Broncos ‘reached out’ to Dolphins about Jaylen Waddle

The Denver Broncos did not make any moves ahead of the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, but they did make calls.

The Broncos “reached out to” the Miami Dolphins and “monitored” Jaylen Waddle’s trade status, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, but no deal was struck. Schultz reported that Miami’s asking price was “simply too high.”

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler confirmed Schultz’s report, tweeting: “Broncos were among teams that explored a Jaylen Waddle trade. In the end, price was steep.”

KOA Radio’s Benjamin Allbright tweeted that the Dolphins wanted a first-round pick “and more” for Waddle, and teams weren’t willing to meet that asking price. Denver was “in on a few players,” according to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis, but “the prices were deemed too high.”

Waddle (5-10, 185 pounds) was originally picked by the Dolphins in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft out of Alabama. The 26-year-old receiver has hauled in 350 receptions for 4,715 yards and 24 touchdowns through four and a half years (71 games) in Miami.

This season, Waddle has totaled 41 receptions for 586 yards and four touchdowns through nine games. Courtland Sutton leads Denver receivers with 38 catches for 566 yards and four scores this year, followed by Troy Franklin (37/385/4) and Marvin Mims (22/234/1).

Because most of his 2025 salary has been paid in bonuses, Waddle’s remaining salary this season is $585,000, and the Broncos had enough to cover that with about $4.6 million in available salary cap space going into Tuesday. Next year, Waddle’s cap hit will jump north of $11.65 million, and Denver is projected to have about $49.5 million in 2026 cap space.

So the Broncos could have afforded Waddle’s salary, but it sounds like general manager George Paton was not willing to give up what the Dolphins wanted. Denver will now enter the second half of the season with a roster that’s leading the AFC West with a 7-2 record, tied for the best record in the NFL through nine games.

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