Peyton Manning coming back to Broncos, taking $4 million pay cut
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| Justin Edmons/Getty Images |
Jeff Legwold and Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com, both responsible for first reporting the news, said that Manning's base salary will now be set at $15 million as opposed to the $19 million he was previously scheduled to earn. This will free up some cap space to allow the Broncos to be a little more active in free agency.
Manning has said that he will assess the remainder of his playing career on a year-to-year basis and that he was not sure if 2015-16 would be his last season.
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that Manning was going to come back, as he continually dropped hints about extending his career with the Broncos. Then on Feb. 12, he told Broncos' team president John Elway that he wanted to come back.
According to the report, it was at that same meeting that Manning agreed to take a pay cut. The Broncos just placed the franchise tag on Demariyus Thomas and have some other restricted free agents they'd like to tender contracts to including the infamous Tony Carter (Patriots fans know why), Steven Johnson, Aaron Brewer, Paul Cornick and John Youboty.
It is believed Denver will let some of their more well-known free agents walk, such as Wes Welker, Terrance Knighton and Julius Thomas. By letting those three players walk, and possibly others, the Broncos will save around $10 million and maybe more.
Elway is looking to beef up an offensive line that saw a lot of shuffling the last two season and played poorly as a result.
So, barring an injury to either Manning or Tom Brady, it looks as if we're going to get another installment of Brady vs. Manning. This time, it'll be in Denver.
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