Elam was special in two ways.

One, he was a long time Bronco and a link to greater days.

Two, his record (tied) 63 yard FG and his accuracy where marvels.

Beyond that I'm ok with Elam leaving.  Cutler and his young crew have many good years in front of them, and we need to build a young supporting cast to be around for years to come.  Elam deserves a good paycheck with another team, and Denver needs to make room for building.  Imagine Cutler hitting his Super Bowl stride about the time we have to experiment with new kickers.  No way!  Let's start doing the sifting right now.

Good luck to Jason, and thanks for the memories.  A good kicker, and a good guy too.

I really liked Mason Crosby coming out of Colorado last year and he didn't go until the 6th round of the draft.  I also liked punters Adam Podlesh and Daniel Sepulveda, though they were 4th round picks.  We've treated special teams as though they really are the Forgotten Third of the game and that's a real shame.

I will always appreciate Jason Elam and his contributions to the Broncos over the year.  That said, his best days are clearly behind him and I have a hard time getting choked up about losing a kicker on the downswing of his career.  I hope we address this new void efficiently, unlike how we've dealt with punters recently.  I'm sure moving to a dome will help Elam as he moves down from Mile High and I certainly wish him all the best in Atlanta.  It's a shame he'll be wearing a different uniform, but he'll always be a Bronco to me.

Not having a sure leg for the important FGs can cost us a game or two each and every season. It's not like $2.5 mil a year was such a huge contract... that's the money we gave Mr. Backup Receiver from Carolina. It's the type of dead cap we have from Gold, Walker, Warren, etc.

Just take a look around the NFL, we could do much worse than Elam. Atlanta is willing to give that money to Elam because they couldn't find anyone else to sign! They had 47 year old Morton Anderson last year, because there wasn't anyone better available.

There are guys with much stronger legs, but accuracy is hard to find. A Kicker who can perform in clutch situations is just too rare to let go.

move on, but that is the reality of life in the NFL.  We all just have to learn to respect the past contributions of players like Elam, but at the same time we have to let go and embrace the new kickers that will be nailing clutch kicks in the playoffs in about two years.

Just finished watching the fourth quarter of Denver's second Super Bowl, so am probably feeling more nostalgic than usual.  It was great to see Mobley, McCaffrey, Schlereth and all the others again.

I think the whole reason they didn't sign Elam (it basically would've taken just adding a 2nd year to the contract, money was similar), was because they do not want to use 3 roster spots on kickers. Paulescu doesn't kick off and seems to be the guy this year at punter and Elam can't kick off anymore either. That and the fact they're looking at Mare, who can boom kickoffs tells me they want more touchbacks without using 3 spots to get 'em.