The Denver Broncos are moving on from former second-round pick Adam Gotsis, who will be rehabbing a knee injury through August.
According to Mike Klis of 9News in Denver, the Broncos are going to be letting former second-round pick Adam Gotsis test the free agent waters in a couple of weeks.
Gotsis, a former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket, was an on-again, off-again starter for the Broncos from 2017-19.
In 2019, Gotsis’ first year under new head coach Vic Fangio, he was actually benched in the middle of the season and was a healthy scratch for a few weeks. He ended up coming back and playing decent, but the writing has been on the wall for Gotsis.
To add literal injury to the insult of being benched last season, Gotsis suffered another ACL injury, something he came into the NFL with.
This could keep Gotsis unsigned into the start of the 2020 regular season. Teams aren’t going to be able to offer him guaranteed cash and Gotsis isn’t going to want to just take any offer he’s given, so he will likely have to put off his free agent pursuit until he’s able to work out for teams again.
In his four seasons with the Broncos, Gotsis racked up 109 total tackles with nine tackles for loss, 15 quarterback hits, and five sacks. Gotsis played fairly well in 2017 and 2018 when Vance Joseph was the Broncos’ head coach, so perhaps he could find a new home down in Arizona.
The unfortunate narrative on the Broncos’ end here is yet another failed second-round draft choice. Since John Elway took over as general manager, his second round picks have been:
- OT Orlando Franklin
- FS Rahim Moore
- DE Derek Wolfe
- QB Brock Osweiler
- RB Montee Ball
- WR Cody Latimer
- OT Ty Sambrailo
- DE Adam Gotsis
- DE DeMarcus Walker
- WR Courtland Sutton
- OL Dalton Risner
- QB Drew Lock
There have obviously been some mixed results among that group, but from 2013-17, the Broncos’ second-round picks have been borderline horrendous. Some of the guys have at least made contributions to the team, but none have developed into full-time starters.
Gotsis, for his part, was at least that for two seasons, but injuries and inconsistency were detrimental to his long-term success with the team.
The Broncos had hoped when they drafted Gotsis that he could help replace Malik Jackson who departed in the 2016 offseason for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out. The Broncos drafted Gotsis in the second round when there were apparently rumors he had a good chance to go in the early-mid third round, but at the time, it felt like a massive reach.
In hindsight, it appears as though those who felt the pick was a reach were correct.
The Broncos have no time to waste feeling sorry for themselves. They have to figure out how to replace two starters on the defensive line with Shelby Harris and Derek Wolfe hitting free agency, although it seems as though they’re at least opening the conversation with Wolfe’s representatives.