Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - RISK vs. REWARD: Denver Broncos Top 2025 Pickups Show RISKS of Free Agency
Episode Date: January 30, 2026The Denver Broncos top free agent signings from 2025 showcased the risks and rewards of NFL Free Agency. How did Evan Engram, Dre Greenlaw, and Talanoa Hufanga impact the Broncos last season? How can ...Engram's role expand on offense, why was Hufanga the most impactful addition, and could the Broncos move on from Greenlaw after just one season? Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger recap the top Broncos 2025 NFL Free Agency signings. Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Everydayer Club If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to join -- https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/ Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty. Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at http://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. RobinhoodTrade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin.Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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The risks and rewards of signing free agents were fully on display for the Denver Broncos in 2025.
You are locked on Broncos. Your daily Denver Broncos podcast.
Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.
Welcome in Broncos country.
We are excited to talk about today the risks and rewards of being aggressive in free agency.
Recapping what we saw last year from tight end Evan Ingram, the promise of a Joker role.
Did he fill that role or was it a disappointment in year one?
Telenoa who Fonga bringing those all pro expectations to life.
And then Drey Greenlaw kind of showing us why everyone was maybe worried about that signing to a degree.
We're going to break it down all on today's episode of the show.
My name is Sarah Bedinger, co-hosts here at Lockdown Broncos and site expert at predominantly orange.com alongside as always,
Cody Rourke, who is the Broncos beat reporter from Mile High Sports.
today's episode of the show is brought to you by our friends at Band Dual.
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Cody, the free agency, you know, it's always interesting because everybody wants the team to be aggressive, right?
Everybody wants the team, go out, fill your needs, go out there and make the splash move.
And I say everybody, I mean, the majority of people, you know, there's some people out there who are like,
Don't ever sign free agents, only built through the draft.
But we saw the Broncos get aggressive in 2025.
And I think that that was appreciated by the fan base coming off of a
playoff win against the Buffalo or a playoff appearance, excuse me,
this year is a playoff win against the Buffalo bills.
But last year at that time, you just made the playoffs against Buffalo.
It felt like you had discovered something in Bo Nix.
So the biggest initial move that the Broncos made was to go out there and get Evan
Ingram to join this offense.
And then Evan is coming out.
He's posting the giff of Heath Ledger from the dark night, you know, showing off like
the recruitment process was all about the Joker.
He even took the number one, which for a tight end had never been done before.
It was all shaping up to be, all right, the Joker is here.
Sean Payton said this is our number one must have.
But it feels like there was a lot of unmet expectations.
I would say with Evan Ingram's role.
and for Evan himself.
Yeah, there was.
And Broncos country, excuse my voice.
I'm a little ill today.
But, Sarah, you're 100% right.
Like, the idea and the signing of Evan Ingram, it was so exciting to you and I.
Because remember initially before that season, before, obviously, he hit free agency.
Remember, we were talking about him as a potential NFL trade deadline guy.
Could the Broncos go and grab this guy from Jacksonville, so to speak?
But then he had the shoulder injury was out.
obviously, you know, he missed a lot of time.
But now for Evan, let's say maybe the positive signs that he's going into the offseason now fully healthy.
But you're right.
Like, you know, one thing when we talked to Evan at the end of the year press conference, locker room clean out, you know, he was asked a question.
And I'll say this, like Evan is very smart.
Evan is a very mature leader in that locker room.
He was asked about, you know, what changed or, you know, did anything change in hindsight, knowing how you were used?
Would you still sign here?
He said, yeah, I said, you know, obviously like every, you know, I believe I,
I came here for a reason.
And he said, you know, some of the stuff in terms of like, you know, I could be better.
He said, our tight end room.
He said, there's certain things that we can do better.
But mainly he kind of alluded to the fact that the usage and what had actually happened
in terms of how the Broncos used the tight end position, that was really out of his control.
And I think when we look at his numbers, 42% of, you know, the offensive snaps this season.
That's a career low.
Sarah, I think the lowest he's ever played in his career was 67.
And that was because of an injury.
right so this was completely this was completely different serious i mean i say something and all of a sudden my phone starts listening there we go my goodness no but evan like you know that to me is is just it's a surprise right and you know i think there are a lot of finger pointing about hey well no you know why can't evan catch you know catch poor passes it's it's utilization i you know it is that look i'd say it's a combination of those things the broncos have not used the tight-in position effectively when it comes to trying to establish a true pass catcher
and Ingram can be that.
Sarah, we've seen it in games.
So I think that's something that Sean Payton, hopefully Davis Webb, maybe, can figure out how to fix going into 2026.
He said at his end of season media scrum that he felt like his role this past season was out of his control.
He said, I felt like I always wanted to contribute more.
And I don't blame him for that, Cody.
I mean, he had 53 catches this past year, which was, you know, average 17th.
in the NFL among tight ends.
487 yards, though, was 26th among tight ends and just one touchdown,
which we saw the impact that he was able to make in that Philadelphia Eagles game.
I mean, that was the one time, I think, this season, other than maybe Washington commanders,
we saw plays here and there, but it was the Eagles and commanders games where I think
really felt like we saw that role for Ingram coming to fruition, like him making catches
at the catch point and going up and making a play.
We rarely saw Evan as a vertical threat in the passing game,
and we rarely saw Evan, I think, as a middle of the field threat in the passing game,
which is really unfortunate because I feel like he can make the biggest impact.
So I don't think Evans' year one with Denver is unmet expectations because of Evan.
I think it's because of the play caller Sean Payton.
And so that's on Sean for like, and Evan didn't say that and he wouldn't say it like that.
But what he did say was that he felt like his role was largely out of his control this past year,
which is a clear, hey, this is what the coaches asked me to do.
And then, you know, he decided, okay, I'll maximize what I can do.
And it almost is sad to put it this way.
But it kind of feels like an offensive version of Pat Sartan, where Pat's not getting the ball throwing his direction hardly ever.
but he's always ready when it is.
That's kind of, I think, the same mentality and mindset that Evan had to take this year
because those targets were so scarce and so infrequent and so inconsistent
that you just got to be ready anytime your number is called.
And that led to, I think, quite a few drops as well.
I don't even pin that on Evan because you're not getting consistent targets.
You don't know when the ball is coming your way all the time.
I feel like ultimately it just led to this whole, I guess, shenanigans talking all offseason about the Joker, the Joker, the Joker, driving everybody crazy.
And then all of a sudden we get to the season and you don't put feet to that.
And I can't stand that.
I can't stand all the talking about it and then not delivering on the field.
Yeah.
And here's the thing about Evan, too.
And this is where I'll applaud his veteran stature.
I think everybody could sense he was frustrated.
like in a sense by like just not being used.
But man, behind the scenes in the locker room,
he would never ever let that show like, hey, I'm mad.
Like I'm not getting targets.
Like Evan never showed that whatsoever.
So I would say how he approached and how he conducted himself as a veteran,
as a professional.
I think there's a lot to be said about that considering.
I mean, think about this.
Evan at this point, I mean, he's getting older.
You know, he wants to contribute.
He wants to play at a high level.
He can be a weapon.
He had a chip on his shoulder.
when the Jaguars decided to move on from him.
So, you know, for him, it's like, hey, I can help you.
Just use me.
But it really is going to be dependent upon how the Broncos, I'd say, view their scheme going
forward.
Sean Payton has said, he said, is any of the your conference too?
I want to be able to, you know, we need to be able to run the ball from under center from
from time to time.
He said, but I want to run out of, I want to play out of the gun.
I want to use the two back set.
I want to use multiple personnel.
It's like, all right, well, how are you going to get that to be effective then?
And if you're just bringing in 12 and 13 personnel and your tight ends are just block, block, block, block, but the run game is not going.
It really handcuffs you offensively.
I do think, I think Evan will have a much better season coming up in 2026.
And if Davis Webb somehow ends up, has the team's offensive coordinator.
And let's just say hypothetically, Davis does end up with plague calling responsibilities.
I do think we will see a concerted effort to get Evan Ingram featured more because, Sarah, think about it this way.
How many other quarterbacks out there?
Even in the game you and I grew up watching,
I mean, we grew up watching really great quarterbacks.
And they had good receivers, right?
But it was always the security blanket tight ends, right?
It was Trent Green had Tony Gonzalez.
Tom Brady had Rob Grancowski.
I mean, you just go on.
There's so many other big names out there.
John Elway had Shannon Sharp.
You need a tight end to take away, I think,
some of the pressure that you have at the quarterback position
because then when you're just limited to,
hey, Cortland Southern,
our number one guy is going to get double teamed.
Now we need these younger guys to step up,
but hey, we don't know if they're ready yet developmentally.
Well, guess what?
It helps to have a veteran tied in that could get open to make plays like Evan.
So I just felt like a wasted season for Evan.
I would say just from my perspective that his season was wasted by the Broncos,
and hopefully they could find a way to rectify that next year.
Yeah, I think to your point about Davis Webb as well, Cody,
I think there was even a time with the Giants that Davis might have thrown him a touchdown pass.
I can't remember for sure watching those highlights back,
but I think there maybe was a time.
So if anybody wants to get David or get Evan involved,
I'm sure it's Davis.
But there was one, I think, for sure,
hand in glove fit for the Denver Broncos
among their biggest free agent acquisitions.
Taleno who Fonga, I mean, he was a captain.
He was phenomenal, all pro level play from the Broncos' newest safety in 2025.
We're going to talk about the season that was for Tala,
who Fonga coming up on today's episode,
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There's always some risk involved with free agency, but if the Broncos hit a home run,
maybe even a grand slam with any of their signings this past year, safety, Talaunoa,
Hufanga was it.
I mean, he was a captain of the team.
He played at an all pro level.
Talanoa Hufanga was, I think, Cody, I have one gripe with Tala,
Hupanga and we'll get into that on today's episode of the show.
But I want to say very quickly thank you to every single one of you,
every dayers out there that makes Lockdown Broncos your first listen of the day,
every single day right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network,
the number one sports podcast network.
And if you haven't already done so,
Cody and I want to invite you to join the Every Dare All Access Club.
We're going to get a ton of bonus content, add free episodes of the show,
and plenty more as we approach the offseason.
And so check out the link in the show notes for more information on that.
If you haven't done so already, really great stuff coming for that, Broncos fans.
And Cody, Talano Hufanga, man, he was awesome in year one.
I think there was obviously questions about, man, is he going to stay healthy?
What's he going to be like coming off of two pretty bad injuries?
Is he going to be able to return to the form that we saw?
I think we saw why the 49ers were so sad to see him leap in his first year with the Denver Broncos.
he was one of the most consistently great players on that defense all year.
I mean, you talk about a tone setter for Denver defensively.
It's not like the defense needed a tone setter, right?
They got plenty of guys that could do that.
Talanoho Fonga was added to the defense and leveled it up just another level, right?
Which I think you and I think many in Broncos country were like, hey, this defense was pretty good.
What additions could they make in the off season?
You mentioned the Buffalo Bills wild card game in 2024.
It was like, okay, the Broncos, they looked at that game and said,
we need guys.
We need to add a couple of guys that can make a difference,
maybe against Josh Allen and those guys.
Well, Tala Noah Hufanga ended up being that guy.
And ironically enough,
the Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills in the NFL playoffs
in a game where Talo just brought the hit stick
on one of the tight ends across the middle of the field.
And it was like, hey, Denver's got this guy here.
But like you talk about a guy who plays up close to the line of scrimmage
against the run, TFL's, you know, making guys,
even if he missed the tackle, right, blitzing coming off the edge,
even if he missed a tackle, he'd force running backs right back into a group of defenders for a TFL.
And I just think his impact, how he picked up Vance Joseph's defense.
Because at first, yeah, I mean, it was tough.
I mean, it took several weeks into the regular season for him to really try to, you know, get his feet underneath him.
But, man, despite that, you make up for maybe not knowing everything about the defense with just high effort, high energy,
just knowing you're going to be where the football is.
That was Hufanga for the Broncos this season.
It's no surprise he won an all pro.
And it really kind of showcased how important both he and Brandon Jones certainly were together this season.
Obviously, Jones left with an injury.
PJ locked did a great job stepping up and filling in for him.
But who Fonga, I think, was like the missing piece that this Broncos defense truly needed.
I'd say a calm presence amidst the chaos, right?
That's just his personality here.
And the fact that he was voted as a team captain, Sarah, you know, with barely being with the team for what?
four or five months at that point,
that speaks volumes as to like the type of player that he is.
And inside the locker room,
great dude.
One of the greatest human beings I've been around.
I've enjoyed getting to know him.
Well,
I said I had one gripe about his year in Denver,
Cody.
And I think somebody's got to razz him about hitting the jugs machine.
Maybe Sean Peyton was talking about Talano,
Hufango,
when he's talking about putting your thumbs together when you catch.
No, I'm just joking.
But to be honest,
I mean,
he did have multiple opportunities.
I know that he said,
Yeah, he did.
Certainly that Eagles game once again comes to the forefront.
I felt like that was maybe his best chance,
but potentially a defensive touchdown in that game.
But certainly in the playoffs as well,
felt like he dropped an interception against the Patriots also.
So, I mean, that's the toughest part about this thing is I think,
and he was hardest on himself, right, when he was talking about,
hey, you didn't get picked for the Pro Bowl.
Do you think you should have been?
He's like, no, I needed to have more interceptions.
And so that's the only,
gripe that we have. But I will say looking at his stats from this past season, Cody, I mean,
a career high with 11 passes defensed. And both times that Tala Noah Hufanga in his career has
played 17 games in a season, he has been named to an all pro team. He was a second team,
all pro for the Broncos this year, first team all pro for the 49ers back in 2022. So when he's
able to play consistently, I think everybody in the NFL is able to feel the impact. And like you said,
He does such great work around the line of scrimmage.
The Broncos blitzed him a ton.
Obviously, he can make plays in coverage.
He's just, like I said, when the Broncos signed him, when he's at his best, it feels like
you've almost got 12 guys out there on that side of the ball because he just flies to the
ball so quickly and he closes space so quickly as well.
It just makes it feel unfair at times what he's able to do with the instincts that he plays
with and the physicality, the ball skills.
all of it comes together.
He is truly one of the best safeties in the NFL.
And when I talk to other guys, too,
I talk to guys like PJ Locke, Devin Key, you know,
they've been veterans kind of on this team.
They've been in the safety room for a handful of years.
And they just said, man, Hoff, you learned so much from him just because the way he
watches film, you know, he's got these little tips and tricks that, you know,
they say like even when it comes to like body recovery, you know, things like this,
we've picked up a few things from him.
He's been willing to share that with us.
I mean, that's the thing.
about the Broncos locker room for the most part, right?
You have young guys that come in or you, you know, if you're a young guy, you have a vet
that comes in.
Sometimes, like, players can have the sour mentality that, wow, like this guy's taking my
spot, but it was not like that, not like that at all in the Broncos safety room or
in the Broncos locker room in general.
You have veterans that are willing to show these younger guys who may have been drafted
or signed by the team.
Hey, we're going to show you, you know, tips of the trade here just so you can have an idea,
you know, to get an upper hand.
And like, it's refreshing to see because we know how harsh the business side of the NFL can be, right?
So when you have a locker room full of guys like that, I think that's another reason why the Broncos had success is because of the culture that they built.
And when you bring in guys like Talanoa who Fonga.
I mean, Sarah, he's kind of like the gold standard of, hey, you're bringing in a guy to be a, you know, a locker room guy for you, on field guy.
There's nobody better than Talanoa Hufonga, in my opinion, outside of maybe Pat Certan and some of the other guys like Zach Allen on defense.
Denver's got that all across the board defensively,
which is why I think that even when they've had moments this season
where they've struggled and they haven't necessarily been playing their best as a unit,
they still make plays when it matters because they know how to step up in those big moments.
And I think it's guys like Hufanga that bring that edge to that secondary room
that certainly they have needed.
I would say this year, you're right.
You made the mention of a home run, a grand slam.
I would say for Hufanga, he was the greatest reward of the Broncos offseason last year.
I would say gold star, gold star, maybe three.
Gold stars here. I'm sure Broncos country would agree.
Yeah, hopefully we'll see a lot more number nine jerseys roaming around at
training camp and at games this coming season because I feel like Broncos country's got another
jersey guy in Tallano, Hufanga, no question about it.
Maybe the free agent that the fan base was the most excited about when it was made was
Dre Greenlaw, the linebacker continuing that 49ers to the Broncos pipeline.
Unfortunately, a little bit of an up and down season.
and he had some interesting comments that he shared at his end of season media scrum.
We're going to talk about the Dre Greenlaw sign and what the Broncos should look forward to in 20206 with his role coming up on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
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The risk and reward of NFL free agency was not felt greater than with any pickup the
Broncos made other than Dre Greenlaw.
I mean, you definitely understood going into that move.
Hey, the Broncos are taking a big risk here on a guy who's had some injury history recently,
but you felt like the impact could be worth that risk.
The contract was indicative of that.
I think what we saw in his first year in Denver was certainly indicative that, man, you've got to take some calculated risk sometimes and it doesn't always work out right away.
And that's what we're going to talk about on today's show.
Once again, thank you so much, Broncos Country for making us your first listen of the day every single day.
We appreciate you so much for rocking with us, especially here in the offseason, Cody.
And I think it's a great time to sort of reset, talk about Dre Greenlaw's role in year one, which was definitely expected to be a lot bigger.
and more impactful than what we ended up seeing.
Now, he still made some place, still made some impact out there,
but it was a bit slow going for him.
Obviously, the injuries were a setback at the beginning of it all.
And then when he did get out on the field,
we heard some stuff about, you know,
the playbook being a little bit difficult for him to get into.
That was, you know, the reason Vance Joseph said that his snaps were limited
early on as opposed to being held back due to the injuries.
So a lot going on in Dre Greenlaw's first year with the 10.
team. Yeah, I mean, a roller coaster, right? I mean, he was one of the more polarizing topics of the off season and even early on during the season because really it was in April and workouts he suffered the quad injury.
There were rumor reports about it being season ending and then it's like, no, he's going to be good for training camp.
Well, then in training camp, he suffers a reaggravation and he's resting, recovering. And then it's like, hey, right before week one, he should be ready to go against the Tennessee Titans that week of the game on that Monday, they had a little labor.
I think it was a Labor Day walkthrough practice, suffers a quad injury again.
Now he's out.
And it's like, hey, he's going to play by week four when Cincinnati comes to town.
And then team ultimately goes, hey, we're putting you on injured reserve.
And, man, when he came back, it was, you saw the impact right away.
And I think the Houston Texans game, the goal line stand against Woody Marks and Nick Chubb.
I think were two great examples of, hey, this is why you signed a guy like Drean-law, right?
But it was the injuries.
It was, as you mentioned, not fully knowing the playbook.
that certainly did impact the Broncos defensively and impacted Dre.
I mean,
Dre did have an interception against the Washington commanders.
That came up with a really big play there to take them out of the red zone,
which could have made a huge difference in the overall outcome of that game.
But what I want to talk about with Dre is the fact that it's like,
all right, you mentioned risk versus reward at this point,
Sarah, you as a franchise here in Denver,
George Payton, Sean Payton have some tough decisions to make, right?
Because Alex Singleton is an unrestrictive free agent.
Justin Sternad is an unrestricted free agent.
Drey Greenlaw is still under contract with you,
but really, if you have an out,
if you say, you know what,
this was an investment that was risky and it's not paying off,
the Broncos have a potential out here with Drey Greenlaw this year,
where right now his cap hits around $10.3 million,
but he would be a $4.3 million dead cap here.
Now, that's not $33 million.
That's not $55 million.
That's something that the team can more than likely eat at that point.
or maybe it's a restructuring of Dre's deal to keep him here in Denver.
But in my opinion, I want your thoughts on this.
I feel like Dre, the Broncos cannot go into 2026 banking on Dre being the guy.
And that's nothing against Dre.
That's just saying, hey, availability and history, this is where we're at.
And I like Dre Greenlaw a lot.
But from an operating standpoint, the Broncos, they've had so many questions at
linebacker that you cannot go into 2026 with these questions still lingering.
You need viable solutions.
You do. And they're in a rock or in between a rock and a hard place, aren't they?
Because ultimately, Singleton and Sternad as well are free agents. And so you're looking at a situation where,
all right, Drew Sanders didn't do anything this past year. Singleton and Sternat are both free agents.
Sirnaud wants to be a starter. So what do we do with Dre Greenlaw? He has no guaranteed money left on his deal,
right? And that was part of the allure of that contract was, you know, minimal guaranteed money.
Obviously, you value the player with the average annual salary, but I think everybody was looking at that contract that he signed with the Broncos and thinking like, wow, you know, you got him on a three-year deal worth 31.5 million.
Like, that's pretty reasonable for somebody of his caliber.
Yeah.
So do you continue to see that through now that he's like he compared learning the playbook to learning Spanish, right?
He's now learned the playbook.
So do you see that through if Vance Joseph especially is coming back?
or do you say, you know what, that 10 million cap hit is too big for us.
We're going to go with Singleton and Sirnaud.
We're going to run it back with those guys because they played well when they were on the field together.
I do think that is a decision that they're going to have to make,
but do you still believe in that impact that Drake can make if he's fully healthy?
And how much do you bank on that?
I think he's in the most sticky situation of any of these guys,
the Broncos signed last year because of the nature of the deal that he signed,
which was effectively, you know, a one-year deal.
He got an 11-plus million in guaranteed money.
But like I said, he has no guaranteed salary left on his contract.
So that dead cap that the Broncos would be, you know, paying against the salary cap,
like you mentioned, Cody, that has nothing to do with cash.
They are already paying Dre Greenlaw, whereas in the case of Evan Ingram,
he already has had $5 million of his 2026 salary guaranteed.
That's why I think we can confidently talk about his role with the team this coming
season is because he's already been paid $5 million and the Broncos are going to want to get
something back from that investment. So I think that, I guess I don't know that he's already
been paid it, but he's guaranteed it. So the reality is with Dre Greenlaw that the Broncos do
have a big decision to make here because in eight games, I mean, he loaded up the stat sheet,
like you said, he had the interception, 43 tackles, two tackles for loss, two quarterback hits,
a couple of passes broken up. I mean, a forced fumble. He did what you expect.
him to do in a way.
But I don't think the impact was as substantial as we hoped for.
And maybe that's just because it was really his first year back from that injury.
Yeah.
And that's also another obstacle too.
And that's something that he was kind of working against you.
And then you come back from the Achilles and he suffer a quad injury.
And it's just like, man, it's that stuff that's really out of Drey's control,
which makes this conversation just so much more difficult to have, right?
Because, you know, fans can be brutal.
Fans can be like, get this guy off my team.
I don't like to look at it from that standpoint.
I think Drey's a great player,
but I think from an objective standpoint here,
I mean, Sarah, do you really risk losing a guy?
Sean Payton's talked about so much that, hey,
if we have guys that are good that can start in this league at our building,
we don't want to let them out the door.
So why would you let Justin Sternad leave?
In my opinion, Sarah, Justin Sternad was the best linebacker of the Broncos had last season
at the off ball position, and it wasn't close.
They're not even close.
Look, Alex Singleton led the team and tackles Talano who Fonga came in second,
but impact and actually doing the positional demands.
And I would say playing efficiently, Sternad was so valuable.
I mean, it was to the points there where Sternad goes down with an ankle injury or a foot injury.
And we're panicking.
We're like, what are the Broncos going to do here, a linebacker?
To me, if you had to choose between bringing Dre Greenlaw back or resigning and extending Justinad,
I would go with Sternad here in this situation, to be honest with you, over Dre.
and that's nothing against Dre.
That's just we know what we know.
We haven't been able to see the durability factor here for Dre as much of a good player he is when he's healthy.
You cannot take that risk at a position at you and I for how many years in a row now we've been saying this is the biggest question mark here.
The depth here is very, very concerning.
Really outside of that, like the Broncos depth that linebacker right now is concerning.
You can't rely on Drew Sanders like you mentioned.
Lavelle Bailey's a developing player.
Jordan Turner's a developing player.
Those guys aren't going to be starters for you.
like, come on here.
Like Denver, they might have an entirely revamped linebacker room in 2026.
To me, Justin Sernad's a guy you bring back.
And especially when you want that continuity on an elite defense.
I mean, certainly it's going to, the plot seconds, I'd say, for the Denver Broncos this offseason when it comes to the players that they're bringing back,
guys that they have to make contract decisions on, including big name guys like Dre Greenlaw,
going to be fascinating to see what they end up doing.
what the vision is.
And you know Broncos Country that Cody and I are going to have you covered every single
step of the way here at Lockdown.
Broncos where we got an episode for you every single day throughout the off season.
There is no off season for Locked on Broncos.
We've already done a bonus episode since the Broncos have gotten done playing.
So you know we got you covered no matter what it is.
And for even more bonus coverage,
make sure once again you check out the show notes for the link for the everyday or all
access club.
Broncos Country.
We appreciate you so much.
And we'll catch you on the next episode of the show.
I don't know,
