The legal tampering period for free agency is still six days away, and yet the Broncos’ best-laid offseason plans may have already been tampered with.
Sean Payton twice made a public reference to the running back position being a “must” for the Broncos at his NFL Combine press conference in Indianapolis last week. Two days into the week before free agency, though, two of the best veteran RB options who could’ve been on the board didn’t even make it to the market. On Monday, the Detroit Lions sent power back David Montgomery to the Texans. On Tuesday, the Jets placed a one-year franchise tag on star Breece Hall, a source confirmed to The Denver Post.
Both, perhaps, were longshots to ever wear orange and blue. But their ties to Denver weren’t utter smoke. Montgomery played for Broncos running backs coach Lou Ayeni while Ayeni was the running backs coach at Iowa State; Hall, meanwhile, would’ve had a strong interest in joining Denver, another source told The Post at the combine in Indianapolis.
With the top of the available running-back class already thinned before negotiations can even begin, then, the Broncos’ brass will find themselves weighing one key consideration heading into free agency: is there a better cost-appropriate option than simply turning back to veteran J.K. Dobbins?
“We’d like to get J.K. back,” Broncos general manager George Paton said last week, on an appearance on local Denver radio station KOA. “We’ll see how that goes. Obviously, there’s others in free agency, the draft, we’re still working through.”
Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) scores a touchdown past Los Angeles Rams linebacker Byron Young (0) during the first half of the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
How much for Kenneth Walker?
Certainly, there are others. Shortly after the Jets tagged Hall on Tuesday, a slew of outlets reported the Seahawks aren’t planning to use a franchise tag on Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker, teeing him up to become easily the hottest running-back name on the market after running for 313 yards in three postseason games. Walker has the power frame (5-foot-9, 211 pounds) and quick-cut burst on outside-the-tackles runs to fit like a glove in the Broncos’ run schemes. There are other alluring names, too, from former Jaguars RB Travis Etienne (1,399 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns in 2025) to former Panthers RB Rico Dowdle (1,076 rushing yards on 4.6 yards per carry).
But the price. Denver heads into free agency with roughly $28 million in available cap space, according to The Post’s calculations, and that number will get whittled down by its draft class in April and any decisions on its own free agents. The franchise tag in 2026 is worth $14 million, meaning the Seahawks clearly didn’t see Walker’s value that high; multiple agents told The Post on Tuesday they think Walker will land slightly below $14 million on the open market, with one agent estimating he could command roughly $12 to $14 million annually. That’d correspondingly inflate the rest of the market.
In George Paton’s five years as the Broncos’ general manager, Denver hasn’t paid any open-market running back more than $4 million in yearly salary. If the Broncos want to again pinch pennies and spend elsewhere, that’ll lead them straight back to Dobbins this time next week.
“My man, coach Sean Payton, I love him to death, he’s one of my favorite coaches ever,” Dobbins said last month, gushing over his time in Denver at an end-of-year presser. “Coach Lou Ayeni, too. It’s been a great process with everyone here. The O-line, everybody … it’s been a great time here in my short time here.
“I think I will be here. Hopefully I will. I’m a Bronco for life.”
Dobbins’ value is complex. He ranked tied for fifth in the NFL in rushing yards after 10 games in 2025 before suffering a Lisfranc injury. When healthy, he’s one of the best running backs in the league; the when is paramount, though, as the 27-year-old Dobbins simply can’t be counted on to play 17 games. Denver signed Dobbins to a one-year deal worth $2.7 million last June, and it’d be hard to see his value catapulting far beyond that in 2026, coming off an ultimate season-ending foot injury.
He carries value beyond his numbers, too, as a beloved locker-room presence and a mentor to rookie running back RJ Harvey. The Broncos still have considerable internal faith in Harvey, whose rookie year was a complete mixed bag of dynamism (12 touchdowns) and inefficiency (3.7 yards per carry).
Payton was asked at the combine if he believed Harvey could still be a three-down back. “We do,” he said. “I thought he had a really good year for a rookie, and everything that was thrown to him.”
If the Broncos see Harvey taking another leap in 2026, they could elect to punt on free agency altogether, re-sign Dobbins at a value rate, and pluck a running back on Day 2 or Day 3 of April’s draft. Either way, they’ll need another running back in the room that quarterback Bo Nix trusts in pass protection; they’ll almost certainly bring back reserve Tyler Badie on an exclusive-rights free-agent deal, and have been poking around draft options there.
“We really just talked about pass protection,” Washington running back Jonah Coleman told The Post at the combine, describing a formal meeting with Denver. “We talked about the run game, but it was more so my plays, because we run similar offenses.”
Two days after the Broncos’ season came to an end in the AFC championship game, Payton said improving the team’s run game was one of their “points of emphasis” this offseason. It’s quite possible, though, that Empower Field will see another year of the Dobbins-Harvey two-back tandem in 2026.
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The post No David Montgomery. No Breece Hall. Do Broncos turn back to J.K. Dobbins as NFL RB market thins? appeared first on Denver Post
