what needs to be addressed this offseason and how the Broncos continue to build this room up, the fact that Jackson looked every bit like an emergency reserve call-up is an essential part of the ‘upgrade’ discussion.
Jackson earned his stripes as a regular-season NFL player and gobbled up the snaps Vance Joseph needed him to, but he did almost nothing to prevent them from replacing him this offseason with an upgrade that also presents a higher long-term ceiling. It’s also fair to wonder how much his playing-time wins were about the roster circumstance rather than him shining in the summer and impressing the staff.
Grade: C+
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
As the roster currently sits, he’s in line to fill that same role in 2025 that he did in 2024, but it’s hard to imagine the Broncos leaving April without a meaningful addition to the defensive front.
Two defensive series, two sacks for Jordan Jackson. 💪
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) August 25, 2024
📺: CBS | #AZvsDEN pic.twitter.com/1utlnLplip
Now, that might come in the form of a sixth-round run-stuffer, but even then, that player will have a more defined role with the team, and the team will have more invested in them than they do Jackson, which undeniably impacts these NFL roster decisions.
With Jackson barely clinging onto the gameday roster as the fifth defensive lineman, it will only take a single addition for him to tumble back down to the practice squad.
All the Broncos have to address this offseason with Jackson is whether or not he’s talented enough to stave off that draft investment.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
They should make that draft investment. It’s not fun to say that about a likable underdog story like Jackson, but it’s also just reality that defensive linemen who don’t make it off the practice squad until their third season seldom develop into regular contributors.
When you take on $50 million in dead cap, you’re going to have some roster holes that need to be patched up with cheap placeholders. Jackson was one of those cases, and the health of Denver’s roster means they no longer require that band-aid.
Eyioma Uwazurike
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
Eyioma Uwazurike tallied just 11 tackles over the mere 84 snaps he played, and yet he still had a pretty great 2024, considering the expectations Broncos Country had for him 12 months ago.
After missing all of the 2023 season with a gambling suspension, and considering he was a prospect targeted by the Nathaniel Hackett regime, the expectation was he would be cut well before the Broncos set their final roster and potentially even fall out of the league.
While he didn’t make the team’s final roster, he hung around on the practice squad and wound up appearing in four games as the sixth man in the Broncos’ defensive line rotation. He’s also the only defensive lineman on the roster weighing at least 310 pounds, and the team isn’t in a position to get smaller up front.
He will have to take another step in his development to continue to hang around, but he’s still set himself well to at least have an opportunity to stay in Denver.
Grade: B
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
Was Uwazurike just filling in out of necessity, or does he have a real future with the team?
It’s easy to forget now, considering how limited his contributions have been, but the Broncos drafted him early in the fourth round to be a future building block for their defensive front and could still have some hope of him developing into that piece.
His aforementioned size makes him a unique presence in the defensive line room, and him being part of the plans for the future could change how Denver looks to address the problem in the draft.
Powerful run defense rep from Eyioma Uwazurike. He uses his power to knock Alt into the puller, allowing Elliss and Jones to come through clean. pic.twitter.com/z3Op0s8iWT
— Frankie Abbott (@FrankiesFilm) December 25, 2024
Unfortunately, it seems far-fetched to project much of a future for Uwazurike in the Mile High City.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
While Uwazurike’s continued presence in Denver was a pleasant surprise in 2024, his role, from a snaps count perspective, was still smaller than that of journeyman linebacker Kwon Alexander.
Yes, the Broncos need more size in their front seven, but the answer isn’t simply pure height and weight. The mammoth defensive linemen that Payton, Paton & Co. bring in have to be high-end football players, on top of their impressive stature. Uwazurike has yet to check that box consistently.
Plus, another top priority this offseason has to be finding a defensive lineman who can help lessen Zach Allen’s workload, and Uwazurike hasn’t demonstrated the pass rush chops to contribute much there.
The Broncos could also save $1 million in cap space by moving on, which isn’t much, but is an additional motivator to look elsewhere, nonetheless.
Matt Henningsen
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
2024 was a worse year for Matt Henningsen than it was for any other member of the Denver Broncos’ defensive front.
After playing 422 snaps as a rookie and 406 in 2023, Henningsen didn’t get on the field for a single regular-season play in 2024. He was also waived ahead of the start of the regular season and moved to the team’s practice squad, which means he’s currently on a vet-minimum contract with zero guaranteed dollars and that it will be even easier for Denver to part ways with him this year.
It’s also hard to see his path to making the final 53-man roster, as the players who replaced him a season ago haven’t gone anywhere and there have been no other departures along the defensive front. Plus, with the team seemingly likely to add to the room via the draft, his road should only get tougher.
It’s as bad a spot as he could possibly be in while still remaining on an NFL roster.
Grade: D-
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
Can Henningsen reverse the nosedive?
If not, it seems pretty straightforward that his days in orange and blue are numbered.
That said, up until last season, his career was more promising than Uwazurike’s, and it’s not impossible to think he could outperform what Jackson brought to the table last year. Nonetheless, surpassing either player would require a serious bounce-back season from Henningsen.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
There’s no need to force Henningsen out the door, but it’s hard to envision his role on the 2025 Denver Broncos roster.
Even a player like Jordan Miller offers a size element that the team is in need of. Henningsen’s skillset and body type are more redundant and replaceable.
The Broncos should keep him on the roster until a better option for his roster spot on the defensive line presents himself, but that shouldn’t take long if the team opts for the wise avenue of selecting a defensive lineman at some point in this year’s NFL Draft.
Jordan Miller
How Did 2024 Go For Them?
Jordan Miller failed to appear in a single regular season game and only saw 49 snaps on defense during the preseason, but he’s still on the Denver Broncos roster nearly 12 months after joining the team as an undrafted free agent, and that’s an achievement worthy of applause.
That said, the limited snaps we did see of him weren’t overly impressive and he currently faces an uphill climb to remain on the roster in 2025, even if he’s off to a good start.
Grade: B
What Needs To Be Addressed This Offseason?
Could Jordan Miller help fill the Broncos’ need for more size up front?
With DJ Jones returning and the Broncos almost certainly adding another defensive lineman in the draft, the odds aren’t good for Miller to remain in Dove Valley. That said, he is currently one of the three Denver defensive linemen who weigh above 300 pounds, and the Broncos’ front is clearly in need of more size after getting physically dominated by teams like the Ravens and Bills this past season.
If Miller can be part of the solution there, it’s not hard to imagine him actually receiving regular season snaps. If not, he might not even be able to hang around on the practice squad.
What Should the Denver Broncos Do?
This year’s NFL Draft projects to have some really intriguing big-bodied run-stuffers in the latter rounds. The Broncos should make sure to draft one of them, rather than banking on Miller, but they should be open to the potential of Miller outperforming that late round pick or Eyioma Uwazurike, and earning a spot in the rotation as a result.
