Did Denver Broncos overpay for Demaryius Thomas?

The Broncos are trying to get back to the Super Bowl while their championship window is still open, but did they overpay to keep Demaryius Thomas?

The NFL offseason is winding down as training camp looms in the very near future. The free agent frenzy we experienced in the late winter, early spring months of the year are over but that doesn’t mean that everyone who needed to be signed in that window was immediately inked to a new deal.

Both Demaryius Thomas and Dez Bryant sat most of the year without a new deal from anyone, but that all changed on Wednesday afternoon. Dallas inked Bryant to a new $70 million over five years, and just minutes later the Broncos and Demaryius Thomas to a similar deal with minor differences in guaranteed money.

The whole collusion case against the Broncos and Cowboys might be irrelevant now that the two receivers have been paid, as both are getting $14 million per year. But now that they’re linked forever with identical deals, the question will be who overpaid for their franchise wideout?

On the surface, it looks like the Broncos overpaid.

While turds will be hurled at Tony Romo until his dying day, he’s going to be the quarterback in Dallas for the foreseeable future and he’s improving as he ages like fine wine. He isn’t perfect, but he has something to provide Dez Bryant with that Peyton Manning can’t for Thomas — the promise of a lengthy relationship.

The chances that the Cowboys sever ties with Romo within the next five years is slim, which means barring some massively unforeseen catastrophe, the Romo-Bryant era will extent throughout the length of the receiver’s new deal.

When it comes to the Manning-Thomas era, that could be over after 2015.

Peyton isn’t going to stick around for the duration of Thomas’ contract, which means at some point over the next five year, the Brock Osweiler era will begin and the onus will fall solely on Demaryius if things don’t transition smoothly.

Of course, you can’t fault the Broncos for giving this contract to their star wide receiver. Aside from the obviousness of not wanting him to go to another team — God forbid a division rival like the Chiefs — Denver will want to start the Osweiler era with a franchise wideout capable of helping the transition along.

Then again, Osweiler is no Manning, and Thomas might be a product of his environment. Just look at Eric Decker for an example of this, as his production fell off sharply once you subtracted a Hall of Fame quarterback from his gameday equation.

Look, the Broncos had to pay Thomas and there’s no way around it. Love it or hate it, the deal was going to get done and he was going to get top dollar for his talents. There are pros to this deal for Denver, including being able to use the franchise tag on Von Miller next offseason when he asks for Justin Houston money.

But there’s a lot to be cautious about with paying Demaryius Thomas $70 million when a large part of why he’s so successful isn’t going to be around for the duration of that contract. That’s not a condemnation of the deal, it’s just a cautious warning to future Broncos fans who might already be cursing this deal.

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