John Elway and the Denver Broncos are back at it again. James Casey, a tight end/h-back hybrid player who was drafted by Gary Kubiak and the Houston Texans out of Rice a few years back, hit the open market recently and didn’t have to wait long for playoff teams to come calling for his services.
According to Adam Caplan, the Broncos are one of the teams first up on Casey’s docket to visit.
Former #Eagles TE James Casey will visit the #AZCardinals first, followed by the #Broncos.
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) February 23, 2015
For Casey, it was a tough road in Philadelphia after signing for nearly $4 million per season. He was stuck behind Brent Celek and Zach Ertz on the depth chart and ended up only playing 14 percent of the offensive snaps this past season. He finished his Eagles career with just six catches, but two of them went for touchdowns this past year.
Drafted in 2009 by the Houston Texans, Casey has an obvious connection with the new Broncos regime and would also provide an enormous upgrade for the Denver special teams unit. While he was not playing much tight end, Casey was providing excellent special teams play, racking up seven tackles and one of the highest Pro Football Focus grades of any player on one of the best special teams units in the NFL.
What Casey would bring to the Broncos is a guy who can do a little bit of everything, who would come as a relatively cheap reserve. The Broncos are expected to bring back Virgil Green this offseason as well as drafting a tight end or two. Bringing in Casey would provide an inexpensive veteran presence and would be a nice start to the offseason for John Elway and company.