KUSA - The Broncos were in trouble. They were coming off an 5-11 season and they didn’t like their quarterbacks.
His back to the wall, what did John Elway do? What he’s done since he arrived in Denver 35 years ago.
He went with his instincts.
This is an instance when second-best became a stunning victory.
There were two top 12 quarterbacks available in free agency. Two top 12s and a bunch of uninspiring castoffs.
When negotiations opened Monday, Elway quickly moved off everybody’s No. 1 choice, Kirk Cousins, and pounced on Case Keenum, who was considered a distant second, but perhaps even further ahead of the third-best QB option.
After an initial, Elway-directed negotiating session with Mike McCartney, Cousins’ agent, the Broncos moved all their attention to Keenum.
The Vikings were hoping to string Keenum along as their backup plan. But when Elway jumped, the Vikings had no choice but to get aggressive with Cousins. They got him at the cost of a double-record contract: One, the average salary was $28 million a year, a half-million more than the previous record set by San Francisco and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo five weeks earlier; and two, it unprecedentedly fully guaranteed all three years of the deal.
Look at what happened to the two other losers of the Cousins’ sweepstakes: Arizona wound up with Sam Bradford for $20 million with a second-year option for another $20 million – providing he passes a physical, which is hardly certain given his oft-ripped up knee.
Veteran safety Eric Weddle nailed it. Bradford has been paid more for nothing than anyone in NFL history.
The New York Jets, the other loser in the bid for Cousins, wound up with aging Josh McCown, and Teddy Bridgewater, who missed the past two seasons with one of the most harrowing knee injuries in recent times, to one-year contracts.
Here’s hoping Bradford and Bridgewater become medical marvels and stay physically healthy this year and McCown has a few more effective games left in his 39-year-old body.
But these were hardly impressive consolation prizes that would never fly in Broncos Country.
Elway wound up not with nothing, but with Keenum. Cousins may have had three consecutive seasons of exemplary passing stats with Washington. But he never came close to posting an 11-3 record, as Keenum did in 2017 with the Vikings.
Cousins has never won a playoff game. Keenum won one of the most memorable playoff games in NFL history.
Elway then fortified his secondary by signing veteran cornerback Trumaine Brock and closing in on signing Delvin Breaux, providing the Saints’ defensive back can pass his physical.
Starting linebacker Todd Davis was brought back. And so there’s no awkward feelings in head coach Vance Joseph's locker room, Elway traded away quarterback Trevor Siemian to Minnesota.
Elway did all but the Keenum deal Wednesday while he was personally scouting quarterback Baker Mayfield, offensive tackle Orlando Brown and pass-rushing outside linebacker Ogbannia Okoronkwo at Oklahoma’s Pro Day.
Elway isn’t done, but already the Broncos are better. And he’s working on adding a right tackle and possibly a No. 3 receiver.
Yes, he has to hit on all those draft picks. Come late-April, perhaps Elway should go less on the scouting reports and more on his gut. It's that approach that has helped guide the Broncos to the third-best overall record, even with that 5-11, since he took control seven years ago.
In his 23 years with the Broncos as a quarterback and a GM, Elway has as many Super Bowl wins (3) as losing seasons.
Elway is a poker player. When it came to quarterbacks in free agency, Elway read the table and folded early on Cousins. Doing so allowed him to win the next pot that was Keenum.
When it came to making the move quickly under pressure, Arizona and the Jets were no match for Elway.
