Von Miller Contract Will Be a Teaching Moment For Both Sides

The Broncos/John Elway–

Since John Elway took the job five years ago as the VP of Football Operations/GM he has done a masterful job in not only constructing championship caliber rosters, but also in doing so within the restraints and guidelines of the hard salary cap.

Elway has been known to take a very hard line stance in contract negotiations, always offering what he considers to be a very fair deal as the initial offer, and rarely moving far off of that initial offer.  He has done it in franchise tag deals with Matt Prater, Ryan Clady, and just last season with Demaryius Thomas.

He did it earlier this offseason with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, as the Broncos were trying to negotiate a reduced contract for Kaepernick in an effort to acquire him in a trade.

Elway has been masterful in “winning” contract negotiations, as he has in the past two Decembers locked up the likes of Chris Harris Jr. and Derek Wolfe to contract extensions that were far less than those players could have received had they chose to wait it out to free agency just a few months later.

Von, however, was a little bit different.  Von is not a top 10 player at his position, as has been the case with nearly every other name mentioned aside from Kaepernick; Von is the best player at his position, and had little interest in giving Elway the hometown discount.  So what happened?  When did this negotiation turn from peaceful, to ugly?

Elway’s mistake did not come when he asked Von Miller to take a hometown discount.  The June 6th offer of just over $39 million in guaranteed money, on an otherwise record offer for total money and average annual amount (6 years, $114.5 million) would have been a huge discount, especially now knowing that $39 million turned into $70 million.

The mistake Elway made was going public with these figures in an attempt to shame Von in to accepting the offer.  When a headline reads “Von Miller turns Down Opportunity to Become Highest Paid Defender Ever”, that makes Von look greedy.

While the headline is true, the overall years and average annual salary would have been the highest contract ever for a defensive player; however, these figures are always going to be a mirage, as the only thing that truly matters in an NFL contract is guaranteed money.

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The guaranteed portion of this contract offer was far less than market value based on what lesser pass rushers have been given in the past year.  This offer was never going to be the best offer, nor was this an offer Miller should have even gave any consideration to taking it.  Von was hurt by the tactic Elway took, and let everyone know about it in a very public way.  Hopefully one thing that Elway can take from this is to keep the negotiations a bit closer to the vest.

The other mistake the Broncos made was not taking care of this sooner.  Markets in the NFL, especially today’s NFL rarely go down, unless you are a running back.

The price for waiting was probably about $9-10 million dollars, as the market went up when Fletcher Cox signed a deal with over $63 million in guaranteed money just over a month ago.  Had the Broncos come to Miller just after the Super Bowl with $60-61 million in guarantees, chances are Von would have accepted that deal.

However, the Cox deal, and even earlier, the Oliver Vernon deal, shifted the market higher and higher for a player of Miller’s stature.  Von simply wasn’t going to make than those lesser players, and the Broncos ended up costing themselves more money.

The Broncos will undoubtedly have big time negotiations in the future, and hopefully the Broncos can take these lessons they’ve learned and not make these mistakes again.  Bradley Roby is probably the next player that will require a bank breaking contract, and by getting him done sooner, and not leaking the information to the public, they can ultimately do a deal that will be more team-friendly, and less contentious.

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