The Broncos did not tender running back Jaleel McLaughlin as a restricted free agent, allowing him to hit the open market this week.
But McLaughlin is not headed elsewhere.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, McLaughlin has agreed to re-sign with Denver on a one-year deal.
McLaughlin, 25, joined the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He appeared in eight games for Denver in 2025, recording 187 yards rushing with a touchdown and four receptions for 27 yards.
In all, he’s appeared in 41 games with nine starts, recording 1,093 yards rushing with three TDs. He’s also caught 59 passes for 263 yards with four TDs.
With McLaughlin in tow, Denver will have all of its running backs from 2025 returning to the club in 2026 with J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey, and Tyler Badie.
Broncos Clips
Dre Greenlaw is headed back to the Bay.
After being released by the Broncos this week, Greenlaw has agreed to return to the 49ers on a one-year deal, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.
The deal is reportedly worth $7.5 million.
Greenlaw, 28, was a fifth-round pick in the 2019 draft. He played his first six seasons with the 49ers, becoming a critical part of the club’s defense. He suffered a torn Achilles during Super Bowl LVIII — which San Francisco eventually lost to Kansas City in overtime — before coming back to play two games late in the season for the club in 2024.
After signing with the Broncos as a free agent last year, he played eight games with seven starts in 2025. He finished the year with 43 total tackles, two tackles for loss, and two quarterback hits along with an interception, a forced fumble, and one sack.
Greenlaw has appeared in 72 career games with 63 starts, recording four interceptions, 16 passes defensed, 4.5 sacks, and 20 tackles for loss.
The Broncos are bringing back one of their receivers.
Denver announced on Thursday that the club has re-signed Lil’Jordan Humphrey to a one-year deal.
Humphrey, 27, appears to be a receiver head coach Sean Payton doesn’t know how to quit. After bringing Humphrey into the league with New Orleans as an undrafted free agent, Payton brought Humphrey to Denver in 2023 for a pair of seasons.
Though Humphrey signed a one-year deal with the Giants as a free agent in 2025, Denver signed Humphrey off of New York’s practice squad in November. He appeared in seven regular-season games for the Broncos, catching nine passes for 101 yards with a touchdown. Humphrey then had three catches for 38 yards with a TD in the postseason.
In his seven seasons, Humphrey has 75 career receptions for 926 yards with eight touchdowns.
The Broncos have announced Sean Payton’s full coaching staff for the 2026 season.
The most significant change comes at offensive coordinator. Davis Webb is moving up from quarterbacks coach and Payton is handing the offensive play-calling duties to him as well. The rest of the offensive staff includes offensive run game coordinator/assistant head coach Zach Strief, pass game coordinator John Morton, offensive line coach Chris Morgan, running backs coach Lou Ayeni, wide receivers coach Ronald Curry, tight ends coach Austin King, quarterbacks coach Logan Kilgore, and director of game management/assistant quarterbacks coach Evan Rothstein. Kyle Kempt, JD Johnson, and Willie Snead will all be quality control coaches.
Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph will oversee a group that includes senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt, pass game coordinator Robert Livingston, defensive line coach Jamar Cain, defensive backs coach Doug Belk, inside linebackers coach Jeff Schmedding, and outside linebackers coach Isaac Shewmaker. Brian Niedermeyer and Todd Davis are the quality control coaches on that side of the ball.
Special teams coordinator/assistant head coach Darren Rizzi, assistant special teams coach Marwan Maalouf, special teams quality control coach Zach Line, and assistant to the head coach Paul Kelly make up the rest of the staff.
The Broncos reached contract agreements with three of their free agents on Wednesday.
Mike Klis of 9News reports that tight end Lucas Krull, defensive lineman Matt Henningsen and fullback Adam Prentice will sign one-year deals to remain in Denver.
Krull, 27, started the Broncos’ first three games as an extra tight end last season. He was inactive for one game before breaking his foot in Week 5, ending his season.
In three seasons with the Broncos, Krull has 29 catches for 262 yards and a touchdown.
The Broncos are signing him back for $1.33 million, per Klis.
Prentice, 29, replaced Michael Burton as the team’s fullback after Burton’s season-ending hamstring injury during a joint practice with the Packers. Prentice played all 19 games for the Broncos last year.
Henningsen played in all 34 possible games in 2022-23 before spending 2024 on the practice squad. He tore an Achilles in a joint practice with the 49ers last summer and missed the season.
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the two-year contract signed by Broncos running back J.K. Dobbins. The best way to clear it up is to go to the deal itself.
Here’s the breakdown, per a source with knowledge of the terms:
1. Signing bonus: $4 million.
2. 2026 base salary: $4 million, fully guaranteed.
3. 2027 base salary: $7 million.
4. 2027 per-game active roster bonus: $1 million total ($58,823 per game).
The deal includes an annual $2 million incentive, if Dobbins gains 1,200 yards from scrimmage. That’s something he’s never done in his career, largely due to injury. Last year, he had 809 yards from scrimmage in 10 games. That pace projects to 1,375 yards.
It’s a two-year, $16 million deal. The first $8 million isn’t tied to per-game roster bonuses. It can be worth up to $20 million.
The Broncos have not released linebacker Dre Greenlaw. They instead will wait until the new league year so they can designate him as a post-June 1 cut, Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette reports.
The Broncos will save $8.19 million this year, rather than $6.023 million, and taking a $2.166 million dead cap hit instead of $4.33 million. They will have another $2.164 million in dead money for 2027.
Greenlaw signed a three-year contract last March and was scheduled to make $7.47 million this season.
He dealt with a quad injury early in the 2025 season and missed another game due to a suspension. He had 43 tackles, a sack, an interception and a forced fumble in eight regular-season appearances.
The Broncos re-signed linebackers Justin Strnad and Alex Singleton.
The Cowboys are adding a safety.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Dallas has agreed to a one-year deal with P.J. Locke.
Locke, 29, had been with the Broncos since 2019 after initially entering the league as an undrafted free agent with the Steelers. Locke spent most of his time on special teams through his first few seasons, but started eight games in 2023 and 15 games in 2024.
In 2025, Locke was again more of a special teams player, as he was on the field for 45 percent of the unit’s snaps in games played compared to just 17 percent of defensive snaps. He was at 96 percent of defensive snaps in games played during the 2024 season.
In all, Locke has appeared in 90 games with 26 starts, recording 11 passes defensed, five forced fumbles, and one interception.
The numbers are in for Broncos running back J.K. Dobbins. Given his injury history, they’re not too shabby.
Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, it’s a two-year, $20 million deal with $8 million in full guarantees. We’re told that the deal pays out a straight $8 million in the first year, with no per-game active roster bonus and $2 million in incentives.
In 2025, Dobbins’s first year with the Broncos, he rushed for 772 yards in 10 games. A foot injury suffered on a Thursday night against the Raiders ended his season.
It was the latest in a stream of injuries suffered by a player who plays one of the most physically demanding positions in football. When he’s healthy, however, he’s effective.
Dobbins has a career rushing average of 5.2 yards per carry. And at $10 million per year, he did better than plenty of other running backs who either re-signed with their current teams (like Javonte Williams) or who signed with a new team (like Kenneth Gainwell).
The Broncos are moving on from linebacker Dre Greenlaw, but they are keeping linebacker Alex Singleton.
According to multiple reports, Singleton has agreed to terms on a two-year, $15.5 million deal with $11 million guaranteed. He becomes the sixth of the team’s free agents to come to terms on a new deal.
He ranks 97th on PFT’s list of top-100 free agents.
Singleton, 32, has spent the past four seasons with the Broncos.
He tore his ACL in Week 3 of the 2024 season but returned in time to start the 2025 season opener. Then, one day after making nine tackles in a win over the Raiders on Nov. 6, Singleton underwent surgery for testicular cancer.
He missed only one game and made 135 tackles, four passes defensed and a sack in 16 games.
Singleton spent his first three seasons with the Eagles.
