Kareem Jackson says the door to a Broncos return is “not entirely closed.” And, over the weekend, Broncos GM George Paton echoed those sentiments, as Troy Renck of Denver7 tweets. 
“With Kareem, we had great conversations with his agent,” Paton said. “We tried to get something done but we couldn’t. We left the door open for Kareem to come back.”
When the two sides couldn’t agree on a restructured deal, the Broncos declined the veteran safety’s option to save $7.1MM in cap space. Jackson, 32, joined the Broncos on a three-year, $33MM deal back in 2019. He quickly became a favorite among teammates and the coaching staff for hard-hitting style. Over the last two years, he started in all 29 of his games for Denver, tallying 160 tackles, 14 passes defended, and three interceptions.
One way or another, the Broncos need to fill the safety spot alongside Justin Simmons. However, it’s likely that Jackson will explore his options before considering a lesser offer from the Broncos. Meanwhile, Paton says he won’t rush the process.
“It’s a priority,” Paton said of the position. “It definitely is but we have a long time. There’s free agency, there’s a lot of safeties on the market, including Kareem, and then we have the draft. There’s also the trade market. The good thing is we don’t play a game for a while. We have a lot of time.”
He was the best safety on the team.
Wait, what?
Justin Simmons says hello.
Definitely the best safety on the team.
Uh, not as long as Simmons is on the roster.