The Broncos spent the offseason keeping almost everybody from last year’s roster together, but John Franklin-Myers was the notable exception. After becoming a key part of Denver’s defense, he was the one player the team couldn’t really afford to hold onto, and he left in free agency to sign with the Tennessee Titans.
That departure has left a real question hanging over the Broncos: who fills the void? Denver did add to the mix by using its first pick in the 2026 draft on Tyler Onyedim out of Texas A&M in the third round, but the search for a true replacement has continued.
One answer may already be in the building. In a recent ESPN prediction piece looking for a breakout player on every NFL team, Ben Solak pointed to Eyioma Uwazurike as the Broncos’ candidate.
“Veteran defensive lineman John Franklin- Myers was the Broncos' lone significant departure from the loaded roster that was perhaps one QB injury away from a Super Bowl berth. Franklin-Myers is such a nifty player, with the ability to line up as both a big end and an undersized 3-technique without any apparent weakness. The Broncos have a deep room of options to replace his snaps in a piecemeal fashion but no one-to-one replacement.
Of the rotational players who impressed last season, the first one I'd be trying to get more snaps to is Uwazurike. He had a resurgent 2025 season after a 2023 season-long suspension for gambling threw a massive halt in his developmental arc.
More of a true defensive tackle than Franklin-Myers, Uwazurike has a mean bullrush and a hot, hot motor that helps him make cleanup plays in muddy pockets. He can do a lot of the dirty work that made Franklin-Myers such a valuable part of the Broncos' rotation”, wrote Solak.
Uwazurike entered the league as a fourth-round pick by Denver in 2022, and his path has been interrupted badly along the way. The gambling suspension wiped out his 2023 season and stalled what had looked like a promising start.
Even so, he flashed last year. In limited action, Uwazurike finished with 39 tackles and 3.5 sacks, and he played all 17 games for the first time in his career.
The Broncos probably won’t replace Franklin-Myers with just one player, but if Uwazurike can take another step with a bigger role, that would go a long way toward solving the problem.
In Other News...
Sean Payton Just Entered The Broncos Stadium Debate
Sean Payton stepped into the grass-versus-turf conversation around the Broncos future home, and he did it with the kind of practical lens you would expect from a coach who has spent years thinking about footing, wear and tear and how the game actually plays. He said there are real differences in football depending on the surface and even the footwear, and he also made clear that more stadiums seem likely to land on grass where they can.
The complication, of course, is that not every building makes that easy. Payton pointed to the logistical hurdles of putting grass into covered stadiums, which is where the debate gets less philosophical and more operational for Denver as it looks ahead to its new place in 2030. For the Broncos, the field itself is not just a football choice but a money question too, with maintenance costs part of the calculation as the stadium plans continue to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
ESPN Just Gave Broncos Fans Another Reason To Be Furious Over Garett Bolles
For Broncos fans, Garett Bolles has become one of the more frustrating names in the league because the rsum keeps getting better while the national respect never seems to fully catch up. ESPNs latest ranking of the top 10 NFL tackles for 2026 put the Denver left tackle at No. 10, a spot that lands just after a season in which he earned first-team All-Pro honors, started all 17 games and gave up only five sacks while posting a 94% pass block win rate.
The ranking also reopened an old argument about how much value voters place on Bolles beyond pass protection, with some still viewing him as limited enough to cap his ceiling in these kinds of lists. For a player who has been so steady and so important to Denvers offense, the debate is less about whether he belongs in the conversation and more about why it still feels like he has to keep proving it. [Read more 🡒]
Garrett Bolles Is Finally Getting National Respect But One Doubt Remains
Garrett Bolles has spent enough seasons in Denver that his name no longer comes attached to the old questions about whether he could become a dependable left tackle. Now, after an All-Pro season and another year of steady growth under Sean Payton, he is starting to get the kind of national recognition that usually follows sustained play, not just one good stretch. Jeremy Fowlers latest ESPN positional list put Bolles 10th among tackles, his first appearance on one of these rankings, which says plenty about how far his game has come.
Bolles has earned that respect with his pass protection, and there are people around the league who view him as one of the most consistent in that area. Still, the conversation around him is not finished, because the same evaluation that lifts him up also leaves room for debate about how complete his game really is. For the Broncos, that makes Bolles an easy player to appreciate and a harder one to fully settle on, even as his profile keeps rising. [Read more 🡒]