The contract will pay Lodish a base salary of $450,000 along with a $50,000 signing bonus.

Those are modest numbers, for sure, as are Lodish's career statistics. But the 10-year veteran has two Super Bowl rings and has played in six NFL championship games. Lodish, 32, appeared in Super Bowls XXV, XXVI, XXVII and XXVIII, all losses, with the Buffalo Bills. He was on the winning team when Denver captured Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII.

There are 10 players who have appeared in five Super Bowls. The lone member of that group still active is Indianapolis linebacker Cornelius Bennett.

Although an unrestricted free agent, Lodish declined to listen to offers from other teams. He had been told, said agent Jack Wirth, that Denver would make a decision about his future March 1.

"He probably would have just retired had they not wanted him back, but they love the guy," Wirth said. "Once they said, 'OK, let's do it,' the whole thing took maybe 10 minutes to finish."

Lodish entered the league as the Bills' 10th-round pick in the 1990 draft. He spent five seasons in Buffalo, then signed with the Broncos as an unrestricted free agent in 1995.

In 10 years, Lodish has played in 151 games, with just 31 starts. Only once, in 1996, when he started all 16 games, has he started more than six games in a season. But he is a steady roleplayer who gives maximum effort for his limited time on the field and the coaches know he is willing to do just about anything they ask of him.

For his career, Lodish has 139 tackles, 9½ sacks and four fumble recoveries.