Elvis Dumervill released because contract not submitted on time

The Denver Broncos are pretty tight to the cap and so they were trying to get Elvis Dumervill to restructure his deal so that he could stay with the team. Reportedly, he agreed to do this earlier this afternoon - taking a pay cut to stay in Denver. Everyone went on with their day thinking that he was still a Bronco and Von Miller and Dumervill would be wreaking havoc in 2013 again. Not so fast.

The reasoning? The contract wasn't submitted on time due to a fax snafu!




ProFootballTalk:
According to Klis, the Broncos received the fax from Dumervil at 2:07 p.m. MT, seven minutes and one second after the Broncos had to pull the trigger to release Dumervil and avoid being on the hook for the full $12 million. The team could still re-sign Dumervil, but there would be different salary cap ramifications because Dumervil’s contract ran beyond the 2013 season.

I don't know who uses fax machines anymore, but here's a reason why you shouldn't. I have no idea what happened as Dumervill apparently accepted the new contract at 1:25 PM.

So now one of the better young pass rushers just became available because of a logistical problem. Great job Denver! Though, in actuality, it wasn't Denver at all. It was reportedly Dumervill and his reps' fault that the fax didn't get there on time. He just lost out on around $4 million because of this. Think he'll be looking for a new agent?

It would be so very Belichick-like to scoop up Dumervill. Though he could maybe just re-sign that low deal tomorrow, but there might be some complications with that as noted above. Also, he was going to make $8 million and the Broncos now have $4.87 million in dead money because of this. Meaning? They can only offer peanuts.

Since he's a free-agent other teams can offer him much more money, of course, it might be kind of a dick move by Dumervill to back out after agreeing to the deal. We'll see what happens. Either way, it's unlikely that Elvis will get the same kind of money. Paul Kruger got $8 million from the Browns, it's not likely anyone will go above that.

This also should ramp up the Broncos' interest in Dwight Freeney, though they are still pretty tight to the cap obviously and do basically nothing about it. Freeney is in for a visit with the Patriots today and Denver has been another rumored suitor. However, it's believed the Patriots are very interested in Freeney and don't plan on letting him leave. Could they bring in Freeney and also steal Dumervill from Denver?

That might make up for the Welker thing. MIGHT.