Demaryius Thomas is 30 years old. His team, the Denver Broncos, is a middling group at best.
He's due a healthy amount of money in 2019. It sounds like an ideal situation for a trade.
Thomas hears the noise, and he won't pretend to ignore it.
"Yeah, I've seen a couple of 'em," Thomas said when asked about trade rumors involving him, via KUSA-TV's Mike Klis. "It's football, man. It's a business. That's what happens. It's happened before. I never think it will happen to me but I'm like everybody else."
He's like everybody else in that he too is viewed as an asset, and an expendable one at this point in his career. Courtland Sutton's arrival made that slightly more evident, and even with Thomas' 33 receptions for 372 yards and three touchdowns, Denver's 3-4 mark hasn't exactly shifted the Broncos into win-now mode.
With Thomas due $14 million in base salary in 2019, it seems wise for the Broncos to move him now and get an asset for the future in return.
"That's a good thing if somebody is interested because then I can still play ball," Thomas said. "I still got a chance if I get traded. I want to be here but I've been hearing it the whole season now so I feel like somewhat it is true. My time here is coming up."
Where might Denver send Thomas? Cleveland needs a receiver (though they aren't exactly in the market for a 30-year-old target), and with two injuries to wideouts in Miami, the Dolphins could use one as well. There is a caveat, though: that $14 million base salary due in 2019 as part of a whopping cap number of $17.53 million. The bright side: Thomas carries a dead cap number of slightly over $3.5 million in 2019, making him a candidate for release.
That narrows the potential destinations to contenders in need of a target, greasing the skids to Miami. Ask Vance Joseph about it, though, and you'll get a whole lot of nothing.
"They're rumors," Joseph said, again via KUSA-TV's Klis. "They're gossip."
Yeah, and so was a Fleetwood Mac album, Vance.
We're in that seven-day window of trade deadline heat, though (be on the lookout for a buyers and sellers piece coming from yours truly this week!), so this stuff isn't going away. Keep an eye on ol' No. 88 in Denver.
