Technically, the Broncos have until 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday to get linebacker Von Miller under contract. As a practical matter, the issue will be decided several hours before then, at the latest.
Due to the Elvis Dumervil fax machine faux pas of 2013, when the Broncos ultimately were forced to cut Dumervil after the two sides failed to get a restructured contract signed by both parties for submission to the league office before the deadline for changing the contract or dumping him off the roster.
It’s still unclear what happened as the Broncos tried to re-do Dumervil’s contract before a $12 million salary for 2013 became fully guaranteed. The team blamed the agent, the agent blamed the team, claiming that the Broncos made a late change to the revised deal that delayed the process of getting the deal done. An effort to enforce a verbal agreement between player and team ultimately failed. And the agent eventually received a six-month suspension.
Regardless of whether the Broncos bear blame for the Dumervil outcome for making a late change to the offer, Miller’s agents won’t be taking any chances. With the rules requiring the Broncos to submit a fully-executed contract to the league office before 4:00 p.m. ET on Friday, the process will need to be fully and completely finalized far enough in advance of 4:00 p.m. ET to ensure that there will be no last-minutes complications or entanglements or snafus or anything else that would keep a signed contract from being submitted to 345 Park Avenue in time for it to become legally binding.
While the real deadline may be 4:00 p.m. ET, as a practical matter look for Miller to pull the plug at some point before that, if a deal isn’t otherwise in place. So if Von Miller ends up leaving the building, it can at least in part be blamed on the time that Elvis did.
Yeah, I said it.
