Broncos Acquire Mark Sanchez From Eagles

1:43pm: The Broncos aren’t done at quarterback yet, and plan to bring in another player to compete with Sanchez for the starting job, Schefter confirms (via Twitter).

12:41pm: The conditional 2017 pick acquired by the Eagles in the swap is a seventh-rounder, tweets Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. The conditions aren’t yet known, but I would imagine they’ll hinge on Sanchez’s playing time in Denver.

12:29pm: The Broncos have begun to address their hole at quarterback, according to Mike Klis of 9NEWS, who reports (via Twitter) that Denver is acquiring Mark Sanchez from the Eagles. Philadelphia will get a conditional draft pick in exchange for the veteran signal-caller, per Klis. The pick is a 2017 selection, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.Mark Sanchez

The Broncos lost the top two quarterbacks on their depth chart this week, as Peyton Manning officially announced his retirement and Brock Osweiler signed with the Texans on a four-year, $72MM deal. While it remains to be seen if he’ll start for the Broncos, Sanchez is an affordable fallback option for the team. He’ll count for just $4.5MM against the 2016 cap – with another $3MM+ available in incentives – and the 2017 pick the Broncos are giving up is unlikely to be more than a late-rounder.

Sanchez a former fifth overall pick, served primarily as the backup during his two-year stint in Philadelphia, but did start 10 games for the Eagles. Overall, the 29-year-old completed 64.3% of his passes, with 3,034 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

With just Sanchez and Trevor Siemian on their depth chart, the Broncos will remain in the market for quarterback help, and that includes the possibility of trading for someone else, such as Colin Kaepernick — Peter Schrager of FOX Sports tweets that the Sanchez deal doesn’t take Kaepernick off the table for Denver.

As for the Eagles, Sanchez became expendable for them when the team re-signed Sam Bradford and added Chase Daniel in free agency. By trading him instead of releasing him, the Eagles create $4.5MM in cap savings instead of $3.5MM, since the club will no longer be on the hook for the $1MM guarantee on his 2016 base salary.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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