{"id":860896,"date":"2026-04-08T12:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T12:47:14","slug":"nfl-exec-says-broncos-were-shocked-they-didnt-land-free-agent-running-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/860896\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL exec says Broncos were ‘shocked’ they didn’t land free agent running back"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Broncos<\/a> pursued running back Travis Etienne<\/a> during NFL free agency, interest that he confirmed<\/a> after opting to instead sign with the New Orleans Saints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several weeks later, an unnamed NFL executive told The Athletic that the Broncos thought they were going to be able to sign Etienne before the Saints<\/a> swooped in. \u201cThey were shocked,\u201d the exec told The Athletic’s Mike Sando<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Etienne received a four-year, $48 million<\/a> deal from New Orleans that averages $12 million per season with $24 million guaranteed and a $12 million signing bonus. After missing out on Etienne, Denver brought back J.K. Dobbins on a two-year, $16 million<\/a> contract that averages $8 million per year. Dobbins received a $4 million signing bonus, which is his guaranteed salary in 2025, but he has no guaranteed money in 2027.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the NFL’s annual meeting in Arizona last month, Broncos coach Sean Payton said Dobbins was a priority to re-sign “ahead of all others<\/a>.” Dobbins is now set to lead the team’s backfield again in 2026 with RJ Harvey rotating in behind him. Denver will also likely add another running back during the NFL draft later this month.<\/p>\n

Social: Follow\u00a0Broncos Wire<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a>!\u00a0Did you know:\u00a0These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: NFL rumors: Broncos were ‘shocked’ to not land free agent RB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos pursued running back Travis Etienne during NFL free agency, interest that he confirmed after opting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[375,258,7,896,55,6,1032,9154,4394,7150],"class_list":{"0":"post-860896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-denver-broncos","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-saints","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-rj-harvey","15":"tag-signing-bonus","16":"tag-the-athletic","17":"tag-travis-etienne"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116369165284218265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860896","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=860896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}