As his offer-sheet deadline approaches, Hamza Abdullah moves closer to staying put.
Abdullah is the Broncos’ incumbent starting strong safety, but available for hire as a restricted free agent.
Another team can swipe him away in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick and presumably a contract worth more than the $927,000 salary tendered by the Broncos. But he has yet to draw an outside offer, and with teams now bunkered for the draft, it’s increasingly likely the restricted free-agent period will expire April 18 with Abdullah still in Denver.
“Hopefully, things will come out on top in the end,” said Abdullah, who started the final eight games last season. “This is definitely the place I want to be, and I think they want me to be here.”
Before he became a restricted free agent, Abdullah and the Broncos engaged in multiyear contract negotiations.
“We just couldn’t come to an agreement,” he said. “They didn’t want me to be unhappy signing a deal that wouldn’t have worked for me, and I know at the time it was hard to determine my market value.”
He has been attending the Broncos’ offseason workout training program, where the goal has been to improve his tackling technique.
“I’ve been working a lot on short-space quickness,” he said. “By improving in that area, it will help me with my open-field tackling.”
