The five unrestricted free agents the Broncos should keep

When John Elway announced last week that the Broncos would not pick up the option on right guard Ron Leary’s contract, that added another key contributor to the list of Broncos who will be on the unrestricted market when the new league year begins March 19.

They can’t keep them all. They won’t keep them all.

Last year, they kept just two players who hit the unfettered market: tight end Jeff Herman and defensive lineman Zach Kerr. While Heuerman saw first-team repetitions throughout the season, Kerr did not make it to the regular season.

This March, the situation is different. The coaching staff is largely intact. The team’s rebuilding project — unspoken, yes, but obvious just the same — is close to bearing fruit. A 7-5 record from Week 5 through the end of the season with three different starting quarterbacks happened in part because of players who are set to hit the market.

Who should the Broncos keep?

It starts with an obvious name.

1. S JUSTIN SIMMONS

Obvious, essential and key to the Broncos’ hopes of turning their defense from solid in 2019 into one of the league’s best in 2020. Vic Fangio needs Simmons, and the same is true in the inverse. It’s a symbiotic relationship that should result in a long-term deal, even if the Broncos must franchise Simmons first to get there. Every player the Broncos have tagged has been signed to a multi-year contract. There is no reason to expect a different outcome here.

2. CB CHRIS HARRIS JR.

The interest in Harris is expected to be high, which is why a tweet from the Dallas Morning News’ Calvin Watkins stating that Harris had met with “at least 24 teams” at the Combine came as no surprise. (Harris was vacationing out of the country last week, and Watkins later clarified that the meetings involved Harris’ agent.) With myriad opportunities to reach a long-term deal in the last two years, the Broncos chose to wait, and now the clamor has intensified.

The apparent interest in him from around the league could give the Broncos pause. If much of the league sees value in Harris’ services as he approaches his age-31 season, are the Broncos wise in moving on to a younger option — at a potentially higher price if the replacement is Dallas’ Byron Jones?

The Broncos do have Bryce Callahan to handle the slot — if he’s healthy. There’s a risk involved with moving on from Harris, who expressed frustration at times throughout the year, but is someone they know who provides the last link to the “No-Fly Zone” secondary. At a moment in which quarterback Drew Lock is reaching to the Broncos’ past by seeking out counsel from Peyton Manning, there is value in maintaining helpful connections with the people who helped make the Broncos’ most recent run of greatness possible — a value that goes beyond dollar signs.

There are plenty of reasons to part ways with Harris, too. The actuarial tables for cornerbacks aren’t kind for players who have passed their 30th birthday. But with the cap room the Broncos possess and the presence of cost-controlled options at key positions such as quarterback and wide receiver, they have the room to retain Harris if they want.

3. DE DEREK WOLFE

Here’s a list of the players who averaged at least one sack per game from Week 6 through the end of the regular season:

• Chandler Jones, Arizona
• Cameron Jordan, New Orleans
• Aaron Donald, L.A. Rams
• T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh
• Derek Wolfe, Denver

Injuries are an unfortunate part of the equation for Wolfe, who has missed at least four games in three of the last five seasons. But that must be balanced with the fact that Fangio’s scheme unlocked his potential in a way that others had not, and that he could be a mismatch in the one-on-one situations he should see frequently when rushing the passer. You don’t want to overpay because of the injury history, but interior rushers who were as efficient as Wolfe was once he got rolling in Fangio’s scheme are hard to find.

4. DE SHELBY HARRIS

Because playing time was scant and practice-squad stints were frequent for him in 2015 and 2016, Harris is scheduled to hit the unrestricted market two years after many of his 2014 draft brethren. He turns 29 in August, and he’s coming off a year in which he set career highs in sacks, tackles for loss, total tackles and starts.

Harris has a knack for batting down passes at or near the line of scrimmage; he has become one of the league’s elite players at this particular skill. One deflection won a game for them (the season finale against Oakland).

The Broncos have the room to keep both Wolfe and Shelby Harris if they really want. But they have 2019 third-round pick Dre’Mont Jones waiting in the wings, so they only NEED one of them.

5. S WILL PARKS

He’s this year’s Shaquil Barrett — a player who is clearly the caliber of a starter but doesn’t have that role in the Broncos’ defense thanks to their commitment to other players, in this case Simmons and Kareem Jackson. Elway’s announcement that the team will franchise Simmons if they can’t strike a long-term deal with him effectively deals a $14 million hit to the cap, and with the team expected to spend at cornerback, there is little room left for another safety, even one with the versatility of Parks. His aggression serves him well for the hybrid linebacker-safety role that is finding its niche. The Broncos can’t give him a starting spot per se, but they can give him starter’s repetitions.

Barrett struck gold by moving on — both in cash and in prominence – and Parks could do the same. But if Parks flourishes elsewhere, expect the same kind of hand-wringing in the public that accompanied Barrett’s biggest games in his breakout 2019 season with Tampa Bay.

Others to consider:

• C Connor McGovern was solid as a starter last year, but the Broncos have a young option in Patrick Morris and an opportunity to supplement him with a potential plug-and-play interior starter in the first two days of the draft. An exceptional draft class at the position could leave the Broncos to prioritize other spots.
• OLB Jeremiah Attaochu was at his most efficient in a fill-in role with the Broncos last year, reversing three years of injury-strewn frustration with a solid season in which he didn’t miss a game after breaking into the lineup in Week 5. He posted 3.5 sacks in the five games he started in Weeks 13-17 and if he’s content with backup duties behind Von Miller and Bradley Chubb, he represents trustworthy depth.
• LS Casey Kreiter is the only Pro Bowl long snapper in Broncos history, for what it’s worth. A player with his duties is only noticed when he misses; when he’s dependable, as Kreiter has been, he’s out of sight and out of mind. This isn’t something the Broncos should leave to chance, and re-signing the fourth-year veteran for a contract of around $1 million per year is a wise play.
• The Broncos should re-sign one of their running backs to a one-year deal, but not both. Theo Riddick and Devontae Booker have similar strengths in the passing game, but Riddick’s explosiveness when healthy should give him the nod. Even though the Broncos got nothing for their $3 million investment in him because he was injured attempting to catch a pass in a preseason game at Seattle, a similar contract would be logical, perhaps with only half of that guaranteed. If the Broncos pursue a veteran such as Melvin Gordon in free agency, they won’t need Riddick.