Denver Broncos converted Jaylen Waddle’s option bonus into a signing bonus

Dec 21, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) reacts during the second quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Some significant happenings today with the Denver Broncos conducting a simple restructure on Jaylen Waddle's contract to keep his 2026 salary cap number reasonable.

Broncos daily recap

The big news today was salary cap related. So it turns out that salary cap hit was coming Denver's way after all and they implemented a simple restructure to clear up the cap hit by converting it into a signing bonus. Here are the relevant tweets on the move from today.

A simple restructure on Jaylen Waddle's contract converting $15.42 salary in 2026 to signing bonus. There is $1.215m salary for total 2026 payout of $17.241M, which was what he had from Miami deal.

- MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) March 24, 2026

RE Jaylen Waddle's contract: #Broncos' salary-to-signing bonus conversion was always the plan after trade.

Cap # was at $17.2M with full salary he was owed in '26, conversion brought his cap # down to 4.9M for 2026 (that's confirmed). Nothing sudden/out of ordinary there

- Luca Evans (@bylucaevans) March 24, 2026

Some possible clarifications on what the Broncos might have done to Jaylen Waddle's $15.416M option bonus:

The decision to prorate it was due last Friday. Denver might have declined the proration, making it base salary, but then done a conversion to signing bonus on their terms.

- Nick Korte (@nickkorte) March 24, 2026

Under the radar

The Kansas City Chiefs breaking the bank for a 37-year-old tight end is something I am perfectly fine with. Travis Kelce has destroyed the Broncos many times over his illustrious career, but I am not as worried about his threat in 2026 as I may have been in 2022.

#Chiefs Pro Bowl TE Travis Kelce has signed his contract, officially locking him in for 2026.

It's a 3-year, $54.735M deal that can be worth up to $57.735M ($18.245M average) done by agent Mike Simon (@mikevmgsports) of @milkhoneysport. Year 1 is $12M plus 3M in incentives. pic.twitter.com/2iYvstuMrC

- Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 23, 2026

The FEED happenings

Sticking with the salary cap theme of this daily recap, MileHighSalute found this ESPN piece on highest paid players in the NFL and how the Broncos don't have a single guy on the list. Nik Bonitto made it, but they put him in the wrong position. If they had put him in as an edge rusher, he would not have made the cut.

Post your own thoughts on MHR's Feed.

Broncos historyComparing bad to really bad.

The post-Manning era was pretty brutal. For us fans under the age of 50, we never lived through a worse time to be a fan of the Denver Broncos.

For a six-year span between 2017-2022, the Broncos earned an underwhelming 35-63 record. A whooping .357 win percentage. That was max pain if there ever was... or so my youngish life experience would have suggested. Here are a couple of other six-year spans in Broncos history to think about:

• 1960-1965: 22-59-3 (.262 win %)
• 1966-1971: 26-55-3 (.310 win %)

So as bad as that stretch was for us modern day Broncos fans, just remember to pour one out for the homies who stayed true to their fanhood from 1960-1975. They were true believers through and through.

For those of you who rooted for Denver back in those years, what were your fondest memories of those tough seasons?