With Peyton Manning ready to move on or move out of Denver, the Broncos’ focus is on re-signing quarterback Brock Osweiler. But the Broncos may not be offering Osweiler a lot of money, at least by the standards of an NFL starting quarterback.
The Denver Post reports that the offer the Broncos are making Osweiler is “likely to be more than Los Angeles Rams quarterback Nick Foles’ $12.27 million per season.”
That short description contains a lot to unpack. How much “more than” $12.27 million a season? If it’s not much more than what Foles is making, it’s easy to see why Osweiler hasn’t signed the deal yet. In a league where Kirk Cousins is making $20 million this year and Sam Bradford is set to make $36 million over the next two years, Osweiler surely wants to hit the open market and see if some team views him as more worthy of a Cousins/Bradford deal than a Foles deal.
Osweiler becomes a free agent if he hasn’t signed an extension with the Broncos by March 9, and at that point some quarterback-needy team might decide to take a shot on him, and offer him something more like a Cousins/Bradford deal than a Foles deal. If that happens, the Broncos better have a Plan B in place.
Maybe Plan B is Manning, but only if he’d be willing to take a lot less than the $19 million he’s scheduled to make. And, for that matter, a lot less than the $12 million the Broncos are apparently offering Osweiler.