Broncos Sign Exclusive-Rights Safety to One-Year Deal

The Denver Broncos signed exclusive-rights free agent safety Devon Key to a one-year tender for the 2025 season, the NFL transaction wire reported Friday. Key originally received his tender on March 4.

Exclusive-rights free agents — different than unrestricted and restricted free agents — are players with two or fewer accrued seasons. The agreements are one-year contracts worth the league minimum for their credited years.

Undrafted in 2021, Key (6-0, 208) bounced around from Kansas City to Atlanta before settling in the Mile High City late the following year, joining Denver's practice squad. The Western Kentucky product appeared in all 17 games last season, registering 33 combined tackles and one quarterback hit across 252 snaps while moonlighting on defense and special teams.

“It takes a guy who’s engaged every day. He’s super smart," Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said of Key last August. "Even last year when you watched him practice, you could see he had it. It was just lack of time on task. He’s been consistent throughout camp with tackling, making calls. His coverage stuff has been excellent. I think safety is a spot, inside [line]backer is a spot where you can grow young guys from being practice squad guys to being starters moving forward. It’s a spot that takes intelligence and processing. He has those two things. It’s been fun to watch him play, and he’s been clean all preseason.”

Key officially re-joins a crowded Broncos safety room that includes free-agent prize Talanoa Hufanga, incumbent veteran Brandon Jones, backups PJ Locke, Delarrin Turner-Yell, JL Skinner, Keidron Smith, and core special-teamer Sam Franklin.

Hufanga and Jones are penciled in as starters for the 2025 campaign.

"He’s a great communicator, he’s super intelligent, his experience and there is a toughness about the way he plays," Broncos head coach Sean Payton said of Hufanga in March. "Sometimes you can be a second [defensive] responder [and] sometimes a first [defensive] responder, and he appears first a lot on screen. There’s a style to how he plays. Part of that style—because he’s so physical and so quick to support—he’s had a handful of injuries, but there’s a toughness to his game. You guys will like him. [There is] something about him when you meet him and you visit with him. So that was a big get. We felt excited about that.”

Of the five ERFAs tendered by Denver, only slot cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian and reserve defensive lineman Jordan Jackson have yet to formally put pen to paper.