Von Miller‘s agent Joby Branion has been particularly busy recently. Today, he appeared on PFT Live to discuss his client’s extension negotiations with the Broncos. In particular, the agent talked about John Elway‘s tactics during these contract talks.
“He’s just extremely competitive,” Branion said (via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com). “I can say that the negotiation approach that he and his team uses is a bit unorthodox and unconventional but you can’t argue with the effectiveness and we don’t know unless we’re in their room what their ultimate goals are. So it’s always after the fact you sort of look and say, ‘Well that didn’t look like that worked out well,’ or ‘Geez, that worked out great.’ Only they really know but, yeah, they’re a little different but, hey, there are a lot of people that use a lot of different approaches to negotiate.”
Let’s take a look at some other notes out of the AFC West…
- Branion also told Florio that Miller would have been willing to sit out the 2016 season and leave the Broncos the following offseason. “Absolutely, no question,” Branion said. “You know, a lot of people think it’s bluster and all that and sometimes it is, in this case no. It wouldn’t have made any sense. I told him, ‘Look, I treat you like you’re my own son,’ and if in fact this were my son I’d have to tell him you can’t afford to play for the franchise tag, not given your overall value. I mean, he’s a guy that deserves to be in the 19, 20, 21 million dollars a year range and his tag number is only 14. So it would make no sense at all for him to play for one year for [$14 million], risk potentially getting hurt and then be in a position where the team would be able to exclusive tag him yet again next year. Which I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t do because then the number would still be so far below his value whereas if he had restricted free agency even, as he likely would have in March, he would have made up the difference.”
- ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano explored what kind of contract Miller would have received if the franchise tag didn’t exist. If the linebacker had inked the contract during the 2015 season, the writer estimated that the contract would have come in around $17MM annually (somewhere between Justin Houston and Ndamukong Suh). If Miller had waited until after the season, he may have approached Suh’s money, and if the 27-year-old had reached the open market, he could have expected a contract that paid at least $22MM a season.
- Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com takes a look at the Chiefs negotiations with safety Eric Berry. The writer believes the veteran’s $10.8MM franchise tag is right around fair value, although Berry is certainly taking a risk by not inking a long-term contract.