Broncos sign first-round pick Jahdae Barron to rookie deal, source confirms

Luca Evans, The Denver Post on Jul 16, 2025

Published in Football

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DENVER — In 2022, when the concept of NIL was in its infant and amorphous stages, Jahdae Barron went to Texas assistant coach Brennan Marion and asked how he could become a better player. He wanted, naturally, to make some money.

He didn’t want a car; mom Techonia Davis had made that happen already. He didn’t want to boost his bank account. He told Marion, then Texas’ passing-game coordinator, that I gotta help my mom out.

“I just kinda told him, like, ‘Bro, you gotta just turn it up a level,'” Marion recalled. “‘Like, you gotta be different, like, if you want to take care of your mom, like, you gotta do some things and become different.’

He did all those things. I mean, he was just willing to do whatever it took to make sure his mom was okay.”

Three years later, a 23-year-journey for Barron has come full-circle, as the Broncos have officially signed their 2025 first-round pick to his rookie deal, a source confirmed to The Denver Post Tuesday night. He has always been goal-oriented, a practice taught to him by Techonia; his primary goal throughout his life in football has been to retire her, a single mother who worked multiple jobs to support him and his five siblings.

“He knows this is his golden ticket,” Barron’s longtime trainer Bernard Blake said, “to be able to show her how much she means to him.”

He’s officially put pen to paper, now, on his first NFL deal, after Denver took the Texas standout with the 20th pick in April’s NFL draft. It’s a standard four-year deal worth $18 million in total, with a $9.5 million signing bonus.

A hint of intrigue built as Barron remained unsigned as time ticked away before training camp, with rookies set to report Wednesday. It seemed highly unlikely, though — even as Barron was one of just two first-round picks left unsigned on Tuesday morning — that the Broncos would let him dangle. He’ll report for camp Wednesday as a major piece of coordinator Vance Joseph’s defense for the forseeable future, his versatility opening a number of different paths in Denver’s secondary.

“Great guy,” Broncos third-round pick Pat Bryant said of Barron during rookie minicamp. “If you watch him move, very smooth, great feet. And I can honestly see him in any position on the field.

So, you know what I’m saying, a guy like that with those aspects, those speed, I can see him thriving very well in the league.”

Denver’s now officially inked all of its 2025 draftees except running back RJ Harvey, who’s caught in the midst of a league-wide holding pattern between agents and organizations over guaranteed money for second-round picks.

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