When the Denver Broncos lost some of their key players to free agency this offseason, it did not come as a major surprise, as everyone knew the team would be close to the salary cap and probably would not be able to afford some of the younger guys that were in line for larger contracts, such as Demaryius Thomas, who received the franchise tag from Denver.
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Since getting tagged, Thomas has been holding out while he waits for a new long-term deal to get done, and it sounds like it is starting to wear on John Elway, according to The Denver Post. Elway ranted about the fact that Thomas has not been present for the team OTAs, even though it is commonplace for franchised players to skip non-mandatory offseason events.
"To be dead honest with you, I see absolutely zero value in him being away from here," Elway said. "Zero value, for him. So there's no value for him not to be here with his teammates. As far as negotiations ... we'd like to get something done. But by him being away from here, there is zero value, not only to us, (but) to him. To me it makes no sense. That actually has no effect to anything we're talking about, trying to get a contract done with him, because that's ultimately what we'd like to do. But for him not to be here it has zero effect."
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It sounds like Elway is fed up with Thomas, but could he actually be concerned about Peyton Manning? The Sheriff is the focal point of Denver's attack, and he had to be cajoled into returning for 2015 at all.
Since then, he's lost one of his favorite targets in free agency (Julius Thomas), and he could lose another to retirement (Wes Welker). Being able to find a comfort zone with his receiving corps will be paramount for Manning to have success, and having Thomas skipping workouts could be disrupting the team's focus.
Elway knows that he only has another year or two with Manning at the helm, making it Super Bowl or bust in Denver. If he thinks that Demaryius Thomas is jeopardizing those plans before the summer even arrives, then he has every right to come down on his star receiver.
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