Bo Nix has only been in the NFL for two seasons. However, many believe that he has already proven his potential and is touted to become the next big thing in the AFC. If it wasn’t for a freak ankle fracture during the final moments of the Denver Broncos’ upset win over the Buffalo Bills in the Divisional round of the playoffs, he probably would have already been anointed as such.
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The franchise now finds itself heading into the third year of Nix’s rookie contract. And they’ve managed to win 24 regular-season games and find their first playoff wins of the past decade with him as a starter. But to get over the hump, they need some more offensive firepower.
That’s exactly what one of their former members from the Super Bowl 50 roster, Tyler Polumbus, wants the Broncos to do. Polumbus urged the franchise to “stop wasting Bo Nix’s rookie deal,” insisting that they should look to maximize the potential they are sitting on.
“You’ve got your quarterback in a cost-controlled situation,” Polumbus added during the most recent episode of his self-produced podcast. “In just two years, Bo Nix is going to be making $60 million per year, and it’s going to be a very different situation with the cap. It’s very important that you try to capitalize right this minute.”
According to the former offensive tackle, if the Broncos are hoping to get into the title picture, then they should go shopping. Thankfully, there seems to be no shortage of big names that are set to be floating around in the upcoming free agency period.
However, Polumbus believes that there are “no true free agents that are available at this time, that are an upgrade.” So the eight-year NFL veteran was suggesting, “You might have to look at actually going out and making a trade.”
What does the ideal trade target look like for the Broncos? Apparently, it’s “A.J. Brown, an unhappy camper who is somewhere else that wants to get out of his situation.”
Unfortunately, the holdup on a trade for Brown would most certainly come from the Philadelphia Eagles rather than the Broncos. Should the Eagles trade their star wide receiver before June 1, they would lose $20 million in cap space.
Transversely, should they wait until afterwards, they would gain about $7 million in cap space. But waiting that long into the offseason would put the Broncos in a rather tough spot. At that point, they would likely need to find an alternative wide receiver as Plan B if a Brown trade fell through.
Simply put, Brown may be the most popular trade target of the offseason, but the current state of his contract makes the idea of approaching the Eagles a bit too unpalatable for most teams. So, unless the Broncos are willing to wait around and trust themselves to strike the right agreement with Howie Roseman, Nix will have to continue to work alongside Courtland Sutton and his cast of supporting characters.
