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Demaryius Thomas, Denver Broncos sign five-year deal worth $70 million

By Kevin Parvizi

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It didn’t look like the Denver Broncos and Demaryius Thomas would agree to a deal before today’s deadline, because the Broncos were reportedly unwilling to budge from a near-$13 million per-year offer to their No. 1 receiver, who was more interested in being paid Calvin Johnson-type money (around $16 million). We knew that both sides would have to come to some sort of an agreement in between those two amounts, because that’s about what Thomas would make on the open market.

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Although things did seem dire at points and negotiations didn’t start until later on in the day, the five-year, $70 million contract with $45 million in guarantees that Dez Bryant signed with the Dallas Cowboys did cause Thomas to get his money.

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ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that Thomas and the Broncos have indeed agreed to a deal, and Thomas will be getting an offer that is very similar to what Bryant will be paid from the Cowboys over the next five years. Per Schefter, Thomas will net a hefty $70 million over five years, and the only difference between his contracts and Bryant’s contract is the fact that he’ll make slightly less guaranteed money ($43.5 million vs. $45 million).

Bryant is regarded as the better wide receiver, and the Cowboys don’t have another top-notch weapon like Emmanuel Sanders on their roster, so it makes sense for Thomas to earn less guaranteed money than Bryant. But if you thought Dez got a great deal (and he did, since he makes more guaranteed money than any receiver, even if much of the guaranteed money doesn’t get paid out until March of 2016), Thomas might have ended up with an even better deal, considering the offense he’s in and his lack of leverage in comparison to Bryant.

So Demaryius Thomas’s deal is clearly based off of Bryant’s, and Peyton Manning can rest happy knowing that his best weapon- a player who has caught 94, 92, and 111 passes in each of the past three seasons- is locked up for the foreseeable future. So basically, Manning will get to have the trio of Thomas, Sanders, and high-upside Indiana youngster Cody Latimer for the rest of his career.

That looks like a win for both teams, though the Broncos would have ideally liked to spend less on a receiver. But even with Sanders, Thomas is still a very valuable and productive piece of the offense, as his 101.2 yards per game last season (despite an early-season slump) show.

I didn’t think a deal would get done. I was wrong. I didn’t think Thomas would make as much as Bryant. I was wrong. So yeah, I guess that classifies Thomas as a “winner” today, but it doesn’t mean that the Denver Broncos are losers either. In the world of NFL contracts, sometimes there is only one winner and no losers, because it isn’t a “loss” for the Broncos to lock up a star receiver who is need to help lift Peyton to his first Super Bowl in Denver.

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