Denver Broncos insider Mike Klis recently posited that wholesale changes are afoot in the team's wide receiver corps.
Starting with Tim Patrick, who's likely to be released if the sides cannot agree on a "reduced" contract, lowering his projected $15.571 million salary-cap charge for 2024, the final year of his current deal.
"The Broncos would like Patrick back – he has the type of competitive attitude (“I hate the Raiders,”) and team-first spirit that is valued in the locker and meeting rooms – but at a considerably reduced price. A release would come if the two sides can’t agree on that reduced price," Klis wrote Sunday.
Patrick is entering his eighth season with the Broncos but hasn't played since 2021 after suffering a torn ACL and ruptured Achilles' tendon in consecutive training camps — career-threatening blows for a possession receiver who turns 31 in November.
"The good news is it’s a clean injury and there’s a better than likely 100 percent recovery," head coach Sean Payton said of the latter malady last August.
With no trade market and little value outside of Denver, Patrick will be open to restructuring or, if cut, returning on a significantly cheaper pact. His sure hands and reliability over the middle of the field would benefit whoever's quarterbacking the club next season.
As for Patrick's pass-catching cohorts, Klis reported Broncos leading WR Courtland Sutton is "expected back" while former first-round pick Jerry Jeudy ... well, that's less of a sure thing.
"Jeudy has been in trade discussions both in March of 2023 and at the midseason trade deadline last October but all offers were rejected," Klis wrote. "The offers may be less enticing next month as Jeudy no longer makes $2.68 million, as he did in 2023, but a guaranteed $12.987 million in 2024. Still, expect his name to swirl about in trade rumors."
Behind the Big Three are now-sophomore WR Marvin Mims, who will be "counted on" to step into a larger role, and longtime Payton favorite Lil'Jordan Humphrey, an impending free agent.
Klis named Chicago's Darnell Mooney, Cincinnati's Tyler Boyd, and Washington's Curtis Samuel among "second-wave" free agents whom the Broncos might target to strengthen the positional group post-Patrick (and perhaps post-Jeudy).
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