And then there was one.
The Broncos’ list of extension priorities was set heading into camp, as Sean Payton made clear at the start of August. No. 1: Courtland Sutton. No. 2: Zach Allen. No. 3: Nik Bonitto.
Consider that to-do list taken care of after Denver locked up top wideout Sutton for $92 million in late July, Allen re-upped for $102 million in early August, and Bonitto finished out the summer with Thursday’s $106 million extension.
Still, there are a few important names remaining on the organizational board of expiring contracts. Ask Denver’s coaching staff, and John Franklin-Myers is a “key figure” to the success of the Broncos’ defensive front, as defensive line coach Jamar Cain told The Denver Post on Thursday.
“John does the dirty work that nobody ever sees,” Cain said. “And to see him come back this year in fall camp, and embrace playing the run better than what he played it last year — and no ego, and want to be coached, and want to be coached hard and want to be told what you’re not doing right and having that open dialogue with him — it’s been amazing.”
As Week 1 dawns, though, Franklin-Myers is the odd man out from this run of extensions. The veteran defensive end isn’t expecting an extension anytime soon, either, and is looking ahead to free agency in 2026, a source told The Post.
Cain called Franklin-Myers a “very selfless person” — a reference to Franklin-Myers’ ability to elevate his teammates’ success. This was an all-encompassing statement. In terms of yearly average value on his deal, Franklin-Myers is now the lowest-paid member of Denver’s defensive front — set to be paid $7.5 million in 2025 — despite being its glue.
“Big bonus we were able to get John last year,” general manager George Paton said on a conference call last week. “Like a number of our players in the final year of their deals, we’d like to have them all back. John’s no different. We have a number of players, and it’s a puzzle, kind of like your roster management, like the 53-man.
“So we’re working through a lot of that now. We’re excited to have John Franklin, we’re excited to have (Luke) Wattenberg, and a lot of these guys in the last year of their deals.”
Those quotes don’t exactly sound like a guy about to push a $15-million-a-year offer across Franklin-Myers’ agent’s desk.
That’s likely the floor for any sort of Franklin-Myers deal, as Denver re-signed steady nose tackle and now-captain D.J. Jones to a three-year deal with an average value of $13 million in March. And the Broncos’ future financial picture may simply have become too complicated, with three big-money extensions on the books and a tight window before an extension for quarterback Bo Nix looms post-2026.
The full details of Bonitto’s extension (worth up to $120 million total in incentives) aren’t known. But NFL teams tend to back-load bigger extensions with high base salaries toward the end of contracts. Come 2028, for example, Allen and Sutton will take up over $65 million in cap space alone. And that isn’t even factoring in Bonitto or a future Nix deal. That doesn’t allow much room for more backloaded money for Franklin-Myers.
Even in the short term, the books are already tightening. Assuming Denver structures Bonitto’s deal similarly to Allen’s (who has a $16.5 million cap number in 2026), they currently have in the neighborhood of $30 million in cap room next year. They carried over $40 million into free agency this offseason. Again, not much wiggle room for another big-money deal.
Of course, cap maneuvering is always possible. Denver could restructure the contract of All-Pro guard Quinn Meinerz and save itself over $10 million in cap in 2026. Cutting another big-money linemate like Mike McGlinchey before June would save them over $8 million.
As Paton said, though, there are other mouths to feed on expiring deals besides Franklin-Myers. Wattenberg is coming off a solid year in pass protection as the Broncos’ starting center, and linebacker Alex Singleton and nickel Ja’Quan McMillian are key starters for Denver’s defense. The Broncos could always elect to re-up with backup defensive tackle Malcolm Roach on the cheap, too.
“You keep playing, you keep showing up, the money gon’ take care of itself,” Roach said in early August.
The money does not take care of itself, though, for NFL front offices. And the Broncos would have to move plenty around to even consider throwing Franklin-Myers his appropriate value.
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Originally Published: September 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM MDT