Denver Broncos: 4 guys who should go, 4 who should stay
QB Joe Flacco: Stay or go?
Alright, I gave myself a tough one for the first ‘stay’ so we’re going to talk through an easy ‘go’ here with Joe Flacco.
Flacco is due a base salary of $20.25 million next season with a cap hit of $23.65 million. The Broncos shuffled around Flacco’s 2019 salary to free up cap space in the short-term, but push some of his money down the road a bit.
The Broncos did not give Joe Flacco a contract extension.
Flacco’s 2019 base salary was going to be fully guaranteed at $18.5 million. The Broncos simply pushed $13.9 million of that to 2020 to spread the money and give themselves some flexibility.
This means that Flacco’s contract will count $13.9 million against the Broncos’ 2020 salary cap no matter what, but by letting him go, the team can save roughly $10.05 million against the cap, pushing them ever closer to $80 million in total cap space with just one roster move.
I don’t think there is any chance of Flacco being on the Broncos’ 2020 roster, whether the team decides it, he decides it, or both.