Fans of the Denver Broncos are anxious for the organization to choose and develop a franchise quarterback with the NFL draft just over a month away. Head coach Sean Payton did not add any players to Denver’s quarterback room, which is currently led by Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci, during the first significant wave of free agency.
Not that the organization won’t add to the position before the draft through trades or free agency, but after seeing several veterans take lucrative contracts outside of the NFL, Broncos Country is left wondering what might have been.
Put another way, even if the Broncos were keen on Cousins, they had little interest in a quarterback market where contracts ranging from $30 to $35 million year were being offered. Russell Wilson’s contract had been there, done that, and the Broncos were going to pay him $38 million to play in Pittsburgh this season.
After Russell Wilson was released, the Broncos worked frantically to maneuver and reduce their salary-cap overages rather than courting Cousins.Denver now has $20.9 million in cap space, which is more than it had when it first reached out to Cousins’ team to initiate a feel-out process, according to Spotrac.
It was revealed on March 13 that Cousins and the Falcons have agreed to a four-year, $180 million contract with a $100 million guarantee. It’s unclear at this point how much Cousins might have wanted to play for Payton’s Broncos.
The Falcons appeared to be the top contender for the 35-year-old veteran on his third NFL team, given that Cousins’ family has links to the Atlanta region in the past.
But going into his 13th season, Breer reports that Cousins appeared to still have the Broncos on his radar as a possible destination.
An old proverb states that “still waters run deep.” In an unusually quiet free agency season, Broncos Country hopes exactly that Payton’s search for a franchise quarterback would yield results along those lines.
It’s comforting to know that the front office is doing its homework and is using every resource to find QB1, even though I don’t think the Broncos and Cousins would have been a good fit or that the two sides could have come to an agreement within the salary cap.
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