The Denver Broncos are in good shape financially, and the biggest win of the offseason will be Russell Wilson’s dead cap officially coming off the books. This allows Denver some flexibility in the offseason they have no had in years. GM George Paton clearly sees an avenue to be aggressive as well, as the Broncos are in a win-now window.
Another obvious win from the 2025 season is the massive step forward the team took – it’s clear that the Broncos are a Super Bowl-caliber team and are likely playing for one had Bo Nix not gotten hurt. However, this doesn’t mean that roster changes aren’t going to happen.
In fact, while Denver can be aggressive in bringing players in during the offseason, the front office may also consider some potential cap casualties as well. Let’s dive into three who make a lot of sense in 2026.
Two free agency signings from 2025 are dubbed as top cap casualties for the Broncos in 2026
From Alex Ballentine in Bleacher Report, here are the three players who could be cap casualties for the Denver Broncos in the 2026 NFL Offseason:
1. LB Dre Greenlaw – $6 million (Money Saved by Pre-June 1 Cut)
The Broncos are in a nice spot financially so they don’t have to get too ruthless to clear space. However, it’s worth revisiting the Dre Greenlaw signing. The Broncos inked him to a three-year, $31.5 million contract, but they’ve left themselves wiggle room to get out of it.
The signing was a bet that Greenlaw could put his injury issues behind him, but that wasn’t the case. The 28-year-old was in and out of the lineup this season with groin, ankle, hamstring and quad injuries. He ultimately wound up only playing 58 percent of the snaps in eight games.
2. OL Matt Peart – $3.2 million
There isn’t a ton of money to be saved by parting ways with Matt Peart. Then again, the Broncos don’t have a ton of ways to add to their cap space through cuts. Peart would be a logical target. He was briefly the team’s starting left guard, but he committed three penalties on just 64 snaps before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
It’s a brutal business, but that’s probably ground for the Broncos moving on and using the money to find more high-upside offensive line depth.
3. TE Evan Engram – $3.8 million
It should be noted that letting go of Evan Engram would only save $3.8 million while taking on a $10.3 million dead cap charge. Engram hasn’t been bad enough to warrant that kind money to not play. However, if the Broncos have another tight end target in mind, it would make sense to cut him and use some of that money to go after one.
Ultimately, Engram is scheduled to be the sixth-highest-paid tight end next season. He wasn’t quite the difference-maker he was expected to be, but he’s not a no-brainer to be cut.
Alright – let’s unpack these a bit.
Dre Greenlaw was a notable free agency signing by the Denver Broncos in the 2025 NFL Offseason. The idea here was that the Broncos would finally have some of that ‘it factor’ in the middle of the defense. Not only is Greenlaw an excellent player when healthy, but he’s a clear tone-setter. His impact on the San Francisco 49ers defense over the years was noticeable.
The issue, though, as unfortunately expected, was that Greenlaw just could not stay healthy – he played about half the possible snaps on defense, and while he’s a top-10 inside linebacker when healthy, that was not the case this year.
Denver did ink him to a lucrative three-year deal, but if you dig a bit deeper, the deal can indeed be ripped up after this year. If the Broncos don’t want to chance it with Dre Greenlaw again in 2026, the team could actually quite easily release him and again reset at the position.
Matt Peart’s situation is a bit easier to understand – he filled in quite poorly for the injured Ben Powers earlier in the regular season but then suffered a season-ending injury. He doesn’t appear to be solid depth, so Denver cutting him to save a few bucks feels inevitable. The Broncos could look at drafting a rookie or two along the offensive line as a potential depth option early in their careers.
Evan Engram might be the most complicated situation of them all. As Ballentine notes, cutting Engram before June 1st would force the Broncos to eat about $10 million in dead money, and the cap savings would be less than $4 million.
It gets a bit easier if they were to designate Engram as a post-June 1st cut. They would take on about $7.6 million in dead money and save $6.4 million. During the regular season, Engram caught 50 passes for just 461 yards and one touchdown. While that production was better than many previous years at the position for Denver, it wasn’t necessarily what many of us thought he would bring.
Considering Engram is still a ‘plus’ player at the position, the Broncos probably keep him and more aggressively look to bring in an in-line tight end – someone who can both block and catch. This would open up more chances for Engram in the passing game.
And, fortunately, Denver does have the money to pay for two tight ends if they really wanted to. All in all, Evan Engram is very likely on the roster in 2025. The Broncos are just now getting out of the Russell Wilson dead cap situation, so taking on dead money right after that might not be something the team is interested in doing.
