Over past wee week, Von Miller refused to sign a deal worth $114.5 million and Aqib Talib allegedly shot himself in the leg. The Denver Broncos defense has certainly had better weeks.
“That’s part of football, and you deal with it,” head coach Gary Kubiak said after Thursday’s minicamp practice. “You have to have confidence you know what you’re doing, keep pushing forward and don’t let things drag you down.”
While Kubiak and the team are trying to do just that, football fans are practically chomping at the bit for the chance to tell John Elway and Kubiak that they should cut ties with Talib and Miller.
Experiencing disappointment in an athletic hero is natural, but all of the noise about football being a business and that those two can be replaced has got to stop.
Businesses are not run by a field of equally talented peers. The CEO is immeasurably more valuable than the intern answering phones, and they are treated as such.
Football is a business. A very elite business where only the top one percent are allowed in. Ninety-nine percent of young athletes with dreams of sitting on the bench, let alone playing for a professional football team are denied.
Upon making it to the league, you have to prove you belong by showing up and performing every day. It doesn’t matter if you’re the No. 1 overall pick or an undrafted signee – you earn your jersey or you’re gone.
If you surpass the stage of simply surviving and excel at your position, you get be a starter, and if you are really good, you’ll go to the Pro Bowl and maybe get a raise.
Miller has started 72 games, Talib has started 93. Miller has been invited to the Pro Bowl four times in five years, Talib has been to three, including in both his years as a Bronco. In those two years he has intercepted 7 passes and made 97 tackles – 13 during last year’s Super Bowl run.
Miller earned himself a Super Bowl 50 MVP trophy, brought his career sack total to 60 – an average of 12 a year – and strip-sacked regular season MVP, Cam Newton in the first quarter of the Super Bowl.
Based on numbers alone, those guys are not replaceable. Add in the veteran leadership factor, their roles as motivational rocks and the camaraderie and chemistry they have developed with their teammates and the desperation to keep them in Denver makes sense.
“It’s definitely more boring, not having Von or Talib out there,” cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said Thursday.
Aside from their teammates’ opinions, remember that since Elway rejoined the team in 2011, the Broncos have not missed the playoffs and they are .500 on Super Bowl runs. The man has not made a managerial blunder, so if he agrees to offer Miller $50 million in guaranteed money, it’s because it’s in the team’s best interest.
Similarly, if Kubiak and Elway decide Talib’s defensive talent and energy are worth some negative press, they’re correct.
For now, the main concern is seeing both players back on the field. From there, the higher ups of the team have a lot of decisions to make, private from even Talib and Miller’s teammates.
The bottom line? In the unlikely event that either Talib or Miller are not wearing orange and blue come September, it sure isn’t because they are replaceable. Denver can’t cut ties with Talib or Miller and expect the same defensive production. Some voids just can’t be filled.
