I wrote a more in-depth article at Over The Cap on the subject, but I’d thought I’d quickly deliver the newish developments for the Broncos. There’s one piece of each of good and bad news.
- I’ve hinted at the bad news before: the continued fragility of Julius Thomas that’s now going to keep him out for up to the first month of the regular season increases the odds that Denver will only get a 4th round comp pick for him instead of a 3rd. I may try to adjust the list based on playing time starting after Week 1, and if I do that you will see Thomas drop to a 4th for at least the short term. We’ll see what happens in the end, but he needs to make up for that lost time by playing more than half of the offensive snaps when he does get back to the field.
- The good news is that Jacob Tamme has gotten much closer to getting above the 32-pick limit. Tamme’s rise up the list can be attributed to a couple oddball cuts, such as the Raiders wasting $1.5 million in a signing bonus on Christian Ponder. Currently, Tamme is the first man out at 33rd in line. However, he is only behind O’Brien Schofield (now a teammate of Tamme’s in Atlanta) in $100,000 worth of APY. Helping Tamme’s cause is the fact that he’s the starting TE on a team that only has two TEs on the roster. However, Schofield’s cause is also helped by an injury to Brooks Reed that could keep him out six weeks, one that could move Schofield into the starting lineup. If Tamme is able to edge out Schofield by getting more snaps (probably about 25-30% more), then the Broncos have a chance to earn the Mr. Irrelevant pick, something they have never held before (nor have the Seahawks).