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Published on 03/12/2013 at Tue Mar 12 16:58.
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Signing of Vasquez Reveals Denver Target on Vet’s Backs

Posted Tue Mar 12th by

Broncos have signed guard Louis Vasquez. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

The first free agent signing for the Denver Broncos of the 2013 Free Agency period stays true to the trend that the Broncos have followed thus far in the last three years under John Elway. That being low key moves that make sense and moves that hardly anyone had thought of.

Denver has signed guard Louis Vasquez to a four-year contract reportedly worth $23.5-million with $13-million guaranteed over the course of the first two season.

Vasquez will start immediately and could possibly mean the end for ailing veteran Chris Kuper, but the end does not mean that it will be an immediate end.

Much like the reports that the Broncos are willing to part with Elvis Dumervil due to the large amount of money due to him this season; Kuper is due $5.415-million in 2013, though $2.745 of that would count as dead money if he were cut this year.

Kuper ($5.415-million) currently is the Broncos sixth highest paid player, behind Peyton Manning ($20-million), Elvis Dumervil ($13.623-million), Champ Bailey ($11-million), Ryan Clady ($9.828-million) and Von Miller ($5.727-million).

As I said earlier I don’t think that Vasquez presence means that Kuper is being cut this season necessarily, his age does indicate something though. Vasquez is 26-years old, Clady, Zane Beadles, J.D. Walton and Orlando Franklin are all 26-years old or younger. An interesting move to protect the teams huge investment in Manning who turns 37 this month and later Brock Osweiler who turned 22-tyears old in November.

Vasquez comes to Denver from the San Diego Chargers where he played for four seasons starting 54 games after being drafted in the third round of the 2009 draft. According to STATS Inc. he has allowed just 11 sacks and one penalty during his career. He started every game for San Diego in 2012, a statistic that Kuper has failed to log since 2008.

Tough decision, but as the team proved last season with Dan Koppen, they are willing to pay an expensive veteran to assure that it is in fact, ‘Next man up’.

  • BroncoMan24

    Love the signing!!!

  • Daddy Tebow

    Kuper we’ll miss ya.

  • Doom92

    I like it as well… As for Kopen I sure hope he continues to start. He was had over fist better than Walton…

  • TD30ismvp

    Oh gosh….we didn’t sign Reggie Bush yet, Pete was right because the Broncos thought it was dumb too, we drafted a kid for the Bush roll. Kuper isn’t going anywhere this year wouldn’t save us much money.

  • Ryan Clady

    I was drafted in 2008…

  • Pete Baron

    Agreed. Isn’t he a free agent though? And didn’t Elway say JD was the starter? I don’t know about anyone else, but Kopen sure looked to play better and make Manning more comfy than Walton.

  • Pete Baron

    ;)

  • wcben

    Love this move, if we could make a deal with DRC im going to have a good week haha

  • dustfan

    Which very well may be the issue. He proved he could still play last year. He may want/get more than the Broncos are willing to pay. I mean, if he comes back for cheap, then great. We’ll see.

  • dustfan

    Well I don’t think you pay him 5.5m to be a back up. I don’t know what the open market would be for him given his injury situation. If he were to restructure down to the 2.75m-3m range I could see him staying as that is the amount we would lose by cutting him anyway.

  • Draper

    Fixed that for you, thanks.

  • Draper

    Yes, he is a free agent. The current starting center for the Broncos is J.D. Walton, but they have two centers behind him on the roster.

  • TheTroglodyte

    Huge bolster to our O-Line and an even bigger hit to the Chargers O-Line where he was the only good player. This move may have single handedely knocked the Chargers out of contention.

  • Cheyenne Kid

    We just signed Wes Welker!!! Wowee! Now rb is all we need on offense well OL depth. I can’t wait to see Welker,Decker and Thomas line up and the Broncos get their steam going. I thought this was a longshot until this am when I heard we were his choice if he couldn’t work it out in NE!