Sean Payton on Monday morning predicted another free-agency move or two to come.
The Broncos landed a solid pass-catcher by Wednesday.
Denver is signing former Detroit wide receiver Josh Reynolds to a two-year deal worth up to $14 million, sources confirmed to The Denver Post.
Reynolds, 29, caught 40 passes for 608 yards and five touchdowns in 2023. Over seven career seasons, Reynolds has 220 catches for 2,933 yards and 19 touchdown catches.
At 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, Reynolds will provide another big target in Denver’s wide receiving corps. He’s also a reliable run blocker, which is an area the Broncos at times struggled in over the past couple of seasons.
The Broncos’ group now features Courtland Sutton, Reynolds, Tim Patrick and Marvin Mims Jr. at the top of the room.
Reynolds is naturally going to be seen as something of a replacement for Jerry Jeudy, who was traded earlier this month to Cleveland in return for fifth- and sixth-round draft picks in next month’s draft.
Even if Reynolds were to max out the $14 million on his deal — the guaranteed money and exact terms were not disclosed Wednesday — he will still come at a modest cost. Jeudy was set to play for the Broncos at $12.987 million guaranteed for 2024. After he arrived in Cleveland, he signed a three-year extension that is worth up to $58 million and comes with $41 million guaranteed.
Reynolds had the best year of his career in 2023 playing for the Lions. He came close to his career high in yardage (618 in 2020), matched his career high in touchdowns and put up 15.2 yards per catch, a career-best 32 first downs on the 40 catches and a career-high 9.5 yards per target.
Reynolds played in all 17 games and logged 71% of the Lions’ offensive snaps. The Broncos would have been able to get good intel on him, considering he played in Detroit for head coach Dan Campbell, a longtime assistant coach of Payton’s in New Orleans.
Outside of a five-game stretch Reynolds played for Tennessee in 2021, he’d spent his entire pro career catching passes from quarterback Jared Goff.
In Denver, it’s unclear who will be throwing him and the other receivers the ball at this point.
The Broncos haven’t taken big swings in free agency, but they’ve continued to add pieces they like at price points they’re comfortable with. Monday in Orlando at the NFL’s spring meetings, both Payton and general manager George Paton indicated the club would continue to work through the market.
“We’re going to bring in players that we feel like help what we’re trying to do as a team and as an organization,” Payton said Monday morning. “And we’re still — it’s a work in progress, actively, in free agency. There’s a player or two that George and I will talk about today during the meetings, relative to, ‘Where’s he at?’”
By then, Denver had already been involved with Reynolds, who also could have returned to Detroit.
Not long after, the deal got done.
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