Running back J.K. Dobbins is set to return to the Broncos offense after missing the final months of last season with a foot injury and that won’t be the only difference when the team’s offense returns to the field.
They’re set to have quarterback Bo Nix back from the ankle injury that kept him out of the AFC Championship Game and they just traded for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. The rest of the key players from last year’s unit are also set to return and Dobbins offered a prediction of big things ahead during an appearance on NFL Network.
“And then we’ve got another guy that just came in, Jaylen Waddle, you know what I’m saying?” Dobbins said. “Pick your poison because we’ve got Courtland Sutton, we’ve got the young Pat Bryant, we’ve got a great O-line, we’ve got everything. We’ve got an embarrassment of riches on this team of talent. I’m excited. I really am, because, call it what it is, I got hurt, I missed the last, what, seven games in the regular season. I’m fresh. I’m gonna be fresh and I’m gonna be pissed off because I’m tired of the unfortunate stuff. I know that I can do it. It’s gonna happen this year. It’s gonna be great. I ain’t gonna spill too much, I don’t want to spill too many beans, but it’s gonna be great.”
We can’t know how the AFC title game would have gone with Nix and Dobbins available for the Broncos, but we may get a chance to find out this time around and Dobbins likes the Broncos’ chances.
The well-traveled Zach Wilson will be traveling to the NFC for the first time.
Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football reports that the Saints will sign Wilson to a free-agent deal.
Wilson, the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, started 13 games as a rookie and nine in 2022. Supplanted by Aaron Rodgers in 2023, a Week 1 torn Achilles for Rodgers threw Wilson back into the fray; Wilson ultimately appeared in 12 games that year, with 11 starts.
In 2024, Wilson served as a backup to Bo Nix in Denver, after being traded by the Jets to the Broncos. Wilson didn’t play at all that year.
He signed a free-agent deal with the Dolphins in 2025. He appeared in four games with no starts. After Tua Tagovailoa was benched, rookie Quinn Ewers was elevated to the first string.
Wilson joins Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler on the depth chart. Shough became the clear starter in 2025, given his performances after he replaced Rattler as the team’s starting quarterback.
The Eagles are signing free agent wide receiver Elijah Moore to a one-year deal, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
Moore, who turns 26 this week, spent last season with the Bills and Broncos.
He played nine games with two starts in Buffalo, making nine catches for 112 yards, before the team released him Nov. 26. Moore joined the Broncos, who elevated him from the practice squad for the AFC Championship Game, where he caught one pass for 4 yards.
The Jets made him a second-round pick in 2021, and he spent two seasons in New York before two seasons with the Browns.
In his career, Moore has 209 receptions for 2,274 yards and nine touchdowns.
It’s been more than four years since Brian Flores filed his landmark race discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and various teams. The case remains stuck at square one.
The six teams that are the subject of claims made by Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton — the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, Texans, Cardinals, and Titans — continue to seek a stay of the proceedings, pending multiple different appeals. This week, the presiding judge declined to stay the litigation.
Currently, the Giants, Broncos, and Texans have a petition for appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court on the question of whether the claims made against them require mandatory arbitration. A ruling is expected within the next month or so. (The Supreme Court first has to accept the appeal before resolving the issue.)
The Dolphins, Cardinals, and Titans more recently had their efforts to force arbitration denied. That will inevitably be the subject of another petition for appeal to the Supreme Court, based on the broader conclusion that the NFL’s entire system of arbitration controlled by the NFL has been struck down.
Like most defendants to civil litigation, there’s value in slowing the process down as much as possible. Flores, Wilks, and Horton want to move the case along.
While, like all parties in civil cases, appeal rights can be exercised as to certain issues before the case has ended, there’s a point at which justice delayed becomes justice denied. It has been more than four years. At some point, it’s time to start addressing the merits of the case, and to stop spinning the wheels of the court system on the threshold question of where and how the case is going to be litigated.
As to the notion that the case would have moved faster if the plaintiffs had accepted the league’s arbitration procedures (even if the process is inherently rigged against them), consider this — the league’s designated arbitrator (according to the plaintiffs) did nothing with the claims for more than a year.
A defendant to a civil case can run, but it cannot hide. Unfortunately, the NFL and the six teams that have been sued have managed to run an ultramarathon in the effort to avoid having to answer the specific claims that Flores, Wilks, and Horton have made.
Common sense suggests that, if the NFL and the six teams had any real confidence in its arguments on the merits, they would eventually stand and fight instead.
Broncos offensive lineman Matt Peart remained with the team after agreeing to a pay cut.
Spotrac reports that Peart signed a one-year, $2 million restructured contract that includes $755,000 in guaranteed money. It cuts his salary by $1.5 million and frees up $1.58 million in cap space for the Broncos.
Peart was entering the second year of a two-year deal for $3.075 million base salary and a $425,000 roster bonus.
He is working his way back from a knee injury.
Peart tore his MCL on the third play of an October game against the Jets and played the rest of the game with the injury. It was his only start of the season as he replaced Ben Powers at left guard after Powers went on injured reserve with a biceps injury.
Peart is a valuable backup with 66 game appearances and 10 starts in his six seasons, the past two with the Broncos.
