Broncos reportedly hire Rich Hurtado as new contract/cap guy

The Denver Broncos have reportedly hired Rich Hurtado to replace Mike Sullivan as the team’s new cap guy and negotiator regarding contracts.

According to Mike Klis, the Denver Broncos have hired a new cap guy/contract negotiator named Rich Hurtado, who has previously worked with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Interestingly enough, the Broncos went with a similar guy to what they previously had in Mike Sullivan, a guy who has been on both the NFL side of things as well as the player side of things as Hurtado was most recently employed by the well-known CAA Agency.

Hurtado also has a connection in the Broncos’ front office already with Director of Player Personnel Matt Russell, according to Klis’ report.

Russell worked with the Eagles from 2006-08 and his path crossed with Hurtado’s there.

So what about this ‘creative and smart’ hire by the Broncos?

With Mike Sullivan negotiating contracts, the Broncos were often very good at signing players to reasonable contracts given their market value with low year one cap hits and ‘outs’ for the team to exercise a couple of years into the deal if the player wasn’t holding up his end of the bargain.

The Broncos have been a desirable destination for free agents since Elway took over, and after Peyton Manning signed they were especially desirable, but they haven’t had the same kind of success signing free agents in recent years as they had from 2011-2015.

The idea of making a player agent your lead contract negotiator and cap guy is a solid move in my mind because it gives you a much more well-rounded human element to negotiations.

Hurtado is going to understand where players are coming from especially with a lockout potentially happening in 2021, and he’s now also got to have the Broncos’ best interests in mind.

Notably, Hurtado comes to the Broncos at a critical time when the team is trying to get a long-term deal done with safety Justin Simmons, who is represented by Hurtado’s now former employers at CAA.

Not that this necessarily gives the Broncos an ‘edge’ in negotiations but it could actually help push things along as Hurtado probably has an intimate understanding of what Simmons’ representation wants in a new deal as well as a clear line of communication.