Denver Broncos: Team should not fret over loss of Ja’Wuan James
Ja’Wuan James will not play for the Denver Broncos in 2020 and the team is looking for a new starting right tackle.
On Monday, it was announced that the man the Broncos shelled out a truckload of cash for last offseason has opted out of playing in the 2020 season. It is likely that Elijah Wilkinson will be the team’s starting right tackle when the season opens, but there are other options.
But more on James.
Broncos fans may have woken up to this news on Monday and thought the worst, fearing that a key player will be missed in 2020. They likely then remembered the team has Garett Bolles at left tackle and thought the team could have major problems.
In theory, the starting right tackle is a key player, but James was a bad signing the second he missed almost all of his first season with the team. We can all try to cut John Elway some slack and say that the James signing could eventually work out, or we can call it what it is.
James has every right to sit out the coming season, as does any player in the league. But it’s certainly not going to help his cause in trying to get on the good side of the fans inside Broncos Country.
When the Broncos signed him to a four-year, $51 million deal last March, he became the highest-paid right tackle in the entire league. For that price, the Broncos have thus far gotten him for just three games.
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He will enter the 2021 season with a huge cloud of uncertainty over his head and there is a chance that he won’t even be considered the starter anymore once he does come back. If Wilkinson shines or if the team finds another option elsewhere, James may just become a high-paid bench player or a guy the Broncos move on from.
Not long ago, I talked about why James was the most replaceable starter on the entire roster.
For those reasons, fans should not be worried about not having James in the lineup. On the surface, it looks like the team lost its starting right tackle and will now have to scramble for another option. But in reality, James was hardly on the field last year and he was never on the field when Drew Lock was the quarterback.
Lock learned to work without him and with his mobility and presence in the pocket, should be able to survive just fine without him.
To be clear, we respect the decision made by James but at the same time, it doesn’t spell doom for the team this season. Far from it, actually.