Can the Broncos overcome the dead cap and have a promising season?

A funny thing happened during the NFC Wildcard weekend in mid-January.

Well, funny, except that the Dallas Cowboys were eliminated early in the playoffs. Again.

The team that beat Mike McCarthy's group on the road and did so effortlessly: Green Bay.

Tampa Bay swept Philadelphia 32-9. The Los Angeles Rams lost to Detroit by one point in the Jared Goff vs. Matthew Stafford Bowl.

So what's funny? The Bucs, Rams, Packers and Eagles – two of three winners and four of seven NFC playoff teams overall – were among the five teams in the NFL with the most “dead money” in the 2023 season.

Friendly reminder: Dead money is the salary cap space on a team's books for players who aren't actually on the team. They were released or traded, but the structure of their contracts leaves money left for the team to account for.

The general opinion, of course, is that less dead money is better.

In 2023, several teams defied convention.

Who will be the leader in this category when the 2024 regular season begins? You guessed it: the Denver Broncos.

So can they follow in those teams' footsteps and win despite carrying over $67 million in unused cap space before they've even trimmed the roster from 90 to 53 for training camp?

There is good news and bad news on this front.

The good news: The four teams that made it to the playoffs had very different squads and were able to overcome their dead cap in different ways.

The bad: It's not that common to be leading the league or close to it and still have a successful season.

One common factor: If you have a lot of dead cap space, it means you're likely to fill your roster with cheaper (translation: younger) players.

“You have to build it with young players. You can't really change that,” Michael Lombardi, a longtime NFL front office executive, told the Denver Post. “That's just the way it is. But most importantly, (the Broncos) have a really good coach, and he can coach the quarterback. That really helps keep everything in check. His ability to do that doesn't count against the salary cap. He's going to develop the quarterback, and he's smart and can find ways to win games. It's not always the most talented roster that wins. It's the team playing together.”

The Broncos, of course, are in this situation largely because they released quarterback Russell Wilson this spring. They had to budget for $85 million in salary cap space between 2024 and 2025, and opted for a plan that put $53 million on the books this year and the remaining $32 million in 2025.

“It was obviously a big blow, but we wanted to get it done this year,” general manager George Paton said. “We felt like we still had the flexibility to do some things and help the team. I think we did that. (Vice president of football administration) Rich Hurtado did a really good job. That was the plan.”

Paton mentioned the four teams that made the playoffs in 2023 and asked, “How did they do it?”

The answer: Quality quarterback play. Jordan Love's second-half rise in Green Bay. Baker Mayfield's secure one-year deal in Tampa, which does him proud. Matthew Stafford's sustained run in Los Angeles. And Jalen Hurts' second straight Pro Bowl year in Philadelphia.

“We hope to follow the same model,” Paton said.