Clayton: Busy day in the NFL shows Broncos in good spot, in ’21 and beyond

Thursday was a crazy day in the NFL.

Teams are restructuring contracts like mad, replacing base salary with signing bonuses to free up cap room. The Seahawks restructured the contracts of Duane Brown and Quandre Diggs. Brown got a $7.5 million signing bonus. Diggs got $5.5 million. They didn’t get extensions into next season, but the Seahawks created more cap room.

While these deals were happening, the Broncos sit in a great spot. They rank third in cap room with $19.45 million of space. Only Jacksonville and Carolina have more. But the Broncos are the main playoff contender with that much room. Washington is next at $14.68 million.

Think about the fact that George Paton spent $10 million a year for cornerback Ronald Darby and $9 million for Kyle Fuller, but still stayed that far below the cap. He did it by being creative.

They were able to get Teddy Bridgewater at a bargain price. They are in good shape if they want to add players during the season or extend contracts.

It was just restructures happening on Thursday, however. The Pittsburgh Steelers broke the bank and paid linebacker T.J. Watt more than $28 million a year.

Injuries are playing a big factor in the league and the Broncos might have gotten a break. On back-to-back plays, Baltimore Ravens running back Gus Edwards and cornerback Marcus Peters appeared to blow out their ACLs. The Ravens are now down their top three running backs – J.K. Dobbins (ACL), Justin Hill (Achilles) and Edwards. They are all out for the season. Wide receiver Rashod Bateman started the season on the injured reserve list.

The Ravens wanted to expand their offense around quarterback Lamar Jackson. Now, they are going to be limited because of these devastating injuries.

I had the Ravens as one of the top five teams in the AFC. Losing that many key players drops them down and open up higher spots for the Broncos and the Los Angeles Chargers.

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