DENVER — Kirk Cousins isn’t even on the Denver Broncos, yet the two most talked about names since the Broncos’ offseason started has been the quarterback that many in Denver want, Cousins, and the quarterback that can get that done, John Elway.
However, landing Cousins won’t be the only thing Denver needs to do in order to turn around the franchise after a 5-11 season—hence the Redskins finishing 7-9 last year with Captain Kirk leading their squad.
While Elway will need to make more moves along with landing a quarterback in the offseason, he’ll need the resources—a.k.a. money—in order to do that. Fortunately for Elway, Denver has a man on their staff that can do precisely that.
Who? You may ask. His name Mike Sullivan.
To the public, Sullivan isn’t a household name. Heck, even inside the organization he may now be confused with the new quarterback coach the Broncos recently hired with the same name and spelling.
But the Mike Sullivan that sits in the player personnel/football operations department can essentially create money out of thin air, and that is why his importance inside the organization is never undermined, although rarely publicized.
When the Broncos need money for salary cap space they don’t go to the bank, they go to the office of the lawyer and former player agent, Sullivan.
With an official title of “Director of Football Administration,” Sullivan is essentially the team’s manager of the salary cap and creator of every player’s contract. His official job duties on the team’s website state: “Directing the club’s negotiating and structuring of all player contracts as well as managing the Broncos’ salary cap and football budget.”
That’s quite a task.
If the Broncos do, in fact, pursue Cousins hard and fast in free agency, as it’s widely expected, they’ll need Sullivan now more than ever.
Currently, the Broncos have roughly $28 million in cap space, and while it’s almost certain the team will have to move on from a player or two in order to create additional cap space if they get Cousins, they won’t necessarily have to create as much space—and thus let go of as many players—as people think.
Although Cousins is expected to sign a deal that will average about $30 million per year, Sullivan can design the contract in a way where $30 million doesn’t actually count against the salary cap—for a year to two at least—opening up more money for Elway to build a team around Cousins.
Without getting into the nitty-gritty of how Sullivan can do exactly that, the two contracts that Cousins’ will likely be based on—Matthew Stafford and Jimmy Garoppolo—show exactly what Sullivan can do to help the Broncos compete in the near future.
When Garoppolo signed his five-year deal worth $27.5 million per season to become the highest-paid player in NFL history earlier this offseason, his contract didn’t count for $27.5 million against the cap in each season. Instead, since the San Francisco 49ers have an abundance of cap space, and cash, the team, front-loaded his deal, putting a $37 million cap hit in year one to go along with $42.6 million of cash.
By front-loading the contract significantly, he will have only a $20 million cap hit in year two, which allows the 49ers more flexibility with signing other players.
The Broncos, however, are in nearly the exact opposite position of the 49ers, but a similar position of the Detroit Lions in terms of not having excess cap space at the beginning of a monstrous quarterback contract.
Last year, when the Lions signed Stafford, to what was then the largest contract in NFL history, they created the contract in a way to give themselves breathing room at the beginning of the deal.
In 2017, when Stafford signed his deal, he only had a $16.5 million cap hit. In 2018, technically the first of his five-year extension, he will have a cap hit of $26.5 million, while in year four and five he will have hits of $31.5 and $30 million.
If Elway wants more money in the near future to put other high-caliber players around Cousins—or simply keep current players around him—the Broncos, more specifically Sullivan, can devise a contract which would allow more money to be available in the next year or two.
Of course, the money will need to be paid—or counted against the cap—eventually.
In an NFL where nearly every quarterback that can throw will sign a big contract, this situation isn’t just specific for the Broncos signing Cousins. If Denver signs nearly any other free agent QB—including Case Keenum, whose reported connection with the Broncos is growing more and more as each day goes by—Sullivan will likely be in the center of freeing up money for Elway to do what he needs in order to have a bounce-back season in 2018.
But before Sullivan can become the hero, Elway needs to land the highly-sought after quarterback.
