INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Come the winter, the spears pointed outward. Any notion that the Broncos were scraping by, squeaking past, was met with a mouthful of bristles from Sean Payton. In November, while posited a question that Denver had escaped with a win in a 27-26 overtime victory over the Commanders, Payton argued: these Broncos did not “escape.”
“We won,” Payton repeated. “We won.”
Come the near-spring, the cold has thawed. The spears point inward. Yes, the Broncos won a lot in 2025, with a No. 1 seed in the AFC and a divisional title and an AFC championship-game appearance to show for it. But 2025 is gone, and Payton has turned so reflective that he’s turned his staff over and stripped himself of play-calling duties — and now entirely clear that Denver’s season was almost not good enough.
“From my lens,” Payton told reporters at the NFL Combine Tuesday, “we won a lot of games by one score or less, right? And I’m not naive to think those games couldn’t have swung.”
“Where’s the meat on the bone?” the head coach continued a few words later, launching into a complete review. “The meat on the bone exists with our takeaways. That has to improve. Our run-game consistency. Our meat on the bone, relative to a number of things that we won despite maybe, not being as good as others.
“And I think that’s the only way to look at it, relative to this team writing its own chapter, and getting us to where we want to go. Which is obviously, a game and a half further than where we went.”
This next chapter begins at the combine in Indianapolis, where the Broncos met with a few linebacker prospects Monday night and will attempt to address positional needs that Payton made quite clear Tuesday. The “musts” on the current roster, as the Broncos’ head coach said: running back and linebacker, where Denver is currently razor-thin depending on franchise and player decisions of several free agents. And the Broncos have to evaluate in April’s draft, Payton pointed, as if none of those players will return in 2026.
“You have to remove the magnets — so, I would say, when you do that, you look at the roster differently,” Payton said. “You look at tight end differently. So those are positions certainly that would stand out.”
First, inside ‘backer. This is a “pretty good linebacker class,” as general manager George Paton told reporters Tuesday, and Denver could have Day 1 and Day 2 options available like Georgia’s CJ Allen, Texas’s Anthony Hill Jr. or Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez. But ILB is also a tough position to step in at and play immediately, Paton added — and the general manager said he wants to re-sign both Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad.
“We’d love to have those guys back,” Paton said of Singleton and Strnad, who were key contributors in 2025 but now hit free agency. “We’d love to have them back, regardless of what’s in the draft. We see those guys as Broncos. If we let those guys leave, what are we doing?”
That’ll be a tough bargain, however, as Strnad has explicitly told The Post he doesn’t see himself back in Denver unless it’s in a starting ILB role in 2026. Both Singleton and Strnad could command around $5 million to $7 million annually on the open market, a league source told The Post Tuesday. The Broncos already will pay oft-injured ILB Dre Greenlaw $7.5 million in 2026, and Paton doesn’t exactly speak of Greenlaw like he’s a candidate to be cut.
“Dre is a tone-setter … when he played, he had an impact,” Paton said Tuesday. “When you bring in guys like Greenlaw and (Talanoa) Hufanga into a really good defense, it just took us to the next level.”
Denver will also officially have to answer whether rising second-year running back RJ Harvey can be a true three-down option in the backfield, as veteran J.K. Dobbins is set to hit unrestricted free agency and backups Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie are restricted free agents. Harvey is still the staff’s “pet cat,” Paton said, the term of endearment that the general manager used to describe the running back after the 2025 draft.
The 25-year-old Harvey, though, ran for just 3.7 yards per carry in 2025. And there’s plenty of free-agent options awaiting Denver, from the Lions’ David Montgomery to the Falcons’ Tyler Allgeier.
“I think the game slowed down for him as the season went along,” Paton said of Harvey. “I couldn’t be more happy about RJ.”
Payton also noted Denver will pay particular mind to its tight ends and offensive linemen, as 31-year-old Evan Engram is currently the only TE on the roster under contract. The Broncos, too, have long-term deals committed to two above-30 offensive tackles (Garett Bolles and Mike McGlinchey).
If there’s one area that the Broncos’ top brass doesn’t seem bullish on beefing up, though, it’s at wide receiver. Both Payton and Paton have made references throughout and beyond 2025 to their investment in the WR room, messaging that continued on Tuesday.
“We’ve drafted three of these guys – Troy (Franklin), Marvin (Mims), as well as Pat (Bryant) — so we’ll keep going,” Payton said.
Still, too, Paton echoed the same message that owner Greg Penner preached a month ago at an end-of-the-season press conference: “optimistically aggressive” with player acquisitions, as Penner said then.
“You can’t just go crazy just because you became three points from the Super Bowl,” Paton said. “We’ll be aggressive in that approach, but really measured, and try to make sound decisions.”
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