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Demaryius Thomas deal before deadline ‘not likely’

By Kevin Parvizi

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While the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys are suspected of collusion with regards to the Demaryius Thomas and Dez Bryant contract impasses, as per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, neither side is making any headway in contract negotiations.

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After there were some optimistic reports, such as this one from CBS Sports’s Jason La Canfora, regarding Bryant’s chances of agreeing to a long-term deal with the Cowboys, we now know, thanks to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, that there is “nothing going on” between both sides. In fact, ESPN’s Ed Werder passed along today that Bryant told Stephen Jones he will hold out from training camp and regular season games if he isn’t signed to a new deal before this Wednesday’s deadline.

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Whether or not Bryant is bluffing remains to be seen, but the Broncos haven’t been subject to the same sort of threat from their No. 1 receiver. However, Thomas and the Broncos are in a similar position, though they have a better supporting cast around their veteran QB with a closing window than the Cowboys.

According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, a long-term deal between Thomas and the Broncos before the Wednesday deadline is “not likely”, and failure to reach a deal could set up an interesting 2016 offseason with an even more important player, Von Miller, scheduled to hit the open market.

That means if one of those two players gets the tag next year, it will be Miller, since he hasn’t been tagged last year and plays a position that is more important to the Broncos. Complicating things further are youngsters Shane Ray and Cody Latimer who could be heirs to both positions, but that’s a discussion for another day.

It will be interesting to see how things proceed, because while Peyton Manning unsurprisingly would like his team to re-sign his favorite target, I’m sure the Broncos aren’t willing to spend the Calvin Johnson money that Thomas would like. He’s a great receiver, but he isn’t even a top five player at his position. In fact, some like Football Savages’s Benjamin Allbright (this is a piece well-worth the read, especially if you’d like a potentially differing viewpoint) question Thomas’s value to the Broncos and believe the team should walk away from paying him elite money.

Based on Florio’s report, it doesn’t seem like Thomas will be signing a new long-term deal before the deadline, and, as of right now, it seems like Bryant is the more likely of the two to get his big contract this offseason. I would love to see Thomas, who has three straight double-digit TD seasons and posted a 111/1,619/11 line last season, catching passes from Maning for a few more seasons.

If no deal is done, Thomas will be forced to play out the 2015 season with the $12.8 million franchise tag, but he, again, has not threatened to hold out, which Bryant may or may not have done.

Next: Is Demaryius Thomas one of the NFL's 50 Most Important Players?

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