Denver Broncos 2018 salary cap situation, possible cap casualties
Trade Candidates
The Denver Broncos might be among the teams looking to ‘sell’ a little bit on the trade market this year, and don’t be shocked if the return value isn’t what you expect.
Cutting a number of players outright makes little to no sense to me, even if it means shaking up the roster.
Screw that.
If the Broncos are going to cut players, cap ramifications not really considered, then I’ll start to really question what in the world they’re doing in the front office.
That said, there are a number of moves that make financial and football sense this offseason, starting with the possible trading of a star receiver…
Emmanuel Sanders, wide receiver
The Broncos could look to trade Sanders to a team like the Chicago Bears this offseason, a team that is desperate for talent at the receiver position and also has plenty of cap space to work with.
The Bears are a perfect landing spot for Sanders, even if they don’t have John Fox as their head coach beyond this season anymore.
We can speculate on teams that would trade for Sanders all day, but in reality, a lot of teams would love to have him, even at his current price.
The Broncos would incur a pretty hefty $5.375 million dead money hit if they traded Sanders, but the reason this trade seems likely is two-fold. The Broncos need the cap space, and Cody Latimer is expected to be on the priority list to re-sign.
Trevor Siemian, quarterback
With one year remaining on his rookie contract, Trevor Siemian could be an attractive option for teams to try and acquire as a backup quarterback.
The Broncos could do Siemian a personal favor and just release him, but I think he could be valuable enough to some team that they’d give up a day three pick for him. A team like the Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills — someone who just might want a solid backup player with starting experience.
The Broncos wouldn’t save much by getting rid of Siemian, about the price of a mid-round draft pick.
Demaryius Thomas, wide receiver
I’m putting Demaryius on my ‘no trade’ list this offseason, but he’s a candidate to get asked to re-structure his deal to help the Broncos bring some people in this season.
Thomas’ cap figure is over $12 million, so the Broncos could ask him to re-structure his base salary and save them some money against the 2018 cap. According to Spotrac, they can save over $5 million doing that.
That move is not necessarily ideal because it just pushes back a pay day for Thomas, but it’s definitely something the Broncos might want to do depending on their plans at QB this offseason.
With those three moves in addition to the three cap casualties listed on the page prior, the Broncos’ cap space would increase to over $63 million, and again, that’s without re-signing anyone or factoring in the cost of the draft class.