For a few days, it appeared the Broncos would need to pluck a punter from a distant land after a heap of free-agent options popped up and quickly disappeared off the market.
On Tuesday, though, they quietly tabbed their man — a former understudy of new special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi.
The Broncos have signed 30-year-old Matt Haack on a one-year deal worth $1.26 million, multiple sources confirmed to The Denver Post on Tuesday. It’s a potential fit for Denver’s lingering hole at punter, after two-year incumbent Riley Dixon signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week.
9NEWS’ Mike Klis first reported the signing.
Haack began his career with the Miami Dolphins in 2017. He was coached by Rizzi, who served as the Dolphins’ special teams coordinator from 2011 to 2018. The punter averaged 44.7 yards per punt across four years in Miami, before heading to Buffalo and Indianapolis on one-year stints in 2021 and 2022. He hasn’t received consistent opportunity since his time with the Colts, despite solid work in 2024 with the New York Giants, averaging 47 yards across 21 punts.
Despite his familiarity with Rizzi, Haack’s never sat above league-average in yards-per-punt in any of his six years as a full-time starter. Denver still may look to bring competition into the room, through avenues like April’s NFL draft or undrafted free agency.
The move fills another box on the Broncos’ offseason checklist as Denver still has a surprising amount of wiggle room after the high-profile signings of tight end Evan Engram, safety Talanoa Hufanga and linebacker Dre Greenlaw. The Broncos deferred much of Hufanga’s guaranteed salary to 2026, according to details released Tuesday by OverTheCap.com, with the safety’s 2025 cap hit at just $3.4 million.
Denver entered free agency with over $40 million in cap space, as reported previously by The Post. After factoring in Hufanga and their other free-agent signings and re-ups with pieces like defensive lineman D.J. Jones, they’ll still have roughly between $10 million to $15 million in cap room, leaving an avenue to pursue possible free-agent depth at receiver, cornerback or the line of scrimmage.
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.