The Denver Broncos may have one of the NFL’s best rosters, depending on who you ask, and there’s a real case that this group can chase a title this season. The front office has clearly built the team with care.
Still, not every spot on the depth chart inspires the same confidence. Tight end and inside linebacker have drawn plenty of criticism in recent years because the production simply hasn’t been good enough.
Denver didn’t make a major offseason splash at either position, though rookie tight end Dallen Bentley did make the team and Evan Engram could be headed for a bigger receiving role this year. That leaves inside linebacker as the more obvious concern, even if the Broncos may already have a player in house who can help change that conversation.
Justin Strnad might be the answer for Denver at inside linebacker.
He was drafted by the Broncos in 2020 and has been with the team long enough to carve out a useful role. Since 2021, he has missed only two games.
For much of that stretch, he was mostly a special teams piece and did not log a defensive snap in either 2022 or 2023. Then came a bigger role in 2024, when he played 59 percent of the defensive snaps.
That production has come in a part-time starting role, but it has still been meaningful. Since the start of 2024, Strnad has started 16 of 33 games and posted six passes defended, 7.5 sacks, 131 total tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and 12 quarterback hits.
The coverage numbers stand out too. According to Pro Football Reference, he has allowed a 79.6 passer rating in coverage since the start of 2024 and has not given up a touchdown.
So even without full-time starter usage, Strnad has shown he can get into the backfield and hold up when asked to cover. Now he’s set to start full-time for the first time in his career, which makes him a clear breakout candidate for Denver.
The Broncos’ inside linebacker room has been a frequent talking point this offseason, and much of the attention has centered on Alex Singleton and his multi-year deal to return. Denver didn’t do much else to upgrade the spot, but it did make re-signing Strnad a priority. The contract wasn’t a big-money one, but that doesn’t mean the payoff can’t be big.
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What makes the group interesting is not just who made it now, but who sits in front of them. Several veterans ahead of these rookies are on contracts that give Denver real flexibility down the line, and the way the first-year players develop could put some of those older names on borrowed time. The clearest payoff may not come until 2027 or beyond, but the path to starting jobs is already starting to open. [Read more 🡒]
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The question now is whether Denver treats Moss like a core piece before the market gets involved. ESPNs Seth Walder projects a deal in the neighborhood of $17 million per year, which would push the Broncos toward a decision on whether to pay for his upside now or risk letting the price climb later. Payton has pointed to the penalty issues as the main area to clean up, but the bigger picture is hard to miss: Moss has done enough to make his next contract one of the more important issues on Denvers radar. [Read more 🡒]