The Denver Broncos want to dominate on defense in 2026, and to do that, they are going to need to fill in their roster at safety. Starters Brandon Jones and Talanoa Hufanga are absolute ballers, but behind them are special teamers Devon Key and JL Skinner.<\/p>\n
Last season, PJ Locke stepped in late for an injured Brandon Jones and honestly showed that he\u2019s well able to be the guy that keeps things going if your starting safety is out. He\u2019s grown quite a bit in his time under Vance Joseph and seems to be a natural fit to be re-signed in free agency.<\/p>\n
Height: 5\u201910\u201d
Weight: 202 pounds
Age: 29
Experience: 6 NFL seasons
2025 stats: 3 passes defended, 16 tackles, 1 tackle for loss<\/p>\n
OverTheCap projects his salary to be in the $3M range.<\/p>\n
Why the Broncos should sign<\/p>\n
Locke is a veteran who understands this defense and exactly what he\u2019s supposed to do in it if he\u2019s needed as a backup safety. He looked comfortable, confident, and able to step late in the season, where the Broncos couldn\u2019t afford a liability in pass coverage with big game after big game being played.<\/p>\n
Why the Broncos shouldn\u2019t sign <\/p>\n
There\u2019s an opportunity to develop a replacement for Brandon Jones this season. Locke doesn\u2019t fit that direction, given that he\u2019s in a similar contract spot as Jones. The Broncos shouldn\u2019t sign Locke if that\u2019s the direction they want to take this team, especially if they really like one or more safeties in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
Locke is a player who, two years ago, I thought didn\u2019t have what it took to play at the NFL level. He absolutely changed my mind this season with how he played in big games for the Broncos. I\u2019d honestly love to have him back if he is comfortable being the backup safety for this defense.<\/p>\n
If the contract cost to sign him gets high at all, I don\u2019t think the Broncos should get too spendy. It just doesn\u2019t seem wise to pay 3 safeties a ton of money and sit one of them.<\/p>\n
Is Broncos Country ready to move on from PJ Locke? Do we think he\u2019s a milquetoast option at safety? Hit us up in the comments and let us know what you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos want to dominate on defense in 2026, and to do that, they are going to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,41075,2426,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-791586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denver-broncos-free-agency","12":"tag-denverbroncos","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116171393471141363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}