Elvis Dumervil Wisely Agrees to Take Pay Cut

****UPDATE****

While the two sides did agree on a reduced salary, someone forgot to fax the agreement to the NFL before the 4pm ET deadline and as a result, the Denver Broncos have released Elvis Dumervil. Dumervil is now an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any team that offers him a contract.

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The biggest storyline for the Denver Broncos this week wasn’t Wes Welker or any of the free agents they signed. Rather everything revolved around defensive end Elvis Dumervil and his contract dispute with Broncos management, one that even brought out the semi-bitchy side of John Elway. But after almost two full weeks of back-and-forth, Dumervil has come to a decision about his future in Denver and that decision is to bite the bullet, take a pay cut and play out next season with the Broncos.

Dumervil was set to make $12 million next season but that price has been slashed to a reported $8 million for 2013 and will include $3.5 million guaranteed on the second day of the league year in 2014. Prior to agreeing to take a pay cut, Dumervil brought out the wrath of John Elway, who publicly called Dumervil’s contract “out of whack” compared to other deals that had been made.

Elway was right and it appears as though Dumervil is aware of that. Earlier in the week the Broncos brought in free agent defensive ends Dwight Freeney and John Abraham in an effort to show Dumervil that they weren’t messing around about him taking a pay cut. Denver also looked poised to either trade or cut Dumervil if he didn’t lower his salary but after meeting with free agents the two sides agreed on a deal.

For the Broncos, anything less than Dumervil was trading down, and for Dumervil he saw that even if getting rid of him was a downgrade, the Broncos were willing to entertain the idea. So naturally, the two sides have now met in the middle.