Good Afternoon, Broncos fans! A week ago, John Elway relaxed his deadline for extending Demaryius and Julius Thomas.
Having originally set the beginning of camp as his target date, Elway told Lindsay Jones that he was willing to negotiate into the preseason.
But according to Mike Klis, there's been little or no progress toward a contract extension with either player.
Given that each player is entering the last year of his rookie deal, this is no small matter.
Only one player can be retained via franchise tag next offseason, and even that's only a one-year stopgap.
And the Thomases won't be Denver's only priority free agents.
Chris Harris, Orlando Franklin, Wes Welker, Terrance Knighton, and Rahim Moore are also scheduled to become unrestricted free agents.
Broncos
Videos: the BTV guys consider Denver's pass-rushing duo of Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware; the newly retired Chris Kuper checks in with CBS4.
At the request of his lawyer, T.J. Ward's court hearing was delayed a couple of weeks.
In light of his many concussions, Wes Welker says he plays online games to help keep his mind sharp.
Safety Eric Hagg is retiring; RIP original Bronco Bob McNamara.
Arnie Stapleton and Michael David Smith offer pre-camp overviews of the team.
Andrew Mason thinks the Broncos will keep at least one undrafted rookie running back, if not on the 53-man roster, then on the practice squad.
Jeff Legwold expects Denver to keep nine or ten defensive backs, with Tony Carter facing an uphill battle to stick.
From the Daily News, here's a terrific chronicle of the Manning Passing Academy, including a classic Peyton moment.
News
Old friend Ben Hamilton and six other retired players have reiterated their opposition to the NFL's concussion settlement.
Cincy put DT Geno Atkins on their PUP list; Oakland may do the same with D.J. Hayden; Houston placed LB Brian Cushing on their PUP list and released 2013 third-round tackle Brennan Williams, who failed his physical.
The Jets worked out LB Quentin Groves.
Buffalo DT Marcell Dareus has entered a substance-abuse program.
Analysis
Obviously, I disagree with Chase Stuart's suggestion that Dan Marino's receiving corps weren't that much better than John Elway's.
Team previews: Houston (Andy Benoit), Cincy (Greg Gabriel), Tampa Bay (Frank Schwab).
Robert Mays discusses camp competitions that figure to have playoff implications; Judy Battista lists her top camp storyines.
Jeffri Chadiha thinks KC would be better served by not running Jamaal Charles into the ground.
Stuscott Booyahs interprets PK's MMQB column; in honor of White History Month, PFT Commenter celebrates white NFL owners.
Tony Dungy
In a statement released this afternoon, Tony Dungy presumably said just enough to keep himself from getting fired by NBC. Except, he didn't really say anything at all; Chris Korman and Barry Petchesky agree.
Tomas Rios says bigotry is even worse when it comes from someone like Dungy, who is held up as some supposed great guy.
Doug Farrar, Dan Wetzel, and Chris Korman delve into the hypocrisy of Dungy's original comments.
Naturally, PFT Commenter thinks Dungy has wrongfully changed his tune.
The legendary idiots on First Take handled the story even worse than we might have imagined.
Funny how Dungy didn't have a problem with the biggest walking distraction in NFL history.