ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- With the scouting combine just over a week away, the Denver Broncos have cranked up the offseason work with purpose, because free agency will open just three days after the last player has run the 40-yard dash in Indianapolis.
As they put together a five-year postseason run before finishing the 2016 season 9-7 and missing the playoffs, the Broncos had to grit their teeth financially at times. They passed on some win-now deals and positioned themselves to reap the benefits of a healthy salary-cap situation that could get even better before the spending begins on March 9.
The Broncos project, if they don’t engage the option bonus on offensive tackle Russell Okung's contract, to have more than $40 million in cap space to make some repairs on the roster.
"We feel like we’re going to be in a position to do some things to help our football team," is how executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway put it. "We don’t think we’re that far from competing for world championships."
So, it’s a good time to look at some of the notable cap numbers and where things stand.
Start with Okung’s, which is scheduled to be $11.7 million for the 2017 season if the Broncos pay a $1 million option bonus. That bonus, if paid on or before March 9, would engage the final four years of the deal and commit the Broncos to $21 million guaranteed. That guaranteed money would include Okung's base salaries in 2017 and 2018, and a $9.5 million roster bonus this year.
That is all unlikely to happen. The Broncos are expected to release Okung and then, if they do want him back, try to negotiate a different deal. Okung, who had offseason shoulder surgery a year ago, struggled at time this past season and was tied for the team lead in penalties with 11 (including two that were declined).
There is also the matter of fellow tackle Donald Stephenson, who like Okung, was a signed last March. Stephenson, too, struggled mightily at times and was not the veteran presence in the locker room the Broncos had hoped.
His cap hit is $5 million for the coming season and his $4 million base salary is guaranteed if he’s on the roster after March 13. The Broncos would take a "dead money" charge of $2 million if they released Stephenson, which would still give them a savings of $3 million.
That would mean the Broncos would be starting over at tackle, but it is something they might be more than willing to do with the cap space they will add, along with an expected 10 draft picks after the compensatory picks are awarded.
A big part of the Broncos’ flexibility at the moment, and the biggest thing that would change if they signed a veteran quarterback, is their youth at the position. The Broncos, with Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch, have a combined cap charge of $2.781 million for both quarterbacks. That's not anywhere close to common in the league as Lynch -- a first-round pick last April -- will count $2.153 million against the cap this season. Siemian, with 14 starts last season, is at $628,195.
In fact Siemian, as the returning starter, sits between running back Devontae Booker and running back Bernard Pierce on the Broncos' salary-cap table. And consider Pierce was just signed as a "futures" player -- a free agent who wasn’t with a team and is signed for the next season before the Super Bowl has been played.
The Broncos' "quarterback" money at the moment is invested in linebacker Von Miller. His $20.4 million cap figure for 2017 is the team’s highest. Overall, Miller, receiver Demaryius Thomas ($12.03 million), cornerback Aqib Talib ($12 million) and Okung are the only Broncos scheduled to count more than $10 million against the cap in '17.
The Broncos' brass will head to Indianapolis to take a long look at the draft’s best prospects, comfortable in the knowledge they can also target players in free agency who they believe can help.
Or as Elway has put it; "We think we can do what we need to do ... I think part of my job is to look not only at this year, but what we can do three, four, five years out to stay competitive and be a team that is in that mix to compete for world championships."