If the Broncos have their way, the annual NFL owners meetings will produce more draft picks than rule changes.
The meetings begin Sunday at the Arizona Biltmore resort in Phoenix and run through Wednesday. Chief executive officer and president Joe Ellis will lead the Broncos’ contingent, which will include general manager John Elway and head coach Gary Kubiak.
The league’s 32 clubs will be asked to consider up to 23 proposed rule changes and four bylaw amendments. One change that has a strong chance of receiving the necessary 24 votes for approval: Bill Belichick’s idea of having stationary cameras alongside the sidelines and goal lines to be used for replay.
Belichick, who coaches the New England Patriots, has been pushing for the additional equipment since his own Benjamin Watson appeared to knock the ball from Champ Bailey’s hand at the pylon during a 100-yard interception return in Denver’s second-round playoff victory in January 2006.
Also at the meetings, the NFL will award 32 compensatory picks for the 2015 draft — with the Broncos hoping to nab up to four. Compensatory picks are awarded based on a formula that primarily factors contract values of free- agent players gained against contract values of free-agent players lost in the previous season.
In this case, it was 2014 free agency that will affect the Broncos’ 2015 compensation draft picks. The formula is complicated and somewhat clandestine, but Elway said two weeks ago the way his calculator punchers have it figured, the Broncos should get four compensatory picks, in rounds four through seven, in this year’s draft, which starts April 30.
Denver currently has six draft picks — none in the fourth (used to trade up to get Cody Latimer in the second round last year) or seventh (used to acquire kicker Brandon McManus) but two in the fifth.
There is a simplistic explanation for the projection. In free agency last year, the Broncos lost Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Eric Decker, Zane Beadles, Wesley Woodyard, Knowshon Moreno, Shaun Phillips and Robert Ayers. That’s seven free agents who left. In turn, the Broncos signed free agents Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward and Emmanuel Sanders. (DeMarcus Ware didn’t count in this formula because he was cut by the Dallas Cowboys two days before he signed with Denver.) That’s three free agents who came in.
The difference is four. Due to a complicated formula, however, it’s possible the Broncos will be awarded fewer than four picks.
