Patriots, Seahawks, Steelers installed as early favorites for next season

I can give a rough guess as to how it goes from here:

Danny T: Gone. Will be replaced by Todd Davis, who has a similar story to B Marshall of being a castaway LB who was signed and fixed by Del Rio. Played very well in relief of both Marsh and Danny last year. Not as good obviously, but he's dirt cheap and the drop off isn't bad.

Malik: Probably gone. I'd say there's a ~30% chance he stays. He'd be replaced by a combo of Vance Walker (who's actually pretty good), Antonio Smith (bad run defender, pretty damn good pass rusher), and Sly Williams (good run stuffer, and when he is asked to rush he's been pretty good, but he didn't get asked to much this year).

None of these three are as good as Jackson, but these guys can adequately hold the fort down. I'd also anticipate a high draft pick for DE. Elway loves his pass rushers.

Ware: I don't know if he'll retire, but in either case he probably won't be a Bronco. Saves $10 million. He'll be replaced by Shaq Barrett/Shane Ray. Again, not as good as Ware, but Barrett is already really damn good and Ray will have another year to make his NFL body (Barrett was signed in 2014). Really excited about these two.

Those are probably the only huge losses from the team, and there are adequate replacements in place. Defense is in really good shape.

Offense, now...

Brock: Resigned, probably something like 8-11 million. Thank the lord Kubiak put in Manning in Week 17, otherwise that could be more like 15 or 16 million.

Peyton's gone. He apparently might play with the Rams, and God bless him, but it won't be in Denver. 19 million saved.

Mathis and Hillman: Both gone. No gain or loss.

Owen Daniels: Hard to say because Kubiak loves him, but he'll be 34 in November and Jeff Heurmann will be healthy for training camp. Don't really need him. Then again, cutting him before June 1 would only save 2 million. He might reneg to stay with Kubes. Hard to say.

Ryan Clady: Wants to renegotiate to stay, but he hasn't been available for 2 of the last 3 seasons. It depends on how much he will leave on the table. I think he's gone, but he's only 29 and Elway might want to salvage him. A cut would save 9.5 million.

If all of the above happen, Denver is sitting at 51 million. 3-4 needs to be set aside for the rookies; we won't be paying top dollar for the best picks picking at the end. So about 47-48 million to get Brock (8-12 million), Von (16-18 million), but you also have the RFAs like Marshall and CJ, each at ~2 million. High ball estimates leave us with 14 million after the big guys. That's 14 million to spend on guys like David Bruton, Antonio Smith, Lerentee McCray, Bennie Fowler, Paradis, and McManus. They won't cost much and things can be shuffled if needed.

This scenario leaves a glaring hole at LT or RT depending on where Ty plays, but that's really the only area on the team that isn't covered already. Long story short, Denver is in very good shape.

**(I didn't just write this for you, I mostly did it for my own thoughts :) )

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