Bradley Roby Wants To Stay With Broncos
Cornerback Bradley Roby is set to hit free agency in the spring, but he’s hoping to stay put. With longstanding ties in Denver, the 26-year-old says he wants to re-sign with the Broncos. 
“This is the organization that drafted me,” Roby said (Twitter link via Troy Renck of Denver7). “I bought a home here. Why would I want to leave?”
The versatile veteran has started in all 13 of his games this season and it stands to reason that the Broncos would want him back at the right price. After signaling his desire to sign a new deal in Denver, there’s a possibility that he’ll accept a hometown discount and forgo his chance to entertain other offers.
Through 15 weeks of the NFL season, Pro Football Focus has Roby ranked as just the 93rd best cornerback in the NFL out of 116 qualifiers. It’s a dip from his work in years past, including his career-best showing in 2017.
The Broncos wrap their season with games against the Raiders and Chargers.
Broncos Plan To Fire Vance Joseph
The Broncos are planning to fire head coach Vance Joseph at the end of the season, a league source tells Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Joseph has been rumored to be on the hot seat since last year, so this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. 
[RELATED: Broncos Considered Bringing Back Mike Shanahan]
Joseph was given a reprieve last year, but GM John Elway considered ousting him after just one season. Reportedly, Elway approached team ownership with the idea of bringing back Mike Shanahan, but Elway was instructed to either conduct a head coaching search that would not include Shanahan or give Joseph another shot with a better quarterback.
The Broncos went out and upgraded the quarterback position considerably – or, at least, they thought they did. Case Keenum has thrown for just 15 touchdowns against 12 interceptions in his first season with Denver and his 62.1% completion percentage is way behind his 67.6% posting last year with the Vikings.
The Broncos are tied to Keenum through 2019 thanks to his two-year, $36MM contract, but they apparently have no qualms about cutting of Joseph’s deal, which runs through 2021. The Broncos are 6-8 heading into their final two games and changes clearly need to be made.
In other Broncos news, the team placed star cornerback Chris Harris on injured reserve this week.
Broncos Place CB Chris Harris On IR
Chris Harris won’t return for the Broncos this season. The Broncos will place Harris on injured reserve and sign fellow cornerback Craig Mager to replace him, according to Ryan O’Halloran of the Denver Post (on Twitter). 
Harris, 29, suffered a fractured fibula on Dec. 2, but the team wanted to keep its options open in case he would be needed for the playoffs. At 6-8, the Broncos have been mathematically eliminated from contention, so there’s little reason to put Harris in harm’s way.
The Broncos have every reason to believe that Harris will be ready to go for offseason activities in the spring. He’s somewhat close to full health already and he managed to bounce back from a torn ACL in record time earlier in his career. The cornerback tore his ACL against the Chargers in a 2013 divisional playoff game, but managed to play in the 2014 season opener.
The Broncos wrap up their season with games against the Raiders and Chargers.
Broncos Notes: Harris, Ray, Joseph
Here’s the latest out of Denver:
- It’s “very possible” that cornerback Chris Harris will be placed on injured reserve this week, coach Vance Joseph told reporters (Twitter link via Mike Klis of 9News). Harris, 29, suffered a fractured fibula on Dec. 2, but the team wanted to keep its options open in case he would be needed for the playoffs. At 6-8, the Broncos have been mathematically eliminated from contention, so there’s little reason to put Harris in harm’s way.
- Linebacker Shane Ray was a healthy scratch for the first in his career on Saturday and he didn’t hide his frustration when speaking with local beat writers on Monday. “Little disrespectful, but that’s all good, I don’t think I’ve been (a healthy) inactive in my whole career,” Ray said. “Whatever reason they felt I need to be inactive, that’s on them.” When asked if he’ll appear in the Broncos’ final two games of the season, Ray replied, “Y’all got to ask Vance Joseph that.” The Broncos declined Ray’s fifth-year option back in May and it seems unlikely that the 2015 first-round pick will return to Denver next year. Multiple wrist surgeries cost Ray eight games in 2017 and the Broncos seem prepared to move on.
- Joseph is on the hot seat, but Mike Shanahan is not expected to garner consideration if the Broncos conduct a search for a new head coach.
Mike Shanahan Not Option For Broncos HC?
The NFL news cycle had not seen Mike Shanahan-Broncos overlap in many years, but Monday brought that, with a report indicating the two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach was a consideration for the Broncos late last year.
With the Broncos likely set to have a coaching vacancy soon, Shanahan would conceivably be in play for a Broncos reunion this time around. But that does not appear to be the case. The 66-year-old coach will not be among the candidates considered if/when the Broncos fire Vance Joseph, Mike Klis of 9News reports.
John Elway‘s hesitance in giving Joseph his second season was partially Shanahan-related, but Broncos president Joe Ellis was less on-board than the GM, ultimately nixing the idea. However, the talks for Shanahan to reclaim his post as Broncos HC did not go too far, with The Athletic’s Nicki Jhabvala reporting (subscription required) Ellis did not directly refute the idea of Shanahan 2.0. The Elway-Ellis talks regarding Shanahan were not especially formal, Jhabvala notes, adding no offer or deal framework was discussed.
This news called into question who was making the final football decisions in Denver, but Jhabvala notes the GM, and not Ellis, is still the point man on football operations. Ellis did give Elway the go-ahead to fire Joseph after last season if he so chose, but that a thorough coaching search be conducted rather than rehiring Shanahan. That said, Ellis did not want Shanahan to be part of the search. And it appears that stance remains.
The Broncos fired Shanahan after 14 seasons in 2008. He has not coached since his Redskins tenure ended after the 2013 campaign. Part of this Shanahan-return talk involved Kirk Cousins, with Woody Paige of the Colorado Springs Gazette reporting Shanahan and his former pupil met during the offseason, Cousins indicating he would follow Shanahan to Denver at a reduced rate. However, Jhabvala refutes this, writing Cousins did not meet with Shanahan nor discuss a discount Broncos setup.
Denver then went with Case Keenum for Joseph’s second year, and while the results have been better than they were in 2017, injuries and some maligned in-game coaching decisions have weakened this year’s team. Joseph, who met with Elway on Monday about the Shanahan reports, is 11-19 in two years. Joseph will not be fired before the season ends, Klis adds.
Broncos Considered Mike Shanahan
In January of 2018, Vance Joseph narrowly avoided getting the ax after just one season as the Broncos’ head coach. Before the team settled on keeping him, GM John Elway considered hiring old friend Mike Shanahan to man the sidelines, according to Mike Klis of 9News. 
Shanahan, it seems, expressed serious interest in the job. And Elway, at minimum, was intrigued. He brought the idea to CEO Joe Ellis, where the idea more or less died. Ellis presented Elway with two main courses of action: conduct a wide-ranging search for a new head coach that would not include Shanahan, or give Joseph a second season with a better quarterback.
Elway went with Door No. 2, but Case Keenum has not lived up to expectations thus far in Denver. And, once again, Joseph is on the hot seat, but it doesn’t sound like Shanahan will be considered if a change is made.
Shanahan led the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowls, but his run in Denver did not end on a high note. The Broncos missed the postseason in his final three years as head coach and he has just one playoff win to his credit over his last 14 years as a head coach. And, he boasts an impressive coaching tree, but he has not coached since his 2013 dismissal in Washington.
The Broncos limped to a 3-6 start this year, but a three-game winning streak (which included Ws over the Chargers and Steelers), brought them back to the .500 mark. Unfortunately, injuries to cornerback Chris Harris Jr. and receiver Emmanuel Sanders took them down a peg and they are now out of the playoff picture at 6-8.
Chad Kelly Due In Court On Monday
Former Broncos quarterback Chad Kelly is due in court on Monday to be arraigned on a felony charge of first-degree trespassing, the Denver Post’s Sam Tabachnik writes. 
The charge stems from an Oct. 23 incident when the backup signal-caller allegedly walked into a family’s house after departing Von Miller‘s Halloween party. According to the arrest affidavit, Kelly sat down next to a woman on her couch and mumbled incoherently. He was then attacked by the man who lived there with an aluminum tube from a vacuum cleaner, forcing the quarterback out of the house. He was later arrested outside the Gothic Theatre, the site of the party. The Broncos later released him.
A highly touted quarterback in college, Kelly saw his draft stock slip for maturity concerns. Obviously, the aforementioned incident hasn’t done much to remove those concerns. Before the incident, however, Kelly was impressing Broncos brass with his play in the preseason, completing 66.7 percent of his passes for 466 yards and three touchdowns in four games, including one start.
He recently announced his attempt at a comeback, tweeting a clip of him throwing to a receiver.
Broncos Bench Two Players Ahead Of Pivotal Game
The Broncos are playing a game they must win to keep their playoff hopes alive in a couple of hours, and are making a major change ahead of the game. 
Outside linebacker Shane Ray and safety Su’a Cravens will be benched and be healthy scratches for the game against the Browns, a source told Mike Klis of Denver 9 News. Klis writes that the moves are “strictly a coach’s decision”, meaning embattled head coach Vance Joseph made the call. Ray was a first round pick of the Broncos back in 2015, and has mostly been a disappointment after a promising first two years. He’s battled various injuries and has just one sack this year, and the team declined his fifth-year team option earlier this year. He’ll be a free agent after the season, so it’s quite possible he’s played his last down in a Broncos uniform.
Cravens is in his first year with the Broncos after spending his first two years in the league with Washington. Cravens was a second round pick of the Redskins in 2016, but quickly had a falling out with the organization. The Broncos traded a couple of draft picks to acquire Cravens this past March, and he’s been a major disappointment. He missed most of the year with a knee injury, and Klis notes that he’s “struggled in coverage” since returning.
Both of the players had been seeing significant snaps on defense, so it’s a major shakeup. It feels like a last gasp for Joseph, as he seems almost certain to lose his job if the team misses the playoffs. There have been whispers in the past about Joseph losing the locker room, so it will be very interesting to see how these moves go over.
Broncos Tried To Trade For Nick Chubb
A matchup between two of this rookie class’ top players will occur tonight, when Bradley Chubb and Nick Chubb share the field in a do-or-die Broncos-Browns tilt. But Denver attempted to make the second cousins teammates on draft weekend. The Broncos attempted to trade up and select Nick Chubb, Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic writes (subscription required). Bradley Chubb alerted Nick of the possibility they could be teammates, but the Browns held onto their pick and selected the Georgia-developed running back. And Nick Chubb looks like Cleveland’s best backfield option in years.
Courtland Sutton soon went to Denver at No. 41, and that allowed the Broncos to collect a 2019 draft choice for Demaryius Thomas. While that trade (and the season-ending Achilles injury Emmanuel Sanders suffered) leaves the Broncos as thin at wideout as they’ve been in ages, Sutton does have an opportunity to make an impression in the Broncos’ final three games as their No. 1 target. Had the Nick Chubb-to-Denver scenario played out, third-round pick Royce Freeman likely would be elsewhere.
NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/11/18
Here are the latest NFL practice squad decisions:
Denver Broncos
- Signed: WR Shay Fields
New York Jets
- Signed: RB Joel Bouagnon, LB Jonathan Celestin
- Released: S Tyvis Powell
Philadelphia Eagles
- Signed: CB Josh Hawkins
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: TE Marcus Lucas
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Signed: LB Emmanuel Smith