The Broncos lost quarterback Brock Osweiler because they didn’t want to pay him $18 million per year on a four-year deal. The Broncos now may lose running back C.J. Anderson on an offer sheet worth $18 million over four.
The $4.5 million average dwarfs the $2.553 million, one-year tender the Broncos could have applied to keep Anderson with a tender that would have given them a second-round pick as compensation. Which surely would have kept the Dolphins from trying to snatch him.
The offer sheet, as a source with knowledge of its terms told PFT, is “pretty vanilla.” The first-year cap payout is believed to be in the neighborhood of $6 million. Regardless of how it’s structured, the fact that Denver wouldn’t offer Anderson $2.553 million per year to protect against a team trying to grab suggests they won’t pay $4.5 million per year to keep him.
For the Dolphins, they watched running back Lamar Miller leave on a deal that pays out, on average, $6.5 million per year. While Anderson may not be the tailback Miller is, at $2 million less per year that could be the right balance for Miami.
However it turns out, Anderson will be a Bronco or a Dolphin in 2016. The Broncos will make the decision.
