Broncos offseason stage 1: Retention and Extension

The Skipper Dude really knocks his segment out of the park this week and I can’t recommend it enough! It starts out with a jab at some bitter rivals and ends with his thoughts on how the Broncos should go about the “retention and extension” phase of the offseason.

More money, less problems, right?

Spotrac.com has Denver with a cap amount of $65 million. That already includes Von Miller’s team option money but there are other moves that might/should happen which will both add and subtract from this original number.

The next step, according to the Skipper Dude is cutting Joe Flacco and the oft-injured Ron Leary. Joe Flacco is set to earn $23 mil against the 2020 cap and the Broncos would eat $13 million if they let him walk. The almost inevitable move will leave them with a +$10 mil and thus $75 million after one move.

Ron Leary getting kicked to the curb with a contract of $9.3 million and a cap hit of $800 thousand. This increases the 2020 cap to $83.5 million after two fairly obvious moves that the team is likely to make.

The next move is debatable but since Todd Davis is getting older and isn’t great at covering a TE in coverage, we both think it’s possible that he is also sent packing. He’s owed $6 mil and the team would be hit with $1 million in dead money. This brings the 2020 cap to $88.5 million - assuming all of these moves happen.

Next up is deciding who to retain and extend. 99.9% of Broncos fans want Justin Simmons to be signed to a long-term contract (the .1% likely work for a sports radio station). Since Eddie Jackson was just signed to a record deal of $14.6 million per year, it’s not a reach to say that the studly Simmons gets $15 million each year in 2020 and beyond. This signing would bring the cap money down to $73.5 million.

There are plenty of other unrestricted free agents on the team but Chris Harris Jr, Derek Wolfe, Shelby Harris and Connor McGovern are the big ones. The Skipper Dude and I both believe that the two Harris’ are sadly going to walk and that leaves the team with Wolfe and McGovern.

Wolfe is a fan-favorite and his unfortunate injury is likely to cost him some money no matter who he signs with. He really seems like a guy who might take a team-friendly contract this offseason and the Skipper has him taking a two-year deal worth $6 million each season. Maybe it’s a bit low, but we will run with it and this puts the cap at $67.5 mil.

McGovern has become a surprisingly valuable asset since it’s so hard to find talent at the inside-offensive line positions. He will be coveted by many teams - including the Broncos - and will thus almost surely get a nice bit of cash. We have him getting four years and $36 mil, so around $9 million per season. Our cap in 2020 is now at $58.5 million.

Assuming $11.5 million for rookie contracts, the Broncos are left with $47 million in free money to spend on the top unrestricted free agents from around the NFL.

In our dream world this would be two guys who we talk about in the podcast that the Broncos bring in - plus a few smaller signees. They then likely draft BPA at #15 which is probably either OL, WR, CB or DT.

In short, this is going to be a really fun off-season to keep an eye on and since the Broncos don’t need to find a QB, they really could be just a few big moves away from truly competing in 2020.

Let’s see if Elway can work some magic like he did in 2013.