John Elway is giving his clearest indication yet that he’s going to pursue Kirk Cousins Authentic Kareem Martin Jersey , the prize of this year’s free-agent quarterbacks.
”We’re going to explore all options in free agency and see where that goes,” Elway said Wednesday at the NFL combine. ”Obviously we’ve got the fifth pick in the draft, too. That will all play into it. We’ll continue to look at all of the options out there when it comes to quarterback.”
The Denver Broncos general manager stressed that he’ll look at ”anybody that won’t be under contract.”
With the Washington Redskins moving on to Alex Smith, whom they’ve agreed to acquire from Kansas City, that group of free agents would include Cousins, who figures to command more than the record $27.5 million that Jimmy Garoppolo will receive in his new deal with the San Francisco 49ers.
Elway said he’s confident the team could absorb a big free-agent contract under the salary cap, revealed the Broncos are considering moving Ronald Leary back to left guard and indicated highly paid receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders aren’t going anywhere.
”Yes, the plan is to have them back,” Elway said.
That means, Elway will pick up Thomas’ $4 million bonus in March, which will keep the last two years of the wide receiver’s contract in place.
”That is the plan Carlos Lee Jersey , yes.”
The returns of tight end Jake Butt and slot receiver Carlos Henderson, who spent their rookie years on IR last season, could help bolster the Broncos’ offense, as well.
Elway has been stung by the draft selections of Brock Osweiler and Paxton Lynch, but he hit the jackpot six years ago when he landed Peyton Manning.
The Broncos have missed the playoffs each of the two seasons after Manning retired, including a 5-11 season last year when they cycled through quarterbacks Trevor Siemian, Osweiler and Lynch twice .
Elway said he’s eager to see the promising class of college quarterbacks this week that features Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Lamar Jackson and Mason Rudolph.
”There is a possibility of some really good quarterbacks coming out of this draft Giants Authentic Jerseys ,” Elway said.
Elway got burned two years ago when he moved up to take Lynch with the 26th overall pick only to watch him founder on the sideline most of the past two seasons.
”Believe me, I’m not done swinging and missing,” Elway said with a laugh. ”Misses don’t bother me. We just have to figure out a way to get it right. That is what we are working on.”
Even with so much uncertainty at quarterback, Elway has been in a good mood this week.
”If there’s any year I wanted to play it was last year, to come back and play as a player and try to get things turned around,” Elway said. ”Sitting in my chair was a long, long year.”
Elway is also a member of the league’s competition committee which has been discussing simplifying the catch rule that’s become so cumbersome in recent seasons and which commissioner Roger Goodell has put atop his offseason fix-it list.
Elway said the competition committee is making progress in that regard.
”I think it’ll be much simpler and I think everyone will understand what a catch is and what it isn’t,” Elway said. ”I think that we’re in the process of everything that we covered so far, it’s going to be much better.”
So, ”survive the ground” will soon be out of the NFL’s lexicon.
”Yeah, going to the ground Authentic Harold Landry Jersey , that’ll be changed,” Elway said.
Goodell wanted the league to go back and start from scratch after tweaks to the rule only made it more troublesome.
”Or let’s go back to what the old definition of what a catch was, right? Two feet down, control and move and then you’ve got a catch,” Elway said. ”That’s what it’s going to be more like.”
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OAKLAND, Calif. — Last year’s Western Conference finalists go head-to-head in the first round of the NBA Playoffs this season when the injury-handcuffed San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors meet in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series Saturday afternoon.
The Spurs will be seeking their sixth championship in 20 years without star forward Kawhi Leonard, who has missed all but nine games this year with tendinopathy in his right quad.
Meanwhile, standout point guard Stephen Curry will be a spectator due to a sprained left MCL when the Warriors begin their quest for a third championship in four years.
Both perennial All-Stars are presumed out for the entire series, although no formal announcement has been made.
Curry is scheduled for a re-examination of his injured knee Saturday on the three-week anniversary of having suffered the injury. The Warriors hope to get him back at some point during the postseason, presuming either that the news is better than expected Saturday or they can survive the first round without him.
Curry averaged 31.5 points when the Warriors swept the Spurs 4-0 in the Western Finals last May en route to the championship. Leonard got injured in the first game of the series.
Neither team has demonstrated championship form this season.
The Spurs had an 18-year run of 50-win seasons snapped when they went 47-35, good for just the seventh seed in the West.
They enter the postseason having lost five of their last nine Cheap Nyheim Hines Jersey , including 122-98 at New Orleans on Wednesday night in the regular-season finale, which dropped them into the seventh position and a matchup with Golden State right off the bat.
That means nothing, Spurs veteran Manu Ginobili claimed, when all 16 playoff teams start 0-0 in the playoffs.
“We have got to play above where we have been playing. We really have to improve in many ways,” he noted. “Hopefully, we do that and we raise our game to the next level.”
The Spurs still feature two of the greatest winners the league has ever seen in Ginobili and Tony Parker, who have teamed for 131 playoff wins, equaling the most of any tandem in NBA history.
What the Warriors lack in playoff-win quantity they make up for in quality. Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala were all key players in last year’s record-tying 16-1 stampede to the title.
Like the Spurs, the Warriors struggled down the stretch Johnny Townsend Color Rush Jersey , losing 10 of their last 17 to finish seven games behind Houston for the best record in the West.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played for San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich during the Spurs’ ongoing championship era, sounded like his mentor when he labeled much of what happened in March and earlier this month as “meaningless.”
“This has been such a chaotic month with all the injuries and meaningless games,” Kerr insisted. “We’ve been frustrated we haven’t performed very well. But the good news is we have performed well for four years. We know who we are and what we’re about.”
The Warriors took the season series 3-1 from the Spurs this year, winning both games in Oakland.
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