You don’t have to be an offensive genius like Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton to see the reason his team isn’t playing in Super Bowl LX on Sunday lies directly on the offensive side of the ball.
Part of that blame goes to bad decisions made before Payton was even with the Broncos — most notably a horrendous 5-year, $242.5 million contract extension signed by quarterback Russell Wilson before the 2022 season which ended up costing the Broncos $85 million in dead cap space over the last 2 seasons.
Part of that blame goes to Payton, who hasn’t been able to put together an elite offensive skill unit in 3 seasons and made the decision to release Wilson after one season together.
One of Payton’s other misfires was signing 2-time Pro Bowl tight end Evan Engram to a 2-year, $23 million free agent contract in March 2025 — a deal Pro Football Focus put on its list of the NFL’s “Worst Free Agent Signings” in last year’s cycle.
“Sean Payton clamored about wanting a ‘joker’ for his offense, which seemed to be Engram,” PFF’s Bradley Locker wrote. “However, Engram didn’t offer reliable contributions with a 57.6 PFF receiving grade and a 7.0% drop rate. Now, Denver will presumably go back to the well as it searches for a playmaking tight end.”
If the analytics-based critique doesn’t quite hit home, maybe this will: Engram had 50 receptions for just 461 yards and 1 touchdown during the regular season. He capped his year with 3 receptions for 26 yards and no touchdowns in 2 playoff games — a time when his team needed him the most and an elite performance could have almost justified his entire contract.
Broncos Could Look to Trade Engram
Spotrac’s Michael Ginnitti put Engram at the top of his list of possible offseason trade candidates for the Broncos.
“With $5M of 2026 salary fully guaranteed, the Broncos probably won’t outright release Engram this offseason, but it stands to reason they’ll try to offload this contract (1 year, $11.5M) in some capacity,” Ginnitti wrote. “The 31-year-old caught 50 passes, including 1 TD, in 2025.”
Gambled on Engram Not Being Past His Prime
Through the first 2 seasons of Denver quarterback Bo Nix‘s career, he’s yet to play with an elite wide receiver or tight end — thanks in large part to his team’s finances being handcuffed by the Wilson deal.
The Broncos had hoped the 31-year-old Engram still had a little gas left in the tank and could do something close to being the player he was when he made 2 Pro Bowls with 2 different teams — the New York Giants in 2020 and Jacksonville Jaguars in 2023.
We might want to look back now and wonder why the Broncos thought it was a good idea to sign a 30-year-old tight end to such a large contract.
It looks especially bad now that one of the first moves first-year Jaguars head coach Liam Coen made was to cut Engram — why he was available to the Broncos in the first place — and then went on to lead his team to the AFC South Division title.
The Jaguars turned to relatively unknown second round pick Brenton Strange at tight end. Strange outperformed Engram with 46 receptions for 540 yards and 3 touchdowns in just 12 games.
Broncos Called Out for NFL’s Worst Free Agent Signing