The Broncos’ road toward a Super Bowl 50 championship was something straight out of a fairy tale.
Now, they desperately need another happy ending.
This Von Miller drama has officially gone on nearly 4.5 months; it feels like it’s been 4.5 years.
When John Elway decided to franchise tag Miller on March 1, both sides said all the right things. But a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride, the last month in particular, has left Broncos fans feeling queasy.
This team, in the worst way, needs everything to work out before 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
That’s the well-documented deadline for the Broncos and Miller to hammer out a long-term deal before he’d have to play the 2016 season on the franchise tag, if he chose to play at all (Miller’s threatened to sit out).
While there’s been a myriad of issues throughout these negotiations, including the Broncos leaking contract details in an attempt to make Miller look greedy, the most concerning might be the fact Miller can’t stop talking. And now neither can his teammates.
We may have reached a crisis point.
Let’s start with Miller, who stood no more than five feet away from me at his youth football camp at Englewood high school a couple of weeks back and vowed he would no longer discuss the contract.
But, apparently, he can’t keep his mouth shut.
In an interview with ESPN over the weekend Miller was more than willing to talk about Elway and how he’s handled this process:
“Some of the tactics that they use to negotiate, they hurt … Some of that stuff just didn’t have to be done, especially them knowing the type of guy that I am, the type of teammate that I am.”
“But, you know they have championship tactics, I don’t agree with some of the stuff that they do, but obviously it works.”
Miller has a right to have his feelings hurt by the way things have been handled. But, A) He shouldn’t take it so personally (Elway is ruthless with everyone), and B) he should have kept his promise to stop talking. Because now two other key Broncos have felt the need to chime in – and no one sounds particularly happy.
Speaking at his own youth football camp Monday, Emmanuel Sanders, whose contract talks are now on hold because of the stall in Miller negotiations, didn’t hold anything back on his situation or Miller’s:
“They’re going to do everything they can do to get you for cheap and we’re going to do everything we can possibly do to get paid what we deserve to get paid. Some of the tactics are painful when they bring up certain things that really don’t matter but they try to save a buck on it.”
“This is an organization that you have given your heart and soul to and brought a Super Bowl championship. Von won the Super Bowl MVP and to hear those kind of things in the contract you’re like are you kidding?”
Sanders, too, has a right to be disgruntled; he’s vastly underpaid (making an average of $5 million annually) for the production he puts up. But it’s hard not to think if Miller’s deal was already done, that Sanders would have already gotten paid, and therefore wouldn’t be unhappy with either situation.
Quite simply for the sake of their employees’ mental psyche, the Broncos need to get this thing done. Right now there are some unhappy campers.
And that doesn’t just mean everyone on the team is upset with Elway; some guys sound ready to turn on Miller.
Derek Wolfe gave a radio interview on Tuesday morning with Sirius XM and handled a question about Miller very diplomatically at first, but then managed to throw in a jab at the end:
“Business is business, and that’s his business. And he has to do what he’s gotta do. Obviously, I took a different route and decided that this is where I want to be so I’m going to take a significant haircut to stay here, and that’s fine with me. But some people don’t feel that way.”
Oh boy.
It’s one thing for Wolfe to acknowledge he took a little less money than he could’ve gotten on the open market, it’s quite another for him to say “some people don’t feel that way,” implying Von isn’t a team guy.
If business is business, as Wolfe says, then he’s the king of the contradiction.
The bottom line is Miller doesn’t sound happy, Sanders doesn’t sound happy and now Wolfe doesn’t sound happy.
Those are three guys who were key parts of the Super Bowl 50 team, and all smiles as they rode through the parade on that crisp February day just five months ago.
Morale feels low around on the Broncos, but that can all change if Miller’s fingers guide a pen along the paper of a freshly signed deal sometime before Friday afternoon.
Last season was a fairy tale; this season could really use a happy ending right at the beginning.