Von Miller gives his perspective on Chris Harris Jr.'s situation with the Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos are back.

On Tuesday, the Denver Broncos reported for the first day of their voluntary offseason conditioning program, the first team organized activity of the season.

That is, except for Chris Harris Jr., who was a no-show as he seeks a contract extension.

“It’s optional, right? It’s an optional period to be here,” Von Miller said on Tuesday, downplaying the significance of one of Denver’s best players not showing up. “There’s really not too much to say about that. It’s his ninth year coming up, and whatever he has to do to get ready I’m for it.”

Harris Jr., one of the league’s top cornerbacks year in and year out, is entering the final year of his five-year, $42.5 million contract he signed in Dec. 2014.

Since then, Harris Jr.’s been viewed as one of the best values in the league, being the centerpiece of the No Fly Zone, while not making top dollar.

His $8.5 million per year average currently puts him as the 23rd-highest paid cornerback, and his $8.77 million cap hit in 2019 ranks as the 24th most among cornerbacks.

Last season, Harris Jr. was rated as a top-five cornerback in the entire NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.

The former undrafted free agent wants to be paid like the type of player he is, understandably so. Sixteen cornerbacks currently make at least $10 million per season, while the top five all make over $14 million per year.

The Broncos dished out $18 million per year to cornerbacks this offseason—$11 million per year to corner-safety hybrid  Kareem Jackson and $7 million per year to Bryce Callahan, an expert in the slot.

Throughout the offseason, John Elway has maintained he won’t consider extending current players until after the draft.

By his actions, Chris doesn’t want to wait until the end of April.

“We’re talking about Strap Harris. He can be on Mars and he’s still going be Strap Harris. He’s going through whatever he’s going through right now. I support him 100 percent,” Von said, backing his teammate. “When it’s time to go, he’s going to be ready to go.

“We all know what type of pro Chris is on and off the football field. He’s going to be ready to go whenever he’s here and if he’s not here he’s still going to be ready to go.”

This isn’t a foreign situation to Von.

While franchised tagged after Super Bowl 50, in which he was the MVP, Von skipped the entirety of the offseason conditioning program as he negotiated a long-term deal for himself. While on the outside it may appear to be a stressful situation for the player, Von said it was anything but.

“For me? Nah it wasn’t stressful at all. It wasn’t stressful at all. I was chillin’,” Von said with a chuckle and a grin. “I don’t think it’s stressful.

In the end, it worked out for both sides as the two worked out the largest defensive contract in NFL history before the start of training camp.

“Whenever you go over negotiations and contracts it can always get stressful because that’s your career. This is what I do. I want to play football. Whenever there’s some uncertainty—whether it’s going to be this or that—that’s a little bit stressful. But staying at home while everybody else is doing OTAs here in Denver, nah it wasn’t stressful.”

From now through the end of May, the Broncos will have team organized workouts each and every week. They will all be voluntary.

However, from June 4-6, the team will hold their mandatory minicamp, the only mandatory portion of the offseason.

Until then, if Chris decides to continue to skip these workouts, he’ll only be missing voluntary work.