The Denver Broncos are in solid shape with their approximant salary cap number of $41 million, but depending on what their plan is for free agency, they could look to create more.

The NFL’s free agent legal tampering period starts on March 10, with signings able to become official on March 12 – marking the beginning of the new league year. Before we get there, teams are facing difficult decisions such as potentially using their franchise tag or releasing players for savings.

Matt Okada of NFL.com believes that the Broncos could decide to part ways with defensive end John Franklin-Myers in order to add some needed firepower to their offense.

“The Broncos are right in the middle of the league in cap space and have a promising quarterback (Bo Nix) on his rookie contract, so they’re not in bad shape financially,” Okada stated. “That said, if they want to make extra room — perhaps to acquire some weaponry for Nix — the first candidate for release would be John Franklin-Myers. Despite appearing in all 17 games (16 starts), Franklin-Myers played just 46 percent of defensive snaps. He still managed seven sacks and 18 QB hits on those snaps, which is a solid production rate, but he carries a $10 million cap hit in 2025 and can be released prior to June 1 for $7 million in savings. It’s not a necessary move by any means, but it’s a possible one, depending on Denver’s priorities.”

Franklin-Myers may have only played 46 percent of Denver’s defensive snaps last season, but you could argue that makes his production all the more impressive. His seven sacks and 40 combined tackles were the highest totals of his six-year NFL career.

Despite that, if you take away Franklin-Myers’ sack total in 2024, the Broncos still would have led the league in that department. It may be worth taking away from the defense a bit in order to improve the offense and help take Nix’s game to the next level. They could also use the savings to potentially improve the middle of their defense.