Picking a side in the Broncos-Von Miller contract dispute is easy: Pay the man

Torn over which side to side with in the current contract dispute between Von Miller and your Denver Broncos?

Don’t be. It’s an easy call, and in this particular dispute, it’s Miller.

And it’s really not much of a debate.

We keep referring to this as a dispute as that’s what it’s become even though it didn’t start out that way.

Remember way back when when Miller said he expected the negotiations on a new long-term deal to be “peaceful?” Well, that was a leaked contract proposal and a few notable social-media posts ago.

Now we’re 27 days – and counting – away from the July 15 deadline to sign franchise-tagged players to long-term deals. In related news, the summer solstice officially arrives Monday, which in sum means the heat is most definitely on.

And Celsius or Fahrenheit – it doesn’t matter – according to this particular temperature gauge, most of the heat is on John Elway and Co. The parameters of their recent six-year, $114.5 offer to the Super Bowl 50 MVP were reasonable and acceptable, but the guaranteed portion ($39.5 million) was not.

Bump up the full guarantees by a little more than a third – another $20 million or so – and we should have a (long-term) deal in place so Miller and the rest of defending champs can get about their 2016 business of defending.

In the meantime, though, Miller waits.

It’s a situation he’s become all-too familiar with as all of the other standouts from the stellar 2011 draft class – J.J. Watt, Cam Newton, Richard Sherman – have been rewarded handsomely after outperforming their rookie deals. Miller, the second-overall pick from that talented bunch, is only top-level performer from the class still without a long-term second contract.

That ain’t right.

In the meantime, many label the recent big-$$ deals doled out to defenders Ndamukong Suh (6 years,$114.38 million, $59.96 million guaranteed) Olivier Vernon (5-$85M-$52.5M guaranteed), Justin Houston (6-$101M-$52.5M guaranteed) and Fletcher Cox (6-$102.6-$63.3M guaranteed) as over-paid mistakes.

In reality, it’s known as the 2016 offseason market for standout defensive players, and Von deserves his spot at – or very near – the pinnacle of that list.

Any lingering doubts, just cue up your DVR recordings of the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl 50 and watch No. 58 make like wrecking ball to the tune of five sacks, an interception and a pair of forced fumbles. And those are only the easily quantifiable stats.

Sure it may smack some of recency bias, but consider that Von’s postseason resume consisted of only 1.5 sacks, no interceptions and no forced fumbles in five previous playoff games.

The Broncos – and Broncos Country – wanted to see Miller become more of a playoff impact player, and did he ever.

They wanted him to clean up his off-field activities – and he has.

And they’ve wanted him to become more of a lockerroom leader and inspiring presence to his teammates. Check and check.

All that’s missing is a long-term second contract with guarantees in the $60-$65 million range as one of the NFL’s best-compensated defensive players.

Pay the man – he’s earned it.