Was doing some numbers this am on spotrac
Just running scenarios on some guys -
Talib - cutting or trading Talib would save the Broncos $11M. They could cut him or trade him at any point to save the $11M
Sanders - Cutting Sanders would save the team 5.5M before 6/1, and 8.25M after 6/1
CJ - Cutting or trading CJ saves the team 4.5M and timing is irrelevant
Heurman - Cutting or trading him saves 720k, timing irrelevant
Menelik Watson - pre 6/1 release or trade saves 4.8M, post 6/1 trade/release saves 6.125M
Thomas - DT’s situation is a lot stickier than Sanders. Trading DT before 6/1 saves the team 5M. A post 6/1 trade saves 8.5M. There are no savings on releasing him until 2019.
Lynch - Lynch is also complicated. Releasing him pre 6/1 costs the team 1.8M, Post 6/1 costs 600k. Trading him after 6/1 brings 1.3M in savings.
Stewart - releasing/trading Stewart pre 6/1 saves 1.7M. Post 6/1 releasing/trading him saves 4.5M
Based on this info I expect the following -
1) CJ, Heurman and Talib will all be traded/released between season end and the draft.
2) Broncos will try hard to trade DT, as they already have been. I think their preference is to keep Sanders and get rid of DT but if they can’t pull off a trade then they will cut or trade Sanders after 6/1. DT’s contract is a tough pill to swallow and I could see the Broncos trading him for peanuts to get rid of the contract. It will probably piss off Broncos Nation but it will be because of his contract not DT’s talent.
3) They’ll be looking for a trade partner for Paxton after June. They won’t release him right after the season which will bring up questions but it’s due to his contract.
Stewart and Watson will be interesting ones. We save more money post 6/1 but I think it’s safe to say both of those guys are gone. Just an interesting question of “when”.
(Sorry to quote your entire post, Bonzai - just easier on my phone)
The Broncos should certainly look to cut some of these contracts, but the problem is really a big one that isn't going to be easily solved by cap space. That problem being that while the Broncos have a number of decent players, they have very few excellent ones, and very little quality depth.
The Broncos are quite lousy at a few positions, including the most important one (QB, OL, TE), and decidedly mediocre/average at a few others (WR, RB, ILB, DL). Yes folks, Brandon Marshall and Todd Davis are not very good.
Their only areas of real strength, are CB and OLB. Remove Talib, and that CB group goes from good to average pretty quickly. Remove Sanders and that WR group goes from average to lousy pretty quickly.
I'm not entirely sure how to rate the safety position, as I'm not a huge fan of Stewart. I think the Broncos have themselves a player in Simmons though. Maybe we rate safety position as somewhere between mediocre and good.
Bottom line, the Broncos need a big infusion of talent all over the field. This is probably due to some meh drafting, plus they won 12-13 games 4 seasons in a row, starting 5 years ago. The window is shut. They need to rebuild this thing a bit. They need more talented players immediately, and a bloody long term answer at QB. This offseason.
