What the acquisition of A.J. Bouye means for the Broncos

DENVER — For the second consecutive year, the Broncos looked at a pressing need heading into free agency, saw that the cost was a fourth-round pick and said, “Why wait?”

They hope it works out better this time.

In February of last year, the Broncos agreed to send a fourth-round selection to Baltimore for quarterback Joe Flacco. By Week 9, he was out of the lineup with a neck injury, the Broncos were 2-6 and the offense was in the tank.

Just under 11 months later, the Broncos will ship a fourth-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for cornerback A.J. Bouye — specifically, the pick acquired from the San Francisco 49ers as part of the Emmanuel Sanders trade last October. The deal was first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It will be consummated when the new league year begins March 18.

There is every reason to believe that the Bouye deal will work out better than the Flacco acquisition.

What does Bouye’s arrival mean?

IMPACT ON THE CAP

The Broncos will inherit the final two years of a five-year contract Bouye signed with the Jaguars in 2017. With $4 million remaining of prorated signing bonus counting against the Jaguars’ cap, the Broncos will assume a cap and cash charge of $13,437,500 for 2020 and $13,500,000 for 2021, per numbers compiled by OvertheCap.com.

However, Bouye will effectively be on a year-to-year deal barring a restructure, as none of the remaining salary is guaranteed.

It’s a deal that does not hamstring the Broncos for future years. It gives them a cornerback who has No. 1-cornerback talent, but enters his age-29 season in search of a return to form after the most difficult season of his seven-year career.

IMPACT ON THE DEFENSE

He can be a No. 1 cornerback — and gets a true chance to be that in Denver.

At his 2016-2017 apex, Bouye was dominant.

In 2016 with the Texans, he completed his four-year, first-contract rise by breaking up 22 passes, intercepting three others and allowing just two touchdowns to help Houston to the AFC West crown. He signed with the Jaguars a year later and doubled his interception total in spite of being targeted just 19 more times than he was in the previous season, capitalizing off the attention paid to Jalen Ramsey on the other side.

That year, he allowed opposing passers to muster a mere 31.6 rating against him, according to numbers compiled by Pro Football Focus.

Bouye is also a reliable open-field tackler. Among the 120 cornerbacks with at least 50 tackles in the last three years, his missed-tackle percentage of 8.4 is 29th, placing him in the top quarter of all NFL cornerbacks in that span.

In Denver, he will be the No. 1 cornerback — a role in which Bouye struggled at times last year after the Jaguars traded Ramsey to the Los Angeles Rams. However, the structure of Fangio’s defense should relieve some pressure from him while allowing some playmaking opportunities.

Denver’s strength at safety should allow Bouye to make more plays on the ball, knowing that the back end is covered thanks to Simmons’ range. And of course, if the Broncos can play from ahead more often than they did in the last three seasons — and the Jaguars did in the previous two — Bouye should have a chance to approach his 2017 ballhawking prowess.

IMPACT ON THEIR FREE-AGENCY PLANS

This probably takes the Broncos out of the running to re-sign Chris Harris Jr. or add a premium free agent such as Dallas’ Byron Jones, who could nab as much as $16 to $17 million per year on the market.

The Broncos are now expected to have at least $48.07 million of their 2020 salary cap allotted to their first-team secondary: $13,437,500 to Bouye, $14 million to Kareem Jackson, $7,833,333 to Bryce Callahan and roughly $12.8 million to safety Justin Simmons if the Broncos slap him with the franchise tag.

Given the questions that linger about Callahan’s foot after he missed the entire 2019 season, Denver still needs at least one more cornerback, unless the team is comfortable rolling the dice on Devontae Harris or Isaac Yiadom finding their form.

Ex-Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara, who turns 31 in June, could fill that need. He brings two seasons of experience in Fangio’s defense with the Bears, and the Broncos might be able to acquire him for approximately $6 million a year.

The potential addition of Amukamara would take the Broncos’ secondary further into the cost stratosphere, but it would allow the team to sleep well at night knowing that it didn’t need to select a cornerback in the first two days of the draft.

It’s also the sort of outlay you can justify when you have a cost-controlled quarterback like Drew Lock at the offensive helm.