ENGLEWOOD – Few men have walked this earth with a greater commanding presence than John Elway, yet the Broncos’ general manager had a soft spot for his Super Bowl 50 players.
He badly wanted one more productive season out of receiver Demaryius Thomas, perhaps, even, against Elway’s better judgment. The sentimentality for one of the Broncos’ all-time greats came at a cost. The Broncos picked up D.T.’s $4 million option bonus in March, which then essentially exercised his $8.5 million salary for the 2018 season.
But with Father Time continuing to scratch away at Thomas’ production as the Broncos’ reached the halfway point of a third consecutive disappointing season, and with rookie Courtland Sutton flashing big-play, a younger D.T-like promise, Elway decided it was time to make a play for the team’s future.
A Broncos future that first time in nine seasons will not have Thomas as a receiver. The Broncos traded Thomas to the Houston Texans in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 draft. The teams also swapped seventh-round picks in next year's draft.
"With the youth we have at receiver, we wanted to get them on the field and Demaryius goes to a team that wanted him,'' Elway told 9News. "It was best for both sides. We weren't going to do this unless we got value. We weren't taking less than a fourth.
"Demaryius was a great Bronco. I told him he will always be a Bronco. I know he wanted to finish his career with the Broncos and that didn't work out, but when he's finished he'll go up in our Ring of Fame."
Thomas won't be a Bronco this Sunday although he will be playing at Broncos Stadium at Mile High. The Texans are playing the Broncos this week.
The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles also made offers for Thomas, as did the Tennessee Titans who came in late.
If that hardly seems like proper compensation for a four-time Pro Bowler who averaged 96 catches for 1,303 yards and 8.5 touchdowns in his previous six seasons, consider the alternative. Had the Broncos kept Thomas till the end of the season, they likely would have released him in lieu of his non-guaranteed $14 million salary for the 2019 season that was left on his five-year, $70 million contract extension. A released free agent does not qualify his former team for a compensatory pick.
So, the fourth round pick was better than nothing.
Keeping Thomas would have also crimped Sutton’s development. Although Sutton has played an average of only 3.6 snaps less a game than Thomas, he has 20 fewer targets. Sutton is averaging 19.1 yards per catch to Thomas’ 11.2.
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Born on Christmas Day, 1987 in Montrose, Ga. Demaryius Thomas overcame tremendous strife within his family and a late-starting football upbringing to become a player certain to be one day inducted into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame and probably in his first year of eligibility.
He was 11 years old when his mom and grandmother were both arrested in a drug sting. Thomas’ celebrity as a star receiver helped bring attention to his mom’s prison sentence, which President Obama commuted in 2015. And then while meeting Obama during the Broncos’ Super Bowl-winning White House trip in July 2016, Thomas asked for his grandma’s sentence to be considered. Obama later pardoned his grandmother.
Raised by his dad, and an aunt and uncle, Thomas was a dominant basketball player and track athlete in his youth. He didn’t start playing football until his sophomore year at West Laurens High School in Montrose. A raw receiver coming out of run-heavy Georgia Tech, Thomas was the Broncos’ No. 22 overall selection in the first-round of the 2010 draft – two spots ahead of the more-heralded, but character-troubled receiver Dez Bryant, who went to Dallas, and three spots ahead of quarterback Tim Tebow, who was selected by the Broncos.
Tebow and Thomas combined the following season with arguably the most thrilling sports play that had ever occurred in the city of Denver. On the first play of an AFC playoff overtime game against the favored Pittsburgh Steelers, Tebow hit Thomas on a 15-yard crossing pattern. With the Steelers’ blitzing, Thomas stiff-armed one defender away and outran another for an 80-yard catch-and-run walk-off touchdown that sent Mile High Stadium and the city of Denver into a collective tremor.
“I’ll never forget that one,’’ Thomas said in the book, The 50 Greatest Players in Broncos History (authored by the author of this story), in which he came in No. 18 overall and the No. 2 receiver behind Rod Smith. “I look back and say that was my coming-out game. Because I had only four catches, but for 204 yards. I went up against Ike Taylor, one of the best corners at the time. To be able to do that with a guy everybody said couldn’t throw in Tebow … but it was like, “Man, this guy delivered.’ That play started me off in the league.
“Breaking those records with Peyton (in 2013), playing in two Super Bowls, winning the Super Bowl (in 2016)—those were great, too. Those were probably bigger in the big picture. But when you’re talking about one play, that catch from Tebow was probably the one.”
Given four seasons with a soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, Thomas had a four-year, Hall of Fame-caliber run. From 2012-15 – The Peyton years – Thomas recorded 402 catches for 5,787 yards and 41 touchdowns, or an average of 101 receptions, 1,447 yards and 10 touchdowns a season.
Thomas was considered one of the league’s top five receivers at the time, along with Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, A.J. Green and Antonio Brown.
Sensational with the ball after the catch during his prime – he led the NFL in YAC with 704 in 2013 – Thomas’ began to gradually decline in this area. He averaged 15.5 yards per catch in 2013; followed in succession with 14.6 yards per catch in 2014, then 12.4, 12.0, 11.4 and 11.2 this year.
Although Thomas experienced drop issues in recent years, he was always extremely popular among his teammates and his friendly, easy-going manner made him well-liked among the fans and, yes, the media.
“I guess it was some of the ways I grew up,’’ Thomas said in the top 50 players book. “Seeing so much stuff. Seeing what happened with angry people. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but just what happened with my family and stuff and being around people in college where they’d get angry. I just hate when people – I don’t care who you are, I hate when people are disrespectful.
“My dad and my auntie and uncle would lean on opening the door for somebody or saying thank you or ‘Yes sir. No, ma’am.’ It kind of grew on me as I got older and as a man I found it helps you out. People look at you differently.
“I just try to stay out of people’s way, I do my job to the best of my ability. I have my problems here and there, but I never try to let it come into my work or you guys (the media) who I see every day. If I got a problem, I’ll leave it at the house.’’
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Where does Thomas rank among Broncos receivers in history? Statistically, he was No. 2 to Smith. But even Smith might admit he didn’t have Thomas’ physical talent.
Here’s a look at the top 9 Broncos receivers in the three most significant categories of catches, yards and touchdowns:
Receptions
1. Rod Smith ………...……… 1995-2006 …………… 849
2. Shannon Sharpe, TE ........ 1990-99, 2002-03 ...… 675
3. Demaryius Thomas .......… 2010-18 …………....… 665
4. Lionel Taylor …………........ 1960-66 ………..……. 543
5. Ed McCaffrey ……….....…. 1995-2003 …...……… 462
6. Vance Johnson ………....... 1985-95 ……….…….. 415
7. Riley Odoms, TE ……........ 1972-83 ……….…….. 396
8. (tie) Steve Watson …......... 1979-87 …….……….. 353
8. (tie) Emmanuel Sanders … 2014-present ……….. 353
Receiving yards
1. Smith …………. 11,389
2. Thomas ...……… 9,055
3. Sharpe …..…….. 8,439
4. Taylor ……….…. 6,872
5. McCaffrey …...… 6,200
6. Watson ……….... 6,112
7. Odoms ……....… 5,755
8. Johnson …….…. 5,695
9. Haven Moses …. 5,450
Receiving touchdowns
1. Smith .......... 68
2. Thomas ...... 60
3. Sharpe ....... 55
4. McCaffrey ... 46
(tie) Taylor .... 44
6. Moses ......... 44
7. Odoms ........ 41
8. Johnson ...... 37
9. Watson ....... 36