After 18 NFL seasons and another Super Bowl title, Peyton Manning has decided to retire from the NFL, answering one question about the Broncos’ future at quarterback but leaving the most significant ones unresolved:
Can they keep Brock Osweiler as their quarterback of the future? And, if so, at what cost?
The Broncos intially stalled negotiations with Osweiler out of deference to Manning, saying repeatedly that they hoped to retain the 25-year-old quarterback but wanted to afford Manning ample time to mull his future.
“He’s deserved that after 18 years in this league,” general manager John Elway said said at the NFL scouting combine last month.
But as the window to figure out the Broncos’ free-agent puzzle closed, Elway & Co. had to respectfully move on. Their intentions to keep Osweiler were made clear, and the Broncos have offered him a competitive contract.
On the table is worth about $13 million per season in salary. Although the guarantees and incentives are unknown, the value exceeds that of the contract for Rams quarterback Nick Foles, whose $12.27 million average annual salary was believed to be the floor in negotiations for a new deal with Osweiler.
But on Monday other teams can begin negotiating with free agents and can sign them to new deals starting Wednesday.
A salary cap increase to $155.27 million, the earlier re-signing of Philadelphia’s Sam Bradford (two years, $36 million) and the franchise tag placed on Washington’s Kirk Cousins ($19.953 million) could continue to raise the value of Osweiler on the open market.
“We know where Brock is,” Elway said at the NFL scouting combine. “Brock knows what we have to offer. We still have a great deal of interest in Brock. We’d like to do something with Brock.”
After watching from the sideline for more than three and a half seasons, Osweiler took the reins in a Week 10 home loss last season and started the next seven games as Manning recovered from a foot injury. In seven starts, Osweiler notched five wins, including key victories against New England and Cincinnati. He showed flashes of his potential (170-of-275 passing for 1,967 yards, 10 touchdowns, six interceptions, 86.4 quarterback rating) and of his fit in Gary Kubiak’s zone-blocking offense. But he also showed signs of his inexperience in the pocket, taking 23 sacks.
The trial was longer than anyone anticipated at the start of the season. But placing a value on a franchise’s future who has only seven career starts can be difficult in a market where quarterbacks are paid in extremes.
“When you look at where the salaries are on quarterbacks, either above $15 million or below $5 (million),” Elway told Pro Football Talk recently. “There’s no middle class of quarterbacks. So that’s where you hope you could get a fair deal with Brock’s people and his representatives. … This won’t be his big contract, but this will be a contract where he’ll be able to make very good money and be able to prove himself that could lead to that next big contract.”
Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @NickiJhabvala
