Broncos re-sign DT Gerard Warren (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Broncos | Warren lands a six-year dealSat, 11 Mar 2006 13:38:49 -0800ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports the Denver Broncos have reached an agreement on a six-year contract with DT Gerard Warren. The deal, which makes Warren one of the NFL's highest paid defensive tackles, is worth about $36 million and includes approximately $10 million in bonuses.

this guy's career was completely saved by the move to Denver.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

Broncos retain DT Warren with lucrative 6-year deal

By Len Pasquarelli

ESPN.com

Working hard to keep one of their priority free agents, the Denver Broncos on Saturday reached agreement with defensive tackle Gerard Warren on a six-year contract extension, ESPN.com has learned.

The deal, which makes Warren one of the NFL's highest paid defensive tackles is worth about $36 million and includes approximately $10 million in bonuses.

Denver officials worked late into Friday night to lay the groundwork for the agreement and then the two sides resumed negotiations on Saturday afternoon. Agent Joel Segal, who negotiated the contract, was out of town and could not be immediately reached for comment.

Warren was the No. 14 player in the ESPN.com ratings of unrestricted free agents.

The Broncos had been very public about their desire to retain Warren, who played extremely well in his first season in a Denver uniform, after being acquired from the Cleveland Browns in a March 2, 2005 trade for a fourth-round draft pick. And Warren told Denver-area media outlets this week that his preference was to remain with the Broncos, perhaps even at less money than he might have commanded as a free agent.

Warren's value to the Broncos goes significantly beyond his statistics. He started all 16 games in 2005, and registered a modest 42 tackles and three sacks. But the five-year veteran anchored the interior of a defense which statistically ranked No. 2 in the league against the run, and occupied blockers so that the linebackers could flow to the ball.

It marked the first time in his career that the former University of Florida star was asked to subjugate his own goals for the overall performance of the unit and, playing for defensive line aide Andre Patterson, who also coached him in Cleveland, he responded well.

The third overall choice in the 2001 draft, Warren was often criticized in Cleveland for not living up to that lofty status. But he is a player who can eat up blockers and get some penetration when put into "one-gap" situations, and the Broncos coaches love him.

Warren, 27, has played in 76 games, all but one of them as a starter, and has 289 tackles, 19½ sacks, five forced fumbles, four recoveries and 13 pass deflections.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2364298

 

[jkruppe]

42 tackles? NFL.com shows him with 19. Anyway, $36 million for this guy? I think Denver went a little out of their way to make Rat feel smart.

 

[Aaron Rudnicki]

42 tackles? NFL.com shows him with 19. Anyway, $36 million for this guy? I think Denver went a little out of their way to make Rat feel smart.

Stats, Inc. also has him with 14 solos and 5 assists, but stats don't normally tell the whole story for quality DTs.I'm also surprised they gave him this much money.

 

[pinda]

if a guy like pryce got 5 years and 25, then warren is worth 6 years, 36 mill....different positions, but you have one guy in the prime of his career, and the other one with his prime well behind him

i'm wondering how mcuh the "real length" of the deals are once we see the yearly salaries, and how much of them will acctually be paid out.

if all the rumors are true that abraham is heading to denver, add that to TO still possibly being there, that's a pretty deadly team.

questions mark remains at one position, RB.......i think drafting a guy like Mulroney, Calhoun, or Addai would put a exclamation mark on Denver's off season.

 

[SSOG]

I'm glad to see Warren resigned. For a large part of the year, until Champ Bailey got over his injuries and got really hot around midseason, Warren was without question the defensive MVP. He was getting double-teamed on nearly every play.

Now, I agree that the contract's a little excessive... but we all know that contract numbers are just a bunch of lies (anyone remember Drew Bledsoe's $100 million "lifetime" contract in New England?). I'd be interested to see his signing bonus, as well as the salaries for the first 3 years, before passing judgement. And even if it's not set up very well... Denver overpaid for him, but they desperately need to upgrade their D-line, and it'd be an inauspicious start if they let their two best DLs from last season go, so I can live with that.

Now that Warren is back, I can safely say that Denver did a PHENOMINAL job retaining key players from last year's 13-3 team. Lepsis, Nalen, Warren, Brown, Engleberger... basically the only losses are Jeb Putzier (who kept getting pulled anyway for lack of blocking), Mike Anderson (is anyone REALLY worried about Denver's running game?), and Trevor Pryce (who I was very sad to see go). Replacing those three players, however, will be as many as 11 draft picks (or whoever we get in a trade for them). It's looking good for Denver for at least one more year.

Also, I'm curious how this year's market will bear out. With the huge boost to the salary cap and the limited number of people to spend it on, are contracts that were once ridiculous now going to be reasonably commonplace?

 

[JaxBill]

I'm sure John Henderson's agent is grinning ear-to-ear with this contract news. (Henderson has one year left on his contract.)

 

[Z-Dog]

Now that Warren is back, I can safely say that Denver did a PHENOMINAL job retaining key players from last year's 13-3 team. Lepsis, Nalen, Warren, Brown, Engleberger... basically the only losses are Jeb Putzier (who kept getting pulled anyway for lack of blocking), Mike Anderson (is anyone REALLY worried about Denver's running game?), and Trevor Pryce (who I was very sad to see go). Replacing those three players, however, will be as many as 11 draft picks (or whoever we get in a trade for them). It's looking good for Denver for at least one more year.

If you land Abraham for one of those 1st-rounders, you won't even notice losing Pryce. That said, Abraham is going to need to sign for bigger numbers than Warren, which I asume means a $15 million bonus, at least.

 

[BoltBacker]

If you land Abraham for one of those 1st-rounders, you won't even notice losing Pryce. That said, Abraham is going to need to sign for bigger numbers than Warren, which I asume means a $15 million bonus, at least.

At least Abraham is much younger so they can spread the cap-hit out.That's the reason I doubt DEN lands a big name RB or trades Bell. The big name RB's don't have enough tread left on their tires to spread the cap-hit out and Bell is just too inexpensive an option to get rid of. Unless James or Lewis are willing to be paid well below market value so they can look good in the DEN offense I seriously doubt either ends up in orange next year.