Unlike C.J. Anderson, the Broncos placed a second-round tender on restricted free agent Brandon Marshall. The emerging inside linebacker has not yet signed the $2.55MM tender and is unsure he’ll attend the Broncos’ offseason workouts that begin Monday, Troy Renck of the Denver Post reports.
The fifth-year ‘backer doesn’t have a lot of leverage in this case, and his situation is similar to Tashaun Gipson‘s with the Browns last year. After June 15, the Broncos can withdraw the tender and pay Marshall 110% of his 2015 salary, which was $585K. The Broncos currently carry just more than $8.2MM worth of cap space.
With the champions preoccupied in negotiating an extension for confirmed workout-skipper Von Miller and making a potential deal for a starting quarterback, it’s unlikely Marshall sees a long-term contract offer before that mid-June date. Gipson reported to the Browns before his former team could withdraw that tender last June.
Here are some notes from some of the league’s western contingent, beginning with another starter from the Super Bowl champions’ No. 1 defense.
- The Broncos have also yet to make a decision regarding Sylvester Williams‘ fifth-year option and have until May 2 to do so. “No, I haven’t heard anything about it — still waiting,” the fourth-year defensive tackle told Renck. “Either way this will be my best year yet!” Given the starting nose job after Denver elected not to retain Terrance Knighton, Williams played better in 2015 than he did in ’14, grading out as a middle-of-the-pack performer, according to Pro Football Focus. It would cost the Broncos $6.7MM to pick up Williams’ option, and as of now, no pure 3-4 nose is set to earn close to that amount in 2017. Brandon Mebane‘s $4.5MM salary with the Chargers is the highest at this spot currently on a team’s 2017 projected books. Williams will turn 28 this season, but significant cap relief stands to come the Broncos’ way after this season — no team has more projected space than Denver’s $80MM+ in 2017 — so the team could probably manage Williams’ option should it choose to exercise it now.
- San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer wrote a letter to the Chargers asking some difficult questions centering around the team’s downtown stadium proposal, Dan McSwain of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The Republican governor told the newspaper he sent the letter, on which the Chargers declined to comment, after meeting with members of the hotel industry. One of the centerpieces to the Chargers’ stadium proposal involves a hotel tax hike. Much of the mayor’s queries also involved the design of the stadium/convention center project, McSwain reports.
- Rehabbing from his second torn ACL in five years, Jamaal Charles carries about the only contract that the Chiefs can shed in the next two years that will save them big money. Kansas City extending both Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware also secures the team’s backups who filled in for Charles last season, and Adam Teicher of ESPN.com wonders if now is the best time to trade the 29-year-old Charles. Teicher argues the two-time All-Pro’s value will never be higher going forward, with the dynamic ball-carrier turning 30 in December, and the fact the Chiefs don’t have a third-round pick this year in light of the Jeremy Maclin tampering penalties makes a trade worth discussing. Possessing close to the least amount of cap space currently and, along with scant projected space in 2017, the Chiefs are committed to most of their high-priced talent for the next two years. But Charles has two nonguaranteed years left — at $5.3MM and $7MM, respectively.
