The Denver Broncos could make a blockbuster trade for QB Aaron Rodgers if he’s made available. If not, there are other trades they should make anyway.
The Denver Broncos may make a trade for MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the coming weeks. Who knows? The Green Bay Packers have not made Rodgers available at this point and, for the time being, there are no offers on the table.
Although Rodgers is upset with the Packers and a separation seems like it could actually happen, it’s just so difficult to wrap your brain around the possibility of Rodgers changing teams. As exciting as that possibility is, what if the Denver Broncos are not able to make that trade?
The Broncos would head into the 2021 season with Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater atop the quarterback position group and they would undoubtedly need the roster to be as strong as possible everywhere else.
This is Vic Fangio’s third season as the Denver Broncos’ head coach. Although he hasn’t had the best circumstances in terms of the roster as a whole or the quarterback position in general, he’s going to need to get the Broncos into the winning record and preferably playoff category in 2021.
He can’t force his players to stay healthy, but the roster that has been assembled by John Elway and now new general manager George Paton looks like one of the top young rosters in the league.
Denver Broncos: Non-Aaron Rodgers trades to consider
Even with the strength and youth of the roster in mind, there are plenty of non-Aaron Rodgers moves the Denver Broncos should and could seriously consider in the coming weeks.
There are areas of this team that could still use some addressing, and there are areas of the team that are simply too deep to fit everyone currently on the 90-man roster into the regular season.
There are also some moves that could be out there that are just smart practice for a general manager to consider the cost.
Let’s take a look through five non-Aaron Rodgers trades the Denver Broncos should seriously consider before the 2021 regular season.
1. TE Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles
I will continue to hammer this one home until it doesn’t happen.
Maybe the cost to acquire Ertz will end up being too high, but the NFL is moving to 17 regular season games, and the Denver Broncos are very inexperienced behind Noah Fant at the position.
It’s hard to say Zach Ertz is exactly insurance, but depth is going to be more necessary than insurance, anyway.
The Broncos already have a lot of mouths to feed in their offense. The last thing you would want, also, is for a player like Ertz to come in and eat into the impact Noah Fant is capable of making when Ertz is going to be 31 this season.
Ertz has just one year on his deal, so this would not affect the long-term potential of Albert Okwuegbunam or signing Noah Fant, either. This is simply a move to put your offense in the best possible position to succeed over the long haul of the elongated NFL regular season.
Ertz and Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur are familiar with each other having worked together when Shurmur was with the Eagles.
That familiarity could be critical to making a deal here if the Broncos are so inclined.
Who knows if it’s in the budget to add an $8.5 million weapon at the tight end position? The Broncos have just under $30 million in available cap space right now, so that piece of it is not any sort of issue.
Ertz would add valuable veteran depth and allow the Broncos to bring along Okwuegbunam at their pace.
2. DL Akiem Hicks, Chicago Bears
For the better part of the last eight NFL seasons, Akiem Hicks has been one of the more dominant defensive linemen.
Even considering his age, Hicks is getting after the quarterback as well as he ever has.
In the 2020 season, Hicks played 15 games and finished with 49 total tackles, seven tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and a career-high 21 quarterback hits. He matched a season-high with 29 QB pressures and had 16 QB knockdowns.
There’s no denying Hicks’ effectiveness even coming off of a year where he only played five games due to injury.
When Vic Fangio was the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears, Hicks was considered among the elite defensive linemen in the game.
From 2016-18, Hicks averaged eight sacks and 18 QB hits per 16 games in the Vic Fangio defense. His 23 sacks in that timeframe represent two-thirds of his career sacks.
The Denver Broncos gave a big-money deal this offseason to Shelby Harris, but they can obviously still afford Hicks’ one-year, $10.4 million base salary, and they could even try to re-sign him to a short extension to get that number down if they so choose.
Putting Hicks in the fray along with Harris and blossoming star Dre’Mont Jones along with depth pieces like Mike Purcell, Shamar Stephen, and 2020 third-round pick McTelvin Agim?
This would only enhance the Denver Broncos’ already stellar-looking defense and Hicks would make everyone around him better because of the attention he commands. Hopefully, George Paton is already thinking about this move.
3. LB Leighton Vander Esch, Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys declined Leighton Vander Esch’s fifth-year contract option, and if you had predicted that after his rookie 2018 season, people probably would have thought you were a complete moron.
Vander Esch made the Pro Bowl in 2018 after racking up 140 total tackles, seven passes broken up, and a pair of interceptions.
Since that awesome rookie season, Vander Esch has struggled somewhat to stay on the field.
He has missed 13 games over the last two seasons, and as a result of his missed time, Dallas decided not to bank on his fifth season.
Not only that, they went out and signed former first-round pick Keanu Neal in free agency, converting him to the linebacker position in the process. They also drafted Micah Parsons and one of the favorite 2021 NFL Draft prospects in Broncos Country — LSU linebacker Jabril Cox.
The contract of Jaylon Smith makes Vander Esch potentially the odd-man-out for the Cowboys. Vander Esch has a base salary this season of just over $2 million. The Cowboys clearly do not have him in the future plans at this point.
Why would you not try to make a deal for the former first-round pick and athletic freak, attempting to resurrect what looked like a perennial Pro Bowl type of career early on?
It’s hard to know what Dallas would ask for in return here, but if you could get Vander Esch for a day three draft pick, that could be a steal.
4. TEs Adam Shaheen/Durham Smythe, Miami Dolphins
The Denver Broncos have a need for depth at the tight end position.
Although they may not go so far as to trade for Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, they might be able to call up the Miami Dolphins and general manager Chris Grier, whom George Paton knows very well, and ask about one of their backup tight ends.
The Dolphins have Mike Gesicki pretty entrenched as their TE1. They signed Adam Shaheen to a two-year extension last year and they love Durham Smythe as well, but the Dolphins also used a third-round pick on Boston College tight end Hunter Long.
Teams are definitely allowed to keep four tight ends if they so choose, but Miami also invested heavily in the wide receiver position this offseason and they have — at least from an outside perspective — a clear need at the running back position.
Maybe they would be willing to deal one of Shaheen or Smythe for Royce Freeman, or Royce Freeman and a draft pick?
One way or another, the Broncos could have an interest in one of the Dolphins’ backup tight ends as a possible TE2 or TE3 option for the 2021 season.
5. LB Mack Wilson, Cleveland Browns
The Denver Broncos have a pretty underrated linebacker duo in Josey Jewell and Alexander Johnson. The question at this point is whether or not those guys are a long-term solution for the team or if either guy will even be on the roster beyond this season at all.
If there is an opportunity to buy low on the trade market at the linebacker position, the Broncos should be scouring those options.
The Cleveland Browns have a pretty loaded roster right now, one of the best in the NFL. Defensively, coordinator Joe Woods likes to use multiple safeties and he’s got some weapons in the defensive backfield, to say the least.
The Browns also have a pretty loaded linebacker room right now, at least in terms of potential and guys you could reasonably project to start this season.
Free agent acquisition Anthony Walker comes over from the Indianapolis Colts and will be a starter.
What is to become of 2019 third-round pick Sione Takitaki, 2020 third-round pick Jacob Phillips, 2021 fifth-round pick Tony Fields, and 2021 second-round pick — maybe the most talented player of the entire group — Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah?
That list doesn’t include the subject of this page, Mack Wilson, a former Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker who was taken in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
Wilson had 39 tackles in 13 games this past season but played 16 as a rookie and started 14 in 2019.
If Wilson is available, he has two years left on his rookie deal and would give the Denver Broncos someone with starting experience in case one of Josey Jewell or Alexander Johnson does go down.
Denver Broncos: Players on the chopping block at each position
The Denver Broncos will have plenty of difficult roster decisions to make in 2021. Which players are on the chopping block at each position group?
The Broncos dealt with the Cleveland Browns last year, sending them Andy Janovich for a draft pick. Perhaps they could fire up the phone lines again for a deal like this.