Of all the the free agents on John Elway‘s docket, Von Miller is clearly the No. 1 priority. And unlike Brock Osweiler or Malik Jackson, there’s no fear of him bolting Denver. If a long-term deal can’t get done, the Broncos will slap the franchise tag on him until it does.
Miller, though, is not too worried about contract negotiations.
“I put in all the work I can possibly do,” Miller said, via Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com. “If I was with any other organization, if I was with any other team, maybe I’d be worried about everything, but I’ve got John Elway. He’s played, he’s had experience with this whole process. I feel comfortable. Me and John’s relationship is great: He was there when I was going through stuff and he never wavered. I feel like we won’t waver now either.
“It will be a great experience, and it will be peaceful — there’s no reason for it not to be.”
No, no there is not. Though it would not be surprising if Von is given the franchise tag at some point, even if it is just to give both sides more time. That’s been how Elway has handled things in the past.
But Von doesn’t want to be coming back alone. His partner in crime, DeMarcus Ware, could be a salary-cap casualty this offseason, but No. 58 doubts Elway will part ways with the heart and soul of the Denver defense.
“Most definitely, I definitely think he’s going to be back,” Miller said of Ware. “We need him back. You saw the job he did, not only with me, but with everybody in the locker room. That alone is worth every penny, then when you add in his pass rush, all the skill he still has, of course I would like to keep DeMarcus and think he will be back.”
Cutting Ware would give the Broncos an extra $10 million in cap space to play with this offseason, possibly enough for Malik Jackson, but there’s more to the story than just money, as we wrote about earlier today.
If Elway plays his cards right, he should have both his pass rushers back in Denver next season.