The Denver Broncos have spent the last six months making their priorities unmistakable.
They traded for veteran wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, kept almost everyone from their 2025 roster, and then doubled down on that approach when they set their initial 53-man group. The message is plain: this team is built to chase the Super Bowl right now.
Denver’s final roster looks a lot like last year’s, and that’s no accident. Only nine players differ from last season’s initial roster. Three of those came from the practice squad, four are rookies, and only two are veteran additions from outside the building.
That kind of continuity says plenty about how much faith the Broncos have in the 14-win team that reached the AFC championship game last season. The front office clearly believes the roster needed only targeted help at spots like wide receiver and running back, not a full-scale overhaul.
The Broncos also showed how comfortable they are with their depth by waiving three of their seven 2026 draft picks. Safety Miles Scott and linebacker Red Murdock were brought back on the practice squad, another sign that Denver is content to lean on the players already in the program.
This is also a roster built for experience. The Broncos are the fourth-oldest team in the NFL, and they know it. They accept that reality because, in their view, championship runs are often decided by veterans who have already been through the grind.
That experience has been earned the hard way. Over the last two years, the Broncos have played 37 games counting the playoffs, and most of their younger players have picked up plenty of reps and scars along the way.
Some of the roster decisions made during cutdown weekend looked questionable on the surface, but even those were shaped by the same championship logic. Denver trusted that veterans like fullback Adam Prentice and long snapper Mitchell Fraboni would return to the practice squad, which effectively turns the 53-man roster into a 55-man setup.
The Broncos kept both because they matter to the bigger picture. Fraboni is a must-have specialist, and Prentice gives them a valuable piece on offense and special teams. If the goal is to win it all, those are the kinds of pieces you keep close.
There’s also the memory of how close this team already came. George Paton and Sean Payton built a roster that got within one game - four points - of the Super Bowl last season, and they did it even without Bo Nix because of an ankle injury. Before that, not many people expected Denver to go into Buffalo and beat the more playoff-tested Bills in the divisional round.
The Broncos also had to survive the AFC title game without starting running back J.K. Dobbins, while Pat Bryant and Troy Franklin were limited by injuries. Add in the absence of players like center Luke Wattenberg and safety Brandon Jones, and it’s easy to imagine how different that playoff run might have looked with everyone available.
That’s the vision Denver has been chasing all along, and it came painfully close to becoming real.
Now the Broncos are back in September of 2026 with Waddle in place, rookie running back Jonah Coleman added as backfield insurance, and Nix healthy again. They also have all five starting offensive linemen returning from last season.
For Denver, the equation is simple. This is a Super Bowl-or-bust year, and every move the front office has made points in that direction. With Nix moving closer to the end of his cost-controlled years, the Broncos may not get another shot like this with a roster constructed this way.
The goal has never changed. The Broncos want the last game in February, and they want a fourth Lombardi Trophy back in the Mile High City.
In Other News...
Broncos Bring Back A Familiar Name As Roster Churn Continues
Roster movement kept rolling in Denver as the Broncos filled out their practice squad with 17 players, a group that included a familiar face in fullback Adam Prentice. It is the kind of late-summer housekeeping that often goes unnoticed outside the building, but it matters for a team trying to keep depth in place while sorting through the final edges of the roster.
Prentices path back to Denver gives the move a little extra familiarity. He first joined the Broncos as an undrafted free agent, later spent time with the New Orleans Saints, and then returned to Denver, where he appeared in all 17 games in 2025. For a club still cycling through personnel, keeping a player who already knows the system and the environment can be useful as the season approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Broncos Just Put More Pressure On One Young Pass Rusher
The Broncos chose to keep seven defensive linemen on their 53-man roster, and that decision says plenty about how they view Saivion Jones. The 2025 third-round pick has not moved as quickly as some might have expected, but Denver still carried him through roster cuts, betting on the long-term upside that made him worth the investment in the first place.
Jones now joins a group that includes Eyioma Uwazurike, Tyler Onyedim and Jordan Jackson as the Broncos work to reshape the interior of the line after losing veteran John Franklin-Myers. He is likely to sit low on the depth chart for now, but the fact that he made the team gives Denver another chance to keep developing a young pass rusher it clearly does not want to give up on yet. [Read more 🡒]
Broncos Kept A Fan Favorite Rookie In The Mix At Key Spot
After trimming to their initial 53-man roster, the Broncos made one more quiet move to keep a young defender in the fold by signing rookie inside linebacker Red Murdock to the practice squad. The seventh-round pick did enough during the offseason and preseason to stay on the teams radar, even if he did not crack the active roster on cutdown day.
Murdock now gets to keep developing within the same system rather than starting over somewhere else, and Denver gets a chance to keep evaluating a player who flashed enough to remain part of the conversation. With the roster settled and a few rookies already making their way onto the team, the practice squad spot gives the Broncos another look at a player they clearly were not ready to let go completely. [Read more 🡒]