It’s cap-casualty season in the NFL, which means a lot of players around the league are going to get some bad news. The Denver Broncos will be involved in this, of course, but most of their decisions should be less painful given that the Broncos tend to manage the cap well and have already handed out some important extensions during their bye week this season.
Aaron Schatz of ESPN did a rundown of who’s going to get the bad news, picking out the most likely cap cut candidate from each team. His choice for the Broncos was edge rusher Jonah Elliss, which probably isn’t a name most Denver fans would have expected to see.
According to Schatz, though, this cut isn’t an issue of a player who hasn’t been properly developed. He described Elliss as a talented young pass rusher who doesn’t have a path to starting behind linebackers Nik Bonitto and Jonathan Cooper, and it’s hard to dispute that assessment.
Elliss has a 14.1 percent pass-rush win rate to go with a 12.2 pressure rate, Schatz added, with both of those numbers being above average for edge rushers. But Elliss played just 38 percent of the snaps for which he was active, which puts him a position to be pushed out the door.
He’ll have plenty of suitors, though, and one that Schatz mentioned was the New England Patriots. Ellis’s brother Christian also plays for the Patriots, and it’s fun to imagine them playing together, which isn’t out of the realm of possibility given that edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson could exit New England in free agency.
The Broncos also have other issues to address at linebacker. Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad are both free agents at the inside linebacking positions, and it’s unlikely that Denver will be able to sign both. Defensive linebacker John Franklin-Myers is also likely to get paid in free agency given how high he’s rated on most of the initial list of free agents that are currently emerging.
It’s fair to expect the Broncos defense to look similar, however. Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph interviewed for multiple head-coaching jobs this offseason, but there were no takers. This is good news for the Broncos given that Denver had the top-rated defense in the league according to multiple outlets, and the blitz-heavy defense was a unit that terrorized opposing quarterbacks throughout the season.
The Broncos will probably draft to find a replacement for Elliss if he does get cut, and this is something that Denver has done well. The team has other cap-cut candidates, but Elliss is one for which the team seems well-prepared.