Casserly: ‘Not sure haul’ would be worth Broncos trading Von Miller
Feb 20, 2018, 12:00 AM | Updated: 8:14 am
Last week, “Stokley and Zach” co-host Brandon Stokley said that “everything is on the table” for the Broncos this offseason and trading Von Miller might be the “drastic” measure needed to shape Denver back into a championship-caliber team.
“Everything is on the table, and if you want to go get Kirk Cousins and Nate Solder, then you might have to part with Von Miller,” Stokley said on Wednesday. “So be it. Love you Von, but look, this football team needs something drastic to happen to get back to a championship-caliber team.”
But NFL Network analyst and former general manager Charley Casserly told the show last weeks to pump the brakes a bit, that the market for Miller’s prolific pass-rushing services might not be as wide open as expected.
“The market for Von Miller may not be what you think it is because of what you’re paying him,” Casserly said. “Teams are going to have to have the cap room and then they’re going to have to sustain, to hold that player at that number.”
Ahead of the 2016 season, Miller inked the second-highest contract for a defensive player in the NFL — behind only Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh — according to Spotrac.com, with an average yearly salary of $19 million.
In 2018 along, Miller’s cap hit is $22.4 million with a dead cap of $29.2 million.
“On the surface, that’s easier said than done to trade him,” Casserly said.
Casserly said the Broncos would be better off keeping Miller because, unlike other prolific defenses of late, Denver likely wouldn’t be able to sustain losing him and the returns would not be significant enough.
“If you trade him because of the cap room, that’s one thing. If you trade him to get players or prospects, I’m not sure the haul is going to be worth it,” Casserly said.
Stokley called Miller a “special player, a future Ring of Famer, but he’s the only asset the Broncos have to secure all the holes left from misses in the NFL Draft and free agency over the years.
“If we were just a quarterback away, I’d say OK. That’s fine. But we need a tackle. We need another guard. We need possibly a tight end. We need a slot receiver. We need to upgrade the receiver room,” Stokley said. “There are a lot of needs offensively everywhere, across the board.
“And, so, if you want to take this thing year by year and in 2021 we’ll look back and say now we finally have an offense, I don’t know if I’ll be around then. I want to get this thing done quickly.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
