The party is officially over. Von Miller may still be waltzing his way through a post-Super Bowl MVP media tour, but the dancing has stopped at Dove Valley.
On Monday, Denver bid farewell to one of the greatest to ever play the game. On Tuesday, the Broncos got down to the business of trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions. That meant some hard decisions for general manager John Elway when it came to how he would rebuild a roster that featured more than 20 players set to become free agents as of 2 p.m. MST on Wednesday.
The National Football League has long had its acronym appropriated to describe the league’s true nature; the “No Fun League” and “Not For Long” are among the most popular, referring to the league’s adjudication of celebrations and the average career length for players. With the league calendar about to turn over and the legal tampering window officially open, folks around Denver might be feeling like NFL stands for “No F***ing Loyalty.”
Two cornerstone players on the league’s best defense – players who were drafted together in 2012 – are reportedly headed out of town for bigger paychecks. The team, meanwhile, severed ties with three first-string players from the Super Bowl-winning roster.
Following the victory in Santa Clara on Feb. 7, we heard sound bite after sound bite from players and coaches talking about the closeness of the Broncos as a team – as family many even said. But come March 9, it’s every man for himself.
Malik Jackson could not be persuaded to stay in Denver despite a reported offer in the neighborhood of $11 million per year. The defensive end said during the season on Mile High Sports AM 1340 that he’d take a hometown discount to stay in Denver, but apparently not that much of discount after receiving a six-year, $90 million deal (with between $40 and 42 million guaranteed) to go to Jacksonville.
Danny Trevathan, drafted 51 spots behind Jackson in 2012, is reportedly headed to Chicago to team up with his former coach in Denver, John Fox. The price tag for the inside linebacker who finished second on the team in tackles and had two critical fumble recoveries in Super Bowl 50 is said to be be a cool $7 million a year over four years.
And although they were crucial parts of the league’s best defense – one that has the chance to be considered among the best ever if it can have similar success in 2016 – the allure of the big payday was simply too great. Making north of $3 million over four years on a rookie contract is nice, but seeing that number increase tenfold or more leaves loyalty standing at the altar. Because loyalty in the NFL is seldom returned.
Just look to the other side of the Broncos locker room, where two starters from the offense and a valuable special teams player are now out of work – casualties of the organization needing to clear salary cap space. The money saved on their salaries will give raises to their peers and pay for their replacements.
Louis Vasquez was the heart and soul the Denver Broncos offensive line over the past three seasons. When Mile High Sports Magazine chose to dedicate the cover of its 2015 Football Preview to the o-line, it was Vasquez whose permission we had to get to shoot the unit. It was the 2013 Pro Bowler who would decide which men on his unit would be in the shot. (He ultimately chose every one of them, even a few who were cut before training camp ended.) And it was the senior-most member of the line that played shepherd when it came time to do the shoot. It was a microcosm for how the unit would operate all year long. They were young, inexperienced and in need of a leader; Vasquez was just that, guiding the ragtag bunch all the way to a Super Bowl win in 2016. But the last man standing from the o-line that started the Super Bowl two years ago was the first one cut when salaries needed to be spared. Denver took $5.5 million off the books by releasing the only constant on their offensive line over the past three seasons.
Owen Daniels has not played a season in the NFL without Gary Kubiak as his coach. Daniels entered the league in 2006 as a rookie out of Wisconsin. Kubiak was a first-year head coach in Houston that same year, leaving Denver for the first time in a decade. Daniels would spend a decade running routes for Kubiak – eight in Houston, one in Baltimore, where Kubiak spent a year as an offensive coordinator after being fired in Houston, and one in Denver, where he’d catch the only two touchdowns in an AFC Championship Game win for Kubiak.
When asked by Robin Carlin for MHSM in July 2015, if he’d be in Denver were it not for Kubiak, Daniels said, “That’s tough … There’s that relationship and I am very loyal to coach Kubiak. It would have been a tougher decision for sure if he hadn’t have come to Denver.”
That loyalty only goes so far. In total, Daniels caught more than 475 passes for Gary Kubiak, including those two touchdowns in January 2016. Even that wasn’t enough to spare Daniels from the cold reality of the NFL, however, as Denver shaved $2.5 million off its salary cap number for 2016 (they’ll still pay him a guaranteed $2 million signing bonus) by cutting him Tuesday.
Most Broncos fans wouldn’t know Aaron Brewer if he bagged their groceries at the supermarket. While it’s unlikely that Denver’s four-year starting long snapper will be forced into that hackneyed occupation after being cut from the team, it’s true that Brewer’s face might be more recognizable as a grocery clerk. Such is the life of an NFL long snapper. And make no mistake, Brewer was one of the league’s best. In 2014, Pro Football Focus ranked him one of only six in the league considered “high quality.” In four seasons, from 2012-15, Brewer didn’t botch a single punt, field goal or extra point snap. He delivered the ball on-target without fail for hundreds of snaps. In 2015, he signed a four-year contract worth $4.05 million; he’ll earn less than $2 million of it, including a $555,000 guaranteed signing bonus that he’ll keep this year. Denver saved $430,000 off the cap for the 2016 season with his release. A small price to pay, some might say, for consistency like Brewer showed.
A lack of loyalty is nothing new in the NFL. Ask other Broncos who left for bigger paychecks in Jacksonville, Julius Thomas and Zane Beadles. Ask Peyton Manning, who just retired as a member of the Denver Broncos because the Indianapolis Colts, with whom he spent his first 14 years in the NFL and to whom he delivered the city’s first world championship, cut him for fear he hadn’t recovered from serious neck surgeries.
The party that started on Feb. 7 with a win in Super Bowl 50 lasted until March 7 with Peyton Manning’s retirement. Von Miller can dance with the stars all he wants – he’s got an exclusive franchise tag on him for now – but for his organization and many of his teammates, it’s every man for himself until OTAs.
