John Elway has a busy offseason ahead of him, even without taking into consideration the monster decision looming at quarterback.
The groundwork for the near future in Denver will be laid over the next few days, during which the Broncos exec will meet with the agents of nearly all of his soon-to-depart players and begin the groundwork of a few long-term deals.
But it's also telling that there are certain agents he won't be seeing.
According to The Denver Post, Elway does not yet have plans to sit down with Frank Bauer, the agent for tight end Julius Thomas. While those plans could change, no meeting would almost certainly stamp Thomas' ticket into free agency.
While we don't think this has anything to do with a recent anonymous player drive-by, as reported by BSN Denver, which suggested Thomas only cares about money and already turned down a monster offer, it makes one wonder. Has Elway already exhausted his options? Has Thomas simply made it clear that his time in Denver is over?
In the past, it would have been easy to brush something like this off. Peyton Manning can make any player around him better. But now, as Manning enters the final years of his career and the Broncos prep for a succession plan, the cadre of star skill position players will ease that transition immensely.
If there's a roadblock between Thomas and the Broncos, Elway needs to make room in this busy offseason to solve it.
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