Since he hasn’t signed his $9.828 million franchise tender from the Broncos, tackle Ryan Clady isn’t with the team for the voluntary portion of offseason workouts.
Clady, like most players who get tagged, would like to sign a long-term contract rather than play out the one-year tender but there hasn’t been much word at all about the possibility of such a deal getting done ahead of the July 15 deadline to sign players with franchise tags to multi-year deals. A lack of chatter doesn’t equal a lack of desire on the Broncos’ end of things, however.
On a conference call with season ticket holders on Tuesday, Broncos director of player personnel Matt Russell said that the Broncos “want him here” when asked about Clady and that the team is working with the tackle on a deal. Lindsay Jones of USA Today also reports that Russell said the team is “confident” that they’ll be able to agree on such a contract.
One complication to a deal could be the shoulder surgery Clady had after the end of last season. The Broncos could be waiting to see how he’s recovering before putting their best contract offer on the table while his rehab from the operation makes it less of a priority to get a deal done right now since Clady wouldn’t be able to do much on-field work at this point in the offseason.