ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos reached a three-year contract agreement Monday with free-agent safety Talanoa Hufanga, sources told 9NEWS.

The deal, which is worth up to $45 million and includes $20 million in guarantees according to a source, won’t become official until the opening of the league year Wednesday. 

The deal won’t become official until the opening of the league year Wednesday. 

Hufanga, 25, was a fifth-round draft pick out of USC by the San Francisco 49ers in 2021. He was one of the NFL’s most pleasant surprises in his second season of 2022 when he had four interceptions, including a 52-yard pick six off the Rams’ Matthew Stafford, plus 97 tackles and 2.0 sacks.

However, it’s been a struggle for Hufanga since as he suffered a torn ACL in game 10 of the 2023 season and had a variety of injuries, mostly notably a torn wrist ligament injury that limited him to seven games in 2024. The good news is he returned to play in San Francisco’s final five games and made 30 tackles.

The thinking would be the Broncos would start Hufanga alongside Brandon Jones. The status of P.J. Locke, a safety starter the previous 1 1/2 seasons, would become in question. Locke has a non-guaranteed $4 million (per Spotrac) due in 2025.

Hufanga, from Corvallis, Ore., was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year during the COVID season of 2020.