"He’s good at everything”: All Broncos eyes will be on one player Sunday

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Whether it be salary, importance to the game, talent or potentially even looks, all eyes are nearly always on the quarterback in the National Football League. Especially the great ones.

In Denver, however, all eyes haven’t been on the quarterback since a certain No. 18 left town after winning Super Bowl 50, and if you didn’t know anything else about the Denver Broncos’ quarterback situation since, that’s all you would need to know.

After failing to find a franchise quarterback since Peyton Manning retired, it is heavily believed that will be John Elway’s No. 1 priority—among a laundry list of other improvements—he’ll address in the off-season.

With Elway stating, “I will do my part to hopefully get this thing turned around next year” at the beginning of December, there is significant reason to believe that the team will turn to free agency, and not the draft, to address the quarterback position.

Coincidentally, the most sought-after free-agent quarterback in 2018 is the one donning No. 8 for the Washington Redskins, Denver’s opponent on Christmas Eve.

For Christmas—or more fitting for the timing, spring break—the Broncos will want nothing more than to land their franchise quarterback for the next decade. On Christmas Eve, in the early afternoon in the nation’s capital, Elway and Co. will get to see in person if Kirk Cousins fits that bill.

If early indications mean anything, the Broncos brass is high on the free agent to be before they even see him in person. In preparation to face Cousins, head coach Vance Joseph sang his praises, calling him “A special guy.”

“Numbers-wise, he’s top 10 in all the QB categories,” Joseph said as he continued to applaud his next opponent. “You watched the guy play; he’s poised, he’s smart, and he has a really strong arm. I wasn’t sure about that, but as I watched more tape, he can make every throw on the field. He’s a tough guy, also. He’s been hit a lot this year. He has like 36 sacks, and he hasn’t blinked at all. He still looks down the rush and throws the ball into coverage. He’s a special guy. It starts with him offensively. Their running game has been hot and cold, but the pass game has been efficient all year.”

Not only will it be a great opportunity for Cousins to audition in front of the entire Broncos organization, he’ll be facing one of his toughest tasks of the year, going up against the Broncos pass defense, which currently ranks No. 2 in the entire NFL.

On the season, Cousins hasn’t disappointed in his individual performance as he’s on his way to a 4,000 yard passing season and currently has 24 passing touchdowns to nine interceptions for a 98.8 passer rating.

However, there is a concern that no matter how good Cousins numbers may be, he’s not at an elite level to put a team on his back. With two games remaining in the season, the Redskins sit at 6-8 and are officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Even with this concern, however, Cousins will get paid like the other elite quarterbacks this offseason for what he’s done since becoming the Redskins full-time starting quarterback at the beginning of the 2015 season. In his first two seasons as the permanent signal caller, Cousins threw 54 total touchdowns to 23 interceptions, averaged 283.8 passing yards on 68.3 percent completion and had a 99.3 passer rating.

When it comes to his individual stats over the past three seasons, nearly everything “Captain Kirk,” as he’s been nicknamed, has accomplished has been in the top-third of the league, earning him a trip to the Pro Bowl last season.

Because of all of this, if Cousins hits the open market in March, he will cost a pretty penny—more like three billion pennies per year. Currently the highest-paid quarterback in the league is Matthew Stafford, making an NFL-record $27 million per year. Since Cousins will be on the open market, his value could easily eclipse that with projections in the $30 million per year range.

To put that in further perspective, the Broncos currently have three quarterbacks on the books for next season—Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, and Chad Kelly—for less than $4 million, combined.

With the salary cap for 2018 not officially set as of yet, it is expected that Denver will have just over $30 million in cap space before any additional moves are made. Or, to put another way, they’ll have just enough money to sign Cousins.

It won’t be a hard sell to the rest of the team, either, as Aqib Talib said Cousins “Runs the show” and is “A real NFL quarterback.” Additionally, Von Miller said Cousins is just another elite quarterback.

“It’s just Kirk Cousins, he’s good at everything,” the Super Bowl 50 MVP said nonchalantly. “If you’re a franchise quarterback, you have all of that uncertainty about your contract, that could really [mess] with you. For him to go out there and have the type of success that he’s had over these last couple of seasons has been amazing. He’s a true warrior, and he’s continuing to get better every single week. Hats off to Kirk.”

Only time will tell whether unthinkable amounts of money are tossed in Cousins’ direction from the Broncos in March. Sunday, however, could go a long way in determining if the Broncos want to go in that direction.