Broncos Bring Back ‘Critical’ Special Teams Ace for 2025

As any NFL head coach will happily tell you — teams can’t just be built around stars. Teams need heaps of critical role players to make them go. If you don’t have those types of players supporting your very best players, you’re probably cooked.

On the Denver Broncos, another critical player to the team’s success is back after special teams ace, safety and 4-year veteran Devon Key signed his exclusive rights tender, according to Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams.

“Key, 27, was one of five exclusive rights free agents the team tendered on March 4,” Williams wrote. “Tight end Lucas Krull, outside linebacker Dondrea Tillman, cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian and defensive lineman Jordan Jackson also will return on one-year deals … Last season, Key played all 17 games with two starts. He saw action on 251 defensive snaps and 251 on special teams, totaling 33 tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit.”

Key Set School Record at Western Kentucky

Key was a tackling machine at Western Kentucky, where he set the modern-era school record with 350 tackles and was a 3-time All-Conference USA selection from 2016 to 2020.

At Western Kentucky’s Pro Day, Key checked in at 5-foot-11 and 208 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.56 seconds but went undrafted in 2021. He spent time on the practice squads of the Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons before catching on with the Broncos in 2022.

Key spent 2 entire seasons on the practice squad for the Broncos before finally making the 53-man roster in 2024, when he played in all 17 games and made his first career starts.

Key comes from a football family. His father, Donte, played linebacker at the University of Kentucky in the early 1990s and his younger brother, wide receiver Dane Key, starred at Kentucky for the last 3 seasons but will play for Nebraska in 2025.

Key One of Several Key Exclusive Rights Players Coming Back

The Broncos brought back several key exclusive rights free agents for 2025 that were contributors in 2025 as Denver made the AFC playoffs for the first time since 2015 — although they were blown out by the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card Round.

One of those players was edge rusher Tillman, a 26-year-old rookie who had 5.0 sacks in just 12 games in 2024.

As an exclusive rights free agent, Tillman returns to the Broncos on a bargain bin, 1-year, $960,000 contract. That’s incredible value when you consider Chicago Bears edge rusher Montez Sweat had 5.5 sacks in 16 games while being paid $21 million — the same year Tillman made $741,666.

Tillman spent his first 3 seasons of professional football with the Birmingham Stallions in the USFL and UFL.

“(Tillman) had workouts with the Ravens and Falcons but didn’t get his NFL break until the Broncos signed him last June,” PFT’s Williams wrote on April 4. “Tillman did not make the active roster out of training camp but signed with the team’s practice squad. He ended up on the active roster and totaled 23 tackles, five tackles for loss and five sacks in 12 games in a rotational role.”

Tillman won 3 championships in 3 seasons for the Stallions — back-to-back USFL titles in 2022 and 2023 and a UFL title in 2024, when he had 33 tackles and 4.0 sacks.