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.
Broncos Clips
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.
Free agent defensive back Tycen Anderson is signing a one-year deal with the Broncos, James Rapien of SI.com reports.
Anderson, 26, has spent his career with the Bengals since they made him a fifth-round pick in 2022.
He missed his rookie season with a hamstring injury and saw the next season end prematurely with a knee injury in Week 8. But Anderson has played all 34 possible games the past two seasons.
Anderson is a core special teams player, with 64 career defensive snaps and 850 on special teams.
He has 42 career tackles.
Anderson is the first external free agent to agree to terms with the Broncos, who traded with the Dolphins for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle earlier this week.
They arrived in the NFL together, five years ago and three picks apart. Now, receiver Jaylen Waddle and cornerback Patrick Surtain II will join forces in Denver.
Like they always hoped to do.
“We talked about this earlier in our careers, we wanted to get together and play with each other,” Waddle told reporters after his trade to the Broncos became official on Wednesday. “Just seeing it happen, it’s special.”
Waddle, taken sixth overall by Miami in 2021 with Surtain picked at No. 9, said he’s kept in contact with Surtain during coach Sean Payton’s time with the Broncos. “He’s been keeping me in the loop without even knowing,” Waddle said regarding Surtain.
And while it appears Waddle arrives as the new top receiver in Denver’s offense, he downplayed that label.
“I don’t think there are No. 1s,” Waddle said. “Everyone is here to make plays and try to win. That’s ultimately the goal for the team and for the organization.”
Waddle did acknowledge, however, that his flexibility will make a difference.
"[O]ver my time, I got a chance to play all over the place,” Waddle said. “So I think that helps just knowing the offense inside and out, being able to put me in different spots. I think that’s always helpful, just being able to go around and play different positions.”
He’ll be wearing a different uniform for the first time in his five-year NFL career. And, in 2026, he’ll face the Dolphins once and former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel twice, since McDaniel is now the Chargers’ offensive coordinator.
Maxx Crosby’s trip to Baltimore last week offered a reminder that no NFL trade is done until both sides officially sign off on it and that has now happened for the swap involving wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.
The Broncos and Dolphins both announced that the trade has been completed on Wednesday. The announcement means the Broncos have signed off on Waddle’s physical and officially added him to their roster.
Miami will receive the 30th, 94th, and 130th picks in this year’s draft in exchange for Waddle and the 111th overall selection. Waddle is due $17.24 million this year and is under contract through 2028.
Waddle will join Courtland Sutton at the top of the Broncos’ wide receiver group and the hope in Denver is that he adds another gear to an offense that was good enough to help the Broncos get to the AFC Championship Game last season. The Dolphins will use the picks as part of a rebuild that has included parting ways with a number of veteran players over the last few weeks.
As Sean Payton enters his fourth year as head coach of the Broncos, he’ll have something he’s yet to have in Denver.
A top-flight, clear-cut, No. 1 receiver who can become the centerpiece of the passing game.
Payton last had that in Michael Thomas, who had a historic stretch from 2017 through 2019 as the player Payton routinely schemed open, and who would catch accurate passes thrown to him by Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees.
Thomas had 104 catches in 2017 and 125 in 2018. In 2019, he set a single-season record with 149 receptions.
Waddle had 104 catches as a rookie in 2021, the last year before Tyreek Hill showed up. Even with Hill as WR1, Waddle had a pair of 1,000-yard seasons.
Courtland Sutton has had a pair of 1,000-yard seasons in 2024 and 2025, under Payton. But the Broncos and Payton still needed a true No. 1 option in the passing game.
Which explains the decision to give up a first-round pick and a third-round pick for Waddle. (The Broncos and Dolphins also flipped fourth-round picks.)
Waddle’s contract is also very attractive. The Broncos will pay him only $17.24 million this year, well below the current top of the market.
Our guess, as explained during Wednesday’s PFT Live, is that the Broncos will sit tight on his deal for 2026, with a wink-nod that if he delivers this season they’ll adjust the deal in 2027, when he’ll be 28 and entering his seventh season.
For a team that won the top seed in 2025, they’re not standing pat. They’re addressing their weaknesses while retaining their strengths. At a time when plenty of other AFC contenders are in flux, the Broncos could be in position to finish the job in 2026.
In addition to draft compensation, the Dolphins have gained some salary cap relief by trading receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos.
Denver will absorb and pay all of Waddle’s contract for 2026 and beyond, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to PFT.
Waddle was set to count $11.6 million against the cap for Miami in 2026 with a $1.215 million base salary and $16.631 million in guarantees.
Waddle is under contract through 2028. He is owed $15.203 million guaranteed in 2027 but has no guaranteed money in 2028.
The Broncos can re-work Waddle’s deal or sign him to an extension to reduce his cap number and keep him with the team going forward.
Waddle, 27, caught 64 passes for 910 yards with six touchdowns for the Dolphins in 2025. He has 373 receptions for 4,039 yards with 26 TDs since Miami selected him at No. 6 overall in 2021.
