Denver Broncos defensive lineman Adam Gotsis is one of a number of key 2016 draft picks who will be up for a new deal after the 2019 season.
Despite not playing even 50 percent of the defensive snaps in 2018, defensive end Adam Gotsis — a second-round pick for the Denver Broncos in the 2016 NFL Draft — has made huge strides over the past three years and is a key contributor to the defense.
Gotsis has developed into a starter for the Broncos — and a reliable one at that — since he came into the NFL with a torn ACL in 2016 out of Georgia Tech.
Gotsis was really still in his football infancy upon his arrival to the NFL, but was drafted with pretty high expectations as he was ‘replacing’ the departed Malik Jackson.
He has not become the same type of pass rusher Jackson did with the Broncos, but Gotsis is a fine run defender and made more splash plays getting after the quarterback last season than he had in his first two years in the pros combined.
Gotsis spoke to the media at Broncos OTAs and the topic of his contract came up. It’s a quick trip in the NFL, in general, but it feels like the class of 2016 came up on their fourth year pretty quickly.
Gotsis says his contract situation will sort itself out.
Adam Gotsis, on entering the final year of his contract: pic.twitter.com/cEp4jwV75P
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) May 23, 2019
The pressure is on for Gotsis to make more of an impact than he is already. The Broncos have just one defensive lineman — Derek Wolfe — who played more than 48 percent of the team’s defensive snaps a season ago.
Gotsis hit a career-high with over 55 percent in 2017, a figure which also led the team that year.
Both Gotsis and fellow part-time defensive lineman Shelby Harris have experience playing more than 50 percent of the team’s snaps in a season, but they could both be asked to take on a higher workload in 2019 under Vic Fangio, who rotates defensive linemen plenty but also keeps a pretty consistent 11 on the field if he can.
It will be up to Gotsis to prove he’s worthy of a second contract in Denver, and my guess is, he will be.
The former second-round pick has developed nicely, and while he’s not racking up 10 sacks per season, Gotsis has done his job really well and has done so on a very positive trajectory.
He made some huge plays in 2018 and hopes he can increase the frequency of that in 2019.
There are a lot of mouths to feed on that Broncos defensive front, so the pressure is on for the former Georgia Tech star.