The Dumervil Debacle and other Broncos Free Agency Thoughts

Before I get to the Elvis Dumervil disaster, I want to address the two other significant Broncos moves that were made in free agency after the Wes Welker signing. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie signed a one-year deal that will reportedly pay him $5 million. Also, Denver signed DT Terrance Knighton from the Jaguars. I like both moves for a variety of reasons. In regards to Rodgers-Cromartie, you can't have too many corners on your roster, and adding a guy like him will give the Broncos more depth, allow Chris Harris to continue to play nickel corner, and give the Broncos more options if injuries hampen their secondary. Plus, it is a one-year deal, so Rodgers-Cromartie has a lot of prove and will be playing with a lot of motivation this year. If he plays poorly, then he is a goner next year anyway. With the signing of Knighton, you get a big body for the middle of the Broncos defense, and he is only 26, so you might be getting the big guy in his prime. Throw in the fact that Jack Del Rio used to coach him in Jacksonville, and this signing looks like a really nice move.

Now, onto the the Broncos-Dumervil fiasco. It sounded almost too good to be true when it appeared that Dumervil agreed to the paycut with Denver about three weeks ago. To get Doom to come back at their price, the Broncos seemed to have hit another home run in free agency, but it was a case of something just too good to be true. Dumervil and his agent didn't get the paperwork faxed in time to the Broncos by the NFL mandated deadline, and the Broncos had to cut Dumveril and thus allowing him to become a free agent. Many thought that Dumervil was just going to re-sign with Denver after he fired his agent, but after a couple of weeks and a few offers from the Broncos and the Ravens, Dumervil chose the Ravens last week. It was a stunning turn of events and an unfortunate loss for the Broncos. First, I blame John Elway, the Broncos, Elvis Dumervil, and the agent Marty Magid. All of the parties involved in this situation should get the blame for the fax debacle that took place on that Friday afternoon. Secondly, it was bad enough to lose Dumervil to another team, but to lose him to the Ravens was a significant loss. The Ravens are one of the Broncos main rivals in the race to the Super Bowl and by getting Dumervil, the Ravens were able to help their team and hurt the Broncos in the process. Thirdly, the Broncos can say what they want about replacing Dumervil, but it will be hard to replace a guy who gives you at least 10-11 sacks a season. I went back and looked at a lot of the games again from this past season, and Dumervil is a force on the outside, and his rush resulted in a lot of sacks for Von Miller. It will be tough to replace his production. With that said, the Broncos must feel like they can recover from this loss. Perhaps they felt that Dumervil's production had slipped so much this past season that he was a replaceable piece of the team. Von Miller is not replaceable. Peyton Manning is not replaceable, but in their eyes a guy like Dumervil is replaceable. We'll see how this one turns out, but if the Broncos' season is not a success and a lack of pass rush is one of the reasons, then we will look back at the fax machine disaster in March as one of the culpits of the failed season.

Finally, the Broncos will be looking at other options to replace Dumervil. One option appears to be Dwight Freeney. Talks have cooled between the two because Freeney wants more than what the Broncos are offering. This one could take a while. The Broncos will replace Dumervil with Robert Ayers, but there is no way that Ayers could replicated Doom's ability to get after the quarterback. Look for the Broncos to address finding a pass rusher in the first couple of rounds in April's draft.