It's a painful fact of life in the NFL and, really, every professional sports league - when you win, it's hard to get the band back together. The Denver Broncos, who emerged victorious frp, Super Bowl 50 only two short months ago, are feeling the effects of this pain right now. Already, quarterback Peyton Manning announced his long-expected retirement. And it was announced today that defensive lineman Malik Jackson, who scored a touchdown during the Super Bowl by falling on a Cam Newton fumble, was following the green to greener pastures in Jacksonville.
But some of the key pieces in Denver will remain, most notably Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller and, if the team can make the dollars work, quarterback Brock Osweiler.
In a capped world though, making room for one player often means jettisoning another. And for a trio of Broncos players, that meant Tuesday was a particularly painful day. The day after Manning officially called it quits and a little more than 24 hours before the new NFL league year starts, the Broncos cut ties with former All-Pro offensive lineman Louis Vasquez, tight end Owen Daniels and long-snapper Aaron Brewer.
Manning's retirement provides the biggest relief for the Broncs. With his $19 million off the books that certainly brings quite a bit of breathing room into the equation for Broncos VP John Elway and the rest of the team's decision-makers.
But it wasn't enough to pay Miller, who is currently slated to play out 2016 on the $14.129 million franchise tag, and keep a guy like Osweiler (assuming they can or really even want to).
With Vasquez's ousting, the Broncos save $5.5 million. He was set to make $6.75 million next year, but cutting him cost the team $1.25 million in dead money.
Daniels, interestingly, only saves the Broncos $1 million, due to a $2 million dead money charge, while Brewer saves the team just $615,000.
The most interesting aspect to all of this will be seeing just what Elway does with the increased cap space. Osweiler is a logical choice, especially with Jackson headed off to Florida, but Miller's deal remains in the works and there's nothing that says the Broncos won't be big free agency players after finding such success with the approach last year.
It tends to be a bad decision to spend on free agents, but Elway's made it work once before, so there's no telling just what's coming for the NFL's Denver-based franchise.
