On Monday, Denver Broncos players returned to UCHealth Training Center for the first phase of the team's offseason training program. At this time, players are limited to physical training, weightlifting, and meetings before on-field work begins in voluntary minicamp (April 25-27).
While players gathered for the first time in the new and improved Russell Wilson era, the Broncos announced that rush linebacker Malik Reed has signed his restricted free-agent tender on Monday. Reed is set to earn a base salary of approximately $2.433 million in 2022.
The Broncos signed the 6-foot-2, 235-pound Alabama native as a college free agent in 2019 after recording 22 sacks at Nevada. Since then, Reed has played 45 career games for the Broncos, logging 15 sacks, 74 solo tackles, and three forced fumbles. Reed led the team in sacks in 2020 when Von Miller was injured for the season and Bradley Chubb wasn't completely recovered from ACL surgery.
Last season, Reed started 13 of the 14 games he played in and recorded 43 tackles (24 solo), three tackles for a loss, five sacks, eight QB hits, two passes defended, and forced two fumbles — one of which he recovered.
On March 17, Broncos' GM George Paton and the team extended a right-of-first-refusal tender to the 25-year-old Reed, who’s heading into his fourth NFL season. Between then and now, the other 31 teams in the league were eligible to submit a free-agent offer to Reed with the deadline of April 22, of which, the Broncos had the prerogative to match.
The Reed signing comes as a win-win for both team and player as he will once more get first-team defensive reps opposite of Chubb as recently-signed pass rusher Randy Gregory is rehabbing from a shoulder injury. Reed has to put up stellar numbers and consistently produce if he wants to bag a stellar payday as an unrestricted free agent at age 27 when 2023 rolls around.
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