Mason's Mailbag: Why haven't the Broncos re-signed anyone yet?

To send questions, leave them in the comments section below or tweet them to me @MaseDenver with the #AskMase!

Hey Mase, greetings from Great Britain 🇬🇧 Q: why aren’t we locking up some of our free agents? Wolfe, Harris & Gotsis could all go after this year. We need to sign them now for a home town discount #AskMase

— 🇬🇧 Orange Crush 🇺🇸 (@74broncos) October 3, 2019

First, a reset: In the wake of the Joe Flacco restructure, the Broncos have $18,691,992 of salary-cap space, per the NFLPA’s daily cap report. Thus, the Broncos have the space to re-sign a player and charge a at least portion of the signing bonus against this year’s cap.

But the Broncos have the ability to take that entire cap savings and carry it over to next year, if they so choose. That’s why the Flacco restructure shouldn’t raise eyebrows. If they wanted to move on from Flacco in the 2020 offseason — and there is no indication they will, or should, based on the fact that his level of play has been exactly what could have reasonably been expected — they could. The cap accounting would be the exact same as it was before the restructure, since the team could simply carry over the cap space to 2020.

Now, to the possible re-signings. First, there must be a willingness on both sides. Second, the Broncos would have to decide that the individual player is a fit in their schemes going forward and better for what they want to do than one they could get on the open market or draft next offseason.

The bulk of the possible re-signings are on defense, including five first-teamers: defensive linemen Derek Wolfe, Shelby Harris and Adam Gotsis, safety Justin Simmons and cornerback Chris Harris Jr. While Chris Harris is scheme-independent and could flourish anywhere, the others are players for whom the jury is clearly out based on Weeks 1-4. Certainly the performance of the defense against the run last week doesn’t help the case to re-sign anyone (and according to a report from Altitude TV’s Vic Lombardi, Gotsis is being benched for Mike Purcell this weekend).

Further, ask yourself this: If the Broncos continue to flounder, and the current eight-game losing streak reaches nine, 10, 11, 12 games (although that is unlikely, as I detailed in my Friday piece), what is the value in keeping the components of a struggling team together?

The Broncos could look at free agency next year and decide that they need to find pieces that best supplement the young core of Bradley Chubb, Phillip Lindsay, Courtland Sutton, Dalton Risner, Royce Freeman and Noah Fant. Each of them has shown at least a flash of brilliance; most have sustained it to varying degrees. Thus, the Broncos would be evaluating their free-agent plan based on two questions.

1. Who fits best with the young players?
2. Who are the best fits for the Scangarello and Fangio schemes?

And with a roster that likely will not lack for needs, the Broncos could opt for a more Patriots-like strategy of targeting second- and third-wave players. This was how the Pats first fortified their roster in the early years of Bill Belichick’s coaching stint, and they have gone back to this tactic from time to time over the years. Instead of looking for two or three top-line free agents with the price tags to match, use the same money to sign seven to 10 players at the next level, knowing that not all of them will pan out, but you should be covered in terms of overall roster depth, which has been an issue for the Broncos in the post-Manning era.

Okay…
1. Who owns the team right now?
2. Who’s John Elway’s boss?
3. Who’s that person’s boss?
4. Does that person have a boss?
5. Who is/would be responsible to make necessary changes if the team goes 3-13?
6. Who’s actually running this team?
7. Is there a leadership vacuum?

— Damien Lodes (@OKCWXMan) October 3, 2019

1. The Pat Bowlen Trust.
2. Joe Ellis, the Broncos’ president and chief executive officer.
3. No one. Ellis is part of the three-person trust that administers the team along with longtime team counsel Rich Slivka and attorney Mary Kelly.
4. See answer No. 3.
5. Ellis.
6. Ellis, with Elway responsible for the football side.
7. There isn’t a vacuum, but the Broncos sit in an interesting spot. Ellis has always sought to maintain fidelity to Bowlen’s vision for — and management of of — the team. He takes his role as steward of the team and Bowlen’s legacy seriously. But Ellis also told the Associated Press this summer that in the wake of Bowlen’s death, “I think Pat would want us to move on from him a little bit, you know? I don’t think we’re going to be able to do that totally because of what he’s provided all of us … But it’s time to buckle up your chin strap here and do things the Broncos way. Yeah, we want to make Pat proud. We’re going to honor him. It’s a subtle honoring with the decal on the helmet and he’ll always be in the back of my mind. But you know what, we have to act independently now in some fashion.” So it’s apparent to him that the time is now to focus on forward momentum, even if that means moving away from some vestiges of the past.

At present, that is where the Broncos stand. Bowlen’s daughter Brittany will assume an executive role within the organization later this season, and how she develops in her role could lead to some clarity regarding long-term ownership, even as legal challenges continue to lurk over the trust’s stewardship of the team.

https://twitter.com/ToddNoall/status/1179669947581992960?s=20

Replacing a Hall of Fame owner is not unlike replacing a Hall of Fame quarterback, right? You just can’t snap your fingers and find an equal successor.

And ownership is a learn-on-the-job endeavor. One of the reasons why Bowlen was so successful was because he spent his first years on the job listening and learning. He didn’t walk into the Broncos’ headquarters on the north side of town in 1984 and clear-cut to put his own stamp on the organization; he listened and learned from Dan Reeves, John Beake, Jim Saccomano and others who understood the vagaries of the business. Bowlen took a similar path when he was around other owners and NFL bigwigs. The Broncos and the league were the better for it, because Bowlen had learned enough to add it to his own legal sense and business wisdom to become an exemplary owner.

Hi Mase. Fan of yours, keep up the good work! Miss your 760 Orange and Blue show/station. If you were advising the team, what TRADES would you suggest by deadline?

— SlingShot (@Slingsh99305534) October 3, 2019

First, thank you for the kind words. I’ve heard plenty from listeners who miss Orange and Blue 760. Fortunately, you’ll be able to get a taste of our late station this week when Steve Atwater and I join Matt McChesney on his McChesney Unchained podcast. It’s taken a little while to get the schedules aligned, but I’m excited to take the mic with Matt and Steve again. As Bart Scott would say, “Can’t wait!”

As for my advice on trades — I would offer none, as of Saturday, October 5. A loss to the Chargers probably puts the Broncos in the sellers camp, which is where I will begin.

Last year’s trade of Demaryius Thomas — which effectively had its yield in Flacco — provides a template for not only any future trades, but a reason why you should pull the trigger on a solid deal. In the case of Thomas, the Broncos were able to get more than his likely value had they held onto him for the balance of his contract; his play had declined to the point where a compensatory selection after his departure probably would have been a fifth-round pick, at best.

So that’s what you have to consider: Is the offer greater than what the player’s free-agent departure would yield in a compensatory pick? This comes up most often in public speculation regarding Chris Harris Jr. and Emmanuel Sanders, and in those cases, it would be reasonable to expect third- and fourth-round compensatory picks, respectively, for each of them. So any trade offer must exceed that in draft capital. Otherwise, stand pat.

https://twitter.com/Creach66/status/1179683232037527553?s=20

My thoughts …

I’m sure Peyton Manning will return to an NFL team if and when he is good and ready and finds the perfect situation. For all we know, that scenario isn’t in Denver, although I know many Broncos fans love to dream of it. He has the luxury of being picky.

That said, some of the most successful players-turned-executives found their niche with teams other than the ones for which they played. For example, the relocation of the Browns to become the Baltimore Ravens in 1996 gave Ozzie Newsome the chance to start anew when he ascended to the GM’s chair, and he as at least as successful as an executive as he was as a Hall of Fame player. In the NHL, longtime Red Wings star Steve Yzerman became a brilliant executive with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Sometimes some distance from the glories as a player can be a healthy thing.

Where does Mr. Goodbar rank on your list of best candy bars?

— RK (@RyanKoenigsberg) October 3, 2019

Top 25, definitely. It’s a long list. But when young Mase in the 1980s would look in his jack-o-lantern trick-or-treat receptacle and find the mini Mr. Goodbars, he was a happy lad.