HEADLINES

Denver Broncos News & Rumors

NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/5/21

January 5th, 2021 at 9:44am CST by Zachary Links

We’ll keep track of the latest reserve/futures deals here:

Carolina Panthers 

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Houston Texans

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Broncos Shake Up Front Office, John Elway To Hire GM

January 4th, 2021 at 2:24pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Major shakeup out of Denver, as John Elway is giving up personnel control of the Broncos. In a surprising move, Elway will move to President of Football Operations, and will hire a GM who is in control of the roster, the team announced Monday.

“As part of a transition I’ve thought about for a long time, I have made the decision to step up into an elevated role and hire a general manager to lead our personnel and football staff. While I’ll continue to be President of Football Operations in 2021, the GM will have final say on the draft, free agency and our roster. This person will be empowered to make all football decisions, working in partnership with Vic,” Elway said in a statement.

Under the new structure, both the new GM and Vic Fangio will report to Elway. Obviously the legendary former quarterback isn’t going anywhere, bu he is giving up a huge amount of power, and this feels like a way for the organization to bring in a new front office head without having to deal with the ordeal of firing Elway.

Elway took over in Denver in 2011, and obviously had quite a bit of success his first handful of years after luring Peyton Manning to the Broncos. That culminated in a win in Super Bowl 50, but things went downhill quickly after Manning and head coach Gary Kubiak retired.

The team has now endured four losing seasons in a row, and they have an unsettled quarterback situation with Drew Lock looking iffy his first two years in the league. Elway’s hire of Vance Joseph to replace Kubiak didn’t work out, and he’s drawn a lot of criticism for failing to stabilize things under center ever since Manning left. His one big swing in the draft, taking Paxton Lynch out of Memphis in the first-round, was an abject disaster.

There are now a whopping seven GM vacancies across the league. Elway’s top deputy has been Matt Russell, and he had an opportunity to interview for the GM job but declined and elected to retire, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

Russell will stay on for the time being to help Elway with the GM search, Schefter says. Bears exec Champ Kelly, 49ers exec Adam Peters (who has been linked to several other openings), and Bucs exec John Spytek are all names to keep an eye on for this search, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network says (Twitter video link). Spytek previously was a national scout under Elway in Denver, Peters was with the Broncos from 2009-16, and Kelly was with the organization from 2007-14.

2021 NFL Draft Order

January 4th, 2021 at 11:05am CST by Zachary Links

The 2020 regular season is in the books. For more than half of the NFL, that means the offseason is officially underway.

The league’s 18 non-playoff teams now know where they stand in the 2021 NFL Draft order. For the remaining clubs, the playoffs will help determine their position. Here’s the rundown of the 2021 NFL Draft order, thus far:

1. Jacksonville Jaguars
2. New York Jets
3. Miami Dolphins (via Texans)
4. Atlanta Falcons
5. Cincinatti Bengals
6. Philadelphia Eagles
7. Detroit Lions
8. Carolina Panthers
9. Denver Broncos
10. Dallas Cowboys
11. New York Giants
12. San Francisco 49ers
13. Los Angeles Chargers
14. Minnesota Vikings
15. New England Patriots
16. Arizona Cardinals
17. Las Vegas Raiders
18. Miami Dolphins

Minor NFL Transactions: 1/2/21

January 2nd, 2021 at 5:06pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Saturday’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

  • Signed off Jets’ practice squad: G Blake Hance
  • Activated from reserve/COVID-19 list: S Karl Joseph
  • Promoted: G Cordell Iwuagwu, LB Montrel Meander, T Alex Taylor

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

  • Promoted: DB John Brannon

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Latest On Broncos, Melvin Gordon

December 31st, 2020 at 6:00pm CST by Sam Robinson
  • The Broncos will have a decision to make at running back soon. They have Phillip Lindsay looming as an RFA, and Melvin Gordon‘s DUI arrest has him facing a three-game suspension — one that would stand to void the remaining guarantees on his two-year, $16MM deal. “Hopefully I did enough for them to want to keep me here,” Gordon said, via 9News’ Mike Klis. Gordon has rushed for 893 yards in 14 games but has a career-low 141 receiving yards.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/31/20

December 31st, 2020 at 5:28pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are the minor moves from 2020’s final day:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

  • Placed on reserve/COVID-19 list: C Alex Mack

Baltimore Ravens

Cincinnati Bengals

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Jacksonville Jaguars

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

New England Patriots

Philadelphia Eagles

Shelby Harris Wants To Stay With Broncos

December 29th, 2020 at 5:08pm CST by Sam Robinson

One of the Broncos’ better acquisitions in recent years, Shelby Harris is winding down his fourth season with the team. The veteran defensive tackle would prefer to extend this run.

Harris unexpectedly re-signed with the Broncos on a one-year deal this offseason, doing so after a market did not form for the talented interior defender. While the former seventh-round pick will again seek the first notable payday of his career, he would prefer that offer came from the Broncos.

“Obviously it would mean the world,” Harris said of another (presumably more lucrative) deal to stay with the Broncos, via the team’s website. “My family loves Denver; I love Denver, and Denver’s done nothing but do right by me since I’ve been here. I love it here, but at the end of the day I understand it’s a business and so you got to be ready for everything. … I’ve had two of my kids here; this is home for them. So obviously Denver is a special place for me.”

The Broncos brought back Harris on a one-year, $3.25MM contract. Despite missing four games due to a positive COVID-19 test, the 29-year-old defender has notched a career-high 11 quarterback hits this season. One of the NFL’s top bat-down artists, Harris has added seven pass deflections to give him 16 over the past two seasons.

While the Broncos hoped to have Harris and Jurrell Casey team up on this year’s defensive line, the latter suffered a season-ending injury in September. The Broncos are projected to have nearly $20MM in 2021 cap space and can create $11MM in additional funds by releasing the longtime Titans standout. Of course, the Broncos’ 2021 payroll does not yet include a Justin Simmons deal. Considering Harris’ 2020 market, he would appear to command a midlevel deal in a year when the cap is expected to decline. Losing both Harris and Casey would make the defensive front an obvious need area for the Broncos.

Rams Planning To Sign QB Blake Bortles

December 28th, 2020 at 8:20pm CST by Ben Levine

With Jared Goff being sidelined by a thumb injury, the Rams will be turning to a familiar face. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports (via Twitter) that Los Angeles is planning to sign Blake Bortles off the Broncos practice squad.

However, this impending signing shouldn’t add any confusion to this weekend’s depth chart. The team announced that Goff is officially out in a crucial contest against the Cardinals, with John Wolford getting the start under center. Meanwhile, Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic explains (on Twitter) that the Rams will likely promote Bryce Perkins from the practice squad, meaning they’ll temporarily be holding four quarterbacks (Goff, Wolford, Bortles, Perkins) on their active roster. One or two of these quarterbacks will likely land on the Rams practice squad once Goff is ready to return.

Following a disappointing five-year stint with the Jaguars, Bortles signed a one-year deal with the Rams during the 2019 offseason. He proceeded to appear in three games last season, completing a single three-yard pass. After going unsigned throughout the 2020 offseason, Bortles joined the Broncos in September following an injury to Drew Lock. He was eventually released by Denver and landed back on their practice squad.

In 78 career games, Bortles has completed 59.3-percent of his passes for 17,649 yards, 103 touchdowns, and 75 interceptions. The two quarterbacks currently ahead of him on the depth chart, Wolford and Perkins, have yet to appear in an NFL game.

Broncos To Retain Vic Fangio

December 27th, 2020 at 9:55am CST by Rory Parks

The Broncos will not be one of the teams looking for a new head coach in 2021. As Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports, Denver will bring back HC Vic Fangio for his third season with the team.

As the Broncos went 7-9 in 2019 and are just 5-9 this season, Fangio’s return was not a sure thing. But we had not heard any real speculation that his job could be in jeopardy, so Schefter’s report does not come as much of a surprise.

Fangio hardly fits the mold of the young, offensive genius that many teams are looking for in head coaches these days. The longtime defensive assistant was 60 when the Broncos hired him in January 2019, but as Troy Renck of Denver 7 ABC tweets, he has strong relationships with GM John Elway and CEO Joe Ellis, and Schefter says the organization not only recognizes the importance of stability, it also believes in Fangio and respects his approach (though Broncos fans will rightfully tell you that he needs to improve his in-game decision-making).

The club feels that injuries to key players like Courtland Sutton and Von Miller, along with COVID-19 issues, have conspired to undermine Fangio in 2020. Plus, the quarterback situation has been far from ideal, as the Broncos have had to use six different QBs in the past two seasons, and 2019 second-rounder Drew Lock is still very much a work in progress.

Another losing season in 2021 will likely spell the end of Fangio’s tenure in Denver, but he will get at least one more shot to get the franchise moving in the right direction.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/26/20

December 26th, 2020 at 4:32pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Saturday’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

  • Promoted: C Javon Patterson

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

New England Patriots

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Load More Posts