BSN Exclusive: Shane Ray opens up on Broncos' decision to decline his fifth-year option

DENVER — It’s a harsh reality. You pour your heart and soul into something. You soak blood, sweat and tears into the colors of your jersey. You live by the wins and die by the losses. Your team becomes a part of your identity.

But, at some point, for almost every NFL player, you are reminded that around here, decisions aren’t made with the heart, they’re made with the head. Around here, every decision starts with the bread.

For Denver Broncos linebacker Shane Ray, that harsh NFL reality hit close to home last Wednesday, when the organization informed him that they would not be picking up his fifth-year option.

On Friday, in a one-on-one interview with BSN Denver, Ray opened up on the wide range of emotions he’s experienced since receiving that news.

“You get a little disappointed,” Ray said his initial reaction. “You get an injury, you blow your wrist out, you have three surgeries. I could have stayed on IR the entire year, but instead I tried to do whatever I could to help my team and, of course, there’s not much you can do when you can’t even use your left hand. At first, it was kind of like, ‘Man, how could you guys do that to me?'”

It’s a fair reaction, right? In fact, it would be understandable for Ray to have held on to those original feelings. Sure, there’s still a chance he could be a Bronco for life, but it would be naive to not read into the message sent by the organization. Just because the NFL operates a certain way doesn’t mean you necessarily have to like it.

But Shane didn’t hang on to his frustrations, after some reflection and a productive man-to-man meeting with John Elway, the fourth-year pass rusher came away with a very different view of things.

“I mean, it’s business,” he shared, coming to terms with an age-old cliché. “This is my first time dealing with the business aspect of the NFL. My option is $9.5 million and if I’m looking at it—I blew my wrist out last year, so do you give $9.5 million to a guy who had three wrist surgeries the year before? Because it’s not based on production, my first two years, there were no complaints, so it’s not based on that.”

“I really just looked at the big picture of things,” he added. “It’s really a blessing in disguise. The ball is in my court now; I have control. I have the ability to go out there and have a great football season with my teammates, and that could lead me to a new contract here in Denver or a new contract somewhere else. Regardless, it’s going to be good for me; it’s not a bad thing… That’s just how the game goes. I have no hard feelings or anything about it.”

One interesting layer in the Broncos’ decision to pass on Ray’s option was the event that took place just days before the decision was due—the NFL Draft—where, of course, the Denver Broncos selected a pass rusher in Bradley Chubb in the first round. Much has been made about the correlation between the two nearly-subsequent moves. Did Chubb falling to Denver at No. 5 play a role in the decision?

“No. It wasn’t correlated. At least from my knowledge,” Ray said. “Even if it was, how would people expect me to take that? It’s not like I look at it as a smack in the face. I was drafted in 2015 when they had Von, DeMarcus and Shaq. It’s the same situation; it’s me, Shaq, Von and now we have Chubb, another great player, and great pass rusher. I’m excited for him to come in. I’m going to teach him everything I know because he’s going to help us.”

“You can have me, Von and Shaq out there at the same time. You can put Chubb on the inside; he’s a 270-pound kid, that adds a lot of versatility to our pass rush,” he added. “That’s something that we lacked last year, whether it be from the interior or from us outside guys, we needed that. I feel like we’re getting back to the pass-rush formula that we had in 2015 when we had Malik, Wolfe, Sly, Von, DeMarcus, me, Shaq—it feels the same way. I’m excited, man, it’s going to be a helluva year for us, and I think people are going to be really happy about what we’re bringing to the table this year defensively.”

Some may say that Ray’s future is uncertain, but in his eyes, the future is now.

“I’m just trying to be the best Bronco I can be.”