The window for NFL teams to pick up the fifth-year contract option on 2019 first-round draft choices opened Jan. 11 and is scheduled to close May 2.
Sixty days from that deadline, the Denver Broncos remain unsure if they will keep tight end Noah Fant under team control through 2023 — preferable as it may be.
“We haven’t [decided]. We have a little time with that," Broncos general manager George Paton said Tuesday at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. "Noah is a really talented player, and we want him here a long time."
The former No. 20 overall pick, Fant posted career-highs in receptions (68) and touchdowns (4) last season, totaling 670 receiving yards across 90 targets. This, despite (continued) instability at quarterback and competing for looks in an offense loaded with talented pass-catchers, including fellow TE Albert Okwuegbunam.
Although he's yet to earn Pro Bowl or All-Pro honors befitting his draft pedigree, Fant has proven himself as a three-down starter who can succeed both in-line and split out wide. He's also yet to realize his full potential, a product of his own doing and that of Denver's coaches — namely ex-offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, who never maximized the 24-year-old's immense talent.
Playing on his rookie deal, Fant is slated to take home $2.21 million in base salary and count roughly $4 million against the salary cap in 2022.
Exercising his option would cost the Broncos a projected $6.657 million, relative pennies for a player of his ability and a drop in the bucket for a franchise with the league's sixth-best cap situation ($38.052 million of available space).
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