The Broncos’ first week of free agency was more tumultuous than we expected, as they signed a couple of premium free agents, and re-signed almost all of their homegrown stars.

What does that flurry of movement mean for those already existing on the roster? Who stands to gain the most and who stands to lose the most?

Let’s take look.

Winners

Courtland Sutton

It might be puzzling to see Courtland Sutton as one of the week’s biggest winners because it’s hard to see how any of the moves general manager George Paton made affect him on the field.

While those moves aren’t likely to affect Sutton’s on-field production, they will certainly affect his off-field contract negotiations and therefore, his bank account.

For too long, the Broncos had made a bad habit out of allowing their players to walk and cash-in elsewhere, which was damaging to the overall culture of the locker room. If you’re Sutton or Bradley Chubb, you might be less motivated to give the Broncos your 110 percent if you think they’re just going to kick you to the curb when your contract expires.

Giving Justin Simmons and Shelby Harris big-money extensions, while retaining Von Miller above market-value proves to the young rising stars on Denver’s roster, that Paton will take care of them.

Bradley Chubb

Bradley Chubb is a big winner for multiple reasons. There are the aforementioned salary implications of what Paton just did — which also applies to Sutton — but more importantly, is that Chubb is set up to have a emerge as a superstar.

Chubb’s best season came alongside Miller, unsurprisingly, but that hasn’t been an option the past two seasons due to injuries. In 2021 Miller will be back, and even if he has lost a step, one would expect opposing offenses to still respect him as a threat more than they respected Malik Reed last year.

But wait, there’s more!

George Paton also managed to bring back Shelby Harris, giving the Broncos an elite pass-rushing front of Harris and Dre’Mont Jones on the interior, with Chubb and Miller outside. Few offensive lines, if any, will have the talent necessary to keep them at bay.

Denver’s 2016 safety class

This week Justin Simmons signed a four-year extension worth $61 million, which makes him the highest-paid safety in the history of the sport. Talk about a good week.

Meanwhile, his accomplice in the defensive backfield from the 2016 draft class, Will Parks, became much more likely to return to Denver following the release of Kareem Jackson.

Jackson’s release saved the team $10 million against the cap, and it would only take a small fraction of that to re-sign Parks to make the hole at safety a little less glaring.

George Paton

Talk about making a strong first impression.

In his first free agency as the general manager of the Denver Broncos, George Paton retained two faces of the franchise in Von Miller and Justin Simmons and surprisingly managed to bring back Shelby Harris as well.

That was just Paton getting started though, as he also turned the roster’s most glaring weakness — the cornerback position — into a strength by signing Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby.

Losers

Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman

With the release of Phillip Lindsay and the signing of Mike Boone happening in such a short time frame, a lot of Broncos fans (reasonably) assumed that Boone was replacing Lindsay. After a closer inspection, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Boone was the third running back and an ace on special teams while in Minnesota, and the small contract he signed seems to fit for a player in such a role. That spells trouble for Freeman, not Lindsay.

Freeman filled that role for the Broncos last year but was average at best. Boone is more explosive as a runner, receiver, and he’s better on special teams. That means if the Broncos draft a running back, expect Freeman to be looking for a job elsewhere.

While Boone might not have been signed to ‘replace’ Lindsay, his signing was undeniably the final nail in the coffin of Lindsay’s future with the team.

Lindsay is now off to Houston, which is a shame considering he was initially tied to ground-game juggernauts like Arizona or San Francisco. In Houston, he’ll try to turn a one-year deal into a large payday in 2022, but it will be hard to do so with how inept

Drafting a cornerback with the ninth pick

Bryce Callahan and Kyle Fuller are on one-year deals, and Ronald Darby has health concerns, so cornerback is still a need for the Broncos, but it’s also far less likely now that they spend a top 10 pick on a cornerback.

That would be a sizable investment into a player that wouldn’t see the field much this season.

Instead, it’s far more likely they hold off until the mid-rounds of this strong cornerback, and target a different position in the first.

Taking a cornerback off the board makes the chances of taking either a quarterback, a tackle, or a linebacker more likely. The quarterback situation is a problem — at least until Lock proves otherwise. As for tackle, you shouldn’t count on James playing 16 games, and it’s a premium position with a strong class in this year’s draft. Lastly, the Broncos have a talent deficiency at linebacker and both Josey Jewell and Alexander Johnson are set to be free agents next season.