After locking up golden-legged kicker Brandon McManus to a four-year extension less just a few weeks ago, John Elway and the Broncos have come to an agreement on an extension with run-stuffing nose tackle Mike Purcell.
The finances of the three-year deal aren’t publicly available yet, but what we do, is that the deal will be tacked on to the end of the one-year, $3.26 million deal Purcell signed this past off-season.
It took a long time for Purcell to reach this point. Before he found a foothold with the Broncos, he bounced around the football world quite a bit. He was signed to the 49ers practice squad coming out of college and managed to appear in eight games, starting three, his rookie season in 2016. He was waived in May of 2017, but was quickly picked up and waived by the Rams, Bears, Panthers, and then the Patriots, who did it twice.
In November of 2017, he finally found a spot with the Chiefs and stayed there for nearly a year, when he was waived just before the 2018 season, with his NFL dreams seemingly coming to an end.
He earned a roster spot on the Salt Lake Stallions of the Alliance of American Football, but after the league collapsed, the Broncos signed him to their practice squad, where he would reside until exploding onto the scene in Week 5 of 2019 against the Chargers.
Since returning to the NFL with the Broncos, Purcell has been a one-man wrecking crew to opposing ground games. Before his inclusion in the lineup, the Vic Fangio Broncos were one of the worst run-defense unit in the league, but since his arrival they’ve allowed the sixth-fewest yards per carry. Last season, he ranked first in the league in run-stop percentage and in graded run defense per Pro Football Focus.
Purcell won’t offer the Broncos much as a pass-rusher, though he did record the first sack of his career in Week 2 against the Steelers, but he should almost singlehandedly keep their run defense above-average until at least 2023 now.
