The Denver Broncos’ quest to build out their roster has not ended, but one of the moves they did not make has come back to light. According to a new report, the Broncos had designs on signing veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs this past offseason.
Diggs ultimately signed with the New England Patriots, who were playing the New York Jets on “Thursday Night Football” when the news dropped.
A lot of time has passed since then, but it paints a clear picture of the Broncos’ plans.
GettyStefon Diggs #8 of the New England Patriots celebrates a TD against the Carolina Panthers.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport joined the pregame show before the Patriots’ game and detailed what went into New England signing Diggs, including beating out the Broncos for the four-time Pro Bowler and 2020 First Team All-Pro’s services.
Diggs, the No. 146 overall pick of the 2015 draft who has earned over $140 million in his career, signed a three-year, $63.5 million contract with the Patriots.
However, fate may have brought Diggs to New England and Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
“Signing Stefon Diggs was the end of a decades-long quest for Mike Vrabel,” Rapoport reported on “TNF Tonight” on November 13. “Vrabel recruited Diggs out of high school, when he was an assistant at Ohio State. Didn’t get him, was mad about it. When Diggs became available this spring, his agent sent video to the Patriots, just three months after the ACL tear. He was running, cutting. Good sign. Ahead of schedule. It came down to the Broncos or Patriots. Five months from passing a physical, the Patriots signed up. A big-time leap of faith.”
Sentimentality and outcome aside, the Broncos had financial reasons to avoid making the kind of investment into Diggs that the Patriots did. It largely has to do with their financial outlook and how the Patriots structured Diggs’ deal.
Diggs entered Thursday’s contest with 50 receptions for 554 yards and 3 touchdowns, which would have ranked first, second, and third, respectively, on the Broncos.
He finished the contest, a 27-14 Patriots win, with a 9-105-0 line.
GettyStefon Diggs #8 of the New England Patriots looks on before facing the Buffalo Bills.
Diggs, 31, has an $8.7 million cap hit this season, which the Broncos – who Over The Cap says have $4.6 million in space – could have worked to make room for. However, his cap hit jumps to $26.5 million in 2026 and 2027.
Again, the Broncos could have squeezed those dollar amounts in with projections of $47.6 million in space in 2026 and $68.6 million in 2027.
However, they signed Courtland Sutton to a four-year, $92 million extension this past summer.
That is a lot of capital to invest into the wide receiver position, even with Bo Nix on a cost-controlled rookie-scale contract. Instead, the Broncos will pay a combined $38 million for the trio of Evan Engram at tight end and defensive players Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga.
Diggs has missed more than two games in a single season three times in his career, and just once (2024) since the 2016 season.
The Broncos have leaned on their young receivers, Marvin Mims, Pat Bryant, and Troy Franklin.
They were also linked to wide receivers before the trade deadline, which could underscore the veracity of Rapoport’s report.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have had many a pleasant surprise over their first 17 games. They’ve gotten a lot of life out of mid-level free agent signings like Justin Brazeau, Anthony Mantha and Parker Wotherspoon. Arturs Silovs has looked the part of an NHL goalie. Tristan Jarry and even Ryan Graves have started upon redemption journeys, no matter how modest or long-lasting they might be. Evgeni Malkin has seemingly turned back the hands of time. Erik Karlsson is playing like he has something to prove. Sidney Crosby is, well, you can’t be too surprised that he’s still the best player on the ice most nights but at 38 it’s still something to see.
The progression of Ben Kindel, however, is arguably their finest and most pleasant surprise of all so far. No one had him even close to the NHL radar in 2025-26 (though, hey, at least we were able to raise the possibility of the unexpected)
Those seven other forwards who fit in the category are Zach Benson, Cole Sillinger, Ryan O’Reilly, Patrice Bergeron, Dustin Brown, Justin Williams and Sykora. Of those, only the first two have had their rookie seasons in the last 15 years.
Not only is Kindel making it, he’s excelling. It’s early, small sample, blah blah but Kindel has stepped right in and looked the part of a player who can drive his own line and now has stepped up to the first line to play on the wing. Kindel’s two-way play was touted coming out of the WHL just as much as his ability to produce points and that has been the case thus far in his first 15 NHL games.
Of the others, here are some stat lines for their rookie years:
These players, of course, were far from finished products even though it is rare to even show enough to stick in the NHL from this age without being a top-10 draft pick. One commonality amongst these players seems to be a defensive conscious, Beregron won six Selke trophies in his career, O’Reilly has won the award once. Brown and Sykora picked up Selke votes in their careers and were known as reliable players off the puck, as was Williams. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Kindel joins them to at least find his name on Selke ballots in the future if he eventually grows into a penalty killing center as his career blossoms. That makes sense on the surface level, if a young player is going to make it right off the bat they have to instantly create some trust away from the puck and demonstrate a good compete and detail level to their game beyond their young age.
As the stats above show, there’s a lot more offensive upside for the players to find. Most of the rookies ended up in the 25-30ish point range as draft+1 NHLers and almost all of them eventually found their game grow into being 60+ players (including Benson, who got to 60 in his second season). That hasn’t always been the case — Sillinger has no more than 33 points over his four NHL seasons and may never reach the levels that just about everyone else did but the track record there is fairly strong and shows a clear path about a promising future is ahead for young Kindel.
Of course, one doesn’t need this article to realize all of that, the eye test is showing in spades the impressiveness in Kindel’s game. It was only a month ago when the Pens’ coaches had a plan to cycle Kindel out as a healthy scratch at times to keep him from getting overloaded. Plans can change, Kindel has played the last eight games in a row and more all the time (scoring five points and averaging 16:30 per game while playing more minutes each game in the last four games than he played in all of his first 11). The scratches have gone away because there hasn’t been a need lately to give him time off.
Kindel has been able to handle what the Pens have asked, whether that’s been centering his own line or now moving up to play wing with Crosby. For someone drafted outside of the top-10 and won’t turn 19 until after the regular season ends that could be the biggest and best surprise of them all this season in Pittsburgh.