Good Morning, Broncos fans! LOLJets all-world cornerback Darrelle Revis is set to earn $6M in 2013 and has player options beyond that which he surely won't be triggering - so he's essentially entering the last year of his current deal.
There was talk earlier in the week that the team would consider dealing him, since they don't have a franchise tag at their disposal to use on Revis - his current contract stipulates they cannot do so. Complicating matters is that Revis is coming off ACL surgery, but the reality is that if he were on the open market, he'd command a massive contract with guarantees that would dwarf the $15M that Champ Bailey got from Denver two years ago.
Revis reacted to the trade talk with indignation, but new GM John Idzik claimed to have smoothed things over with the 27-year old over the phone.
Now comes news that the LOLJets were looking into dealing their best player prior to his Week 3 injury, but of course, that was back when Mike Tannenbaum was heading the front office.
The divisional loss aside, the Broncos secondary, and specifically their corners, played exceptionally well in 2012, with Chris Harris emerging as a top-notch starter, and Tony Carter exceeding expectations in the slot. Champ Bailey, aside from that last game against Baltimore, was Champ Bailey, and rookie Omar Bolden made strides as the season went on.
Basically, there's hardly any reason to consider whether the Broncos would be potential suitors for Revis's services, but someone floated the idea (probably a Bleacher Report writer, amirite?).
But Mike Klis laid out some reasons for and against the notion, while Mark Kiszla thinks Revis would command at least a late first-rounder in trade (that sounds rather steep for a guy who's going to demand a massive new deal).
It all makes very little in the way of sense, and to this point, most of John Elway & Company's personnel decisions have been very reasonable, with the Matt Prater and Joe Mays contracts of a year ago standing out as sore, but not particularly expensive, thumbs.
Denver currently has a decent amount of cap room ($18.5M), but more than half of that figures to go toward re-signing Ryan Clady, and using the rest, and then some, on another corner just isn't happening.
Financially, it would be ridiculous, and that's without even considering that there are much more important areas of need, like the interiors of both lines, middle linebacker, and an eventual replacement for Brandon Stokley. Freeing up space by cutting or renegotiating the contracts of D.J. Williams and Joe Mays would help, but not enough to warrant adding Revis.
But back to the LOLJets, there's word out of New Jersey that some in the organization, including Sexy Rexy, would sensibly prefer to keep Revis around, and instead trade away Octodad at his peak value.
Broncos
BTV checks in with Peyton Manning, who acknowledges plenty of reasons he's enjoying his latest trip to Hawaii, while those who know him best discuss his comeback.
Manning thinks the value of young stars getting tutored by older ones makes the Pro Bowl worthwhile; that seems like a bit of a stretch.
Should be interesting to see how long Klis sticks with this silly notion that Harris is best suited to being a nickel cornerback, considering the quality of his play across from Champ this season.
The NYT's Sam Borden provides a lengthy history of the Manning family's love affair with New Orleans, where they've been - mostly uninterrupted - since Archie was drafted by the Saints over 40 years ago.
Mark Kiszla thinks Adrian Peterson is probably correct when he claims that he has the MVP award locked up over Peyton.
News
The South team took the Senior Bowl by a 21-16 margin in a game dominated by defense and featuring two touchdowns by FSU QB E.J. Manuel.
Just days after they signed DT Armon Armstead away from the Alouettes, the Patriots have apparently reached agreement with another CFL player, this time Winnepeg DE/LB Jason Vega, who grew up in Pats country and attended Northeastern.
Tennessee is expected to hire Gregg Williams to run their defense, assuming he's reinstated by the Ginger Hammer; former Vols head coach Derek Dooley will coach Dallas's wideouts.
Here's a list of players known to have their 2013 salaries boosted thanks to incentives; Demaryius Thomas would appear likely to be a part of that group.
President Obama says he thinks football will have to change going forward in order to protect players, but he's most concerned about college players, since they're unpaid and non-unionized.
Officials in Oakland will spend $1M on a study to consider new stadium proposals to keep the Raiders in town.
Analysis
The honeymoon in San Diego is on full bore, as according to Kevin Acee, Chargers HQ has a much better atmosphere with Mike McCoy running the show.
Writing for GQ, Kathy Dobie offers an in-depth profile of former Raiders defensive star Anthony Smith, who awaits trial for four separate killings over a nine-year span.
Sam Farmer considers the future of the NFL relative to player safety and the high price of tickets, and how the latter can compete with the constantly improving experience of watching games from the comfort of home.
Dan Pompei says scouts weren't terribly impressed by Oklahoma QB Landry Jones, who now figures to be a second-rounder at best.
Super Bowl
Punter Andy Lee says that at the time of Jim Harbaugh's decision, the Niners locker room had mixed feelings about the QB switch from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick.
Ravens safety Bernard Pollard is known not just as a Patriots killer and hard hitter, but also as someone who struggles with controlling the volume of his voice and isn't a big fan of wearing pants.
Matt Bowen studies San Francisco's use of the Inverted Veer against Atlanta.
Chase Stuart ponders the potential impact of a SB victory on the HOF candidacies of several Ravens players, and his trivia question for today focuses on starting wideouts who played for more than one franchise in the Super Bowl. Good luck with that one.
Miscellany
USADA head Travis Tygart says that of course, Lance Armstrong's so-called tell-all interview with Oprah was filled with blatant lies.
Big ups to the Jeopardy question writers, who came up with a category honoring Bryce Harper's infamous "That's a clown question, Bro" line for Friday's episode.