What Now!?: Dumervil, Et al…

(Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

UPDATED 3/16 7:00 PM EST:

We have been doing our best to keep everyone up-to-date on what is going on with the Elvis Dumervil and a twitter hash tag that I cannot include here.

Here is what we have gathered.

The Denver Broncos had until 4:00 PM EST today to either release Dumervil or guarantee him $13 million for the 2013 season. What Dumervil’s agent Marty Magid is saying is that the team made an offer of $6.5 million at 1 PM EST today, before coming up at $7 million and finally arriving at around 2:30 PM EST and that Dumervil needed time to ‘digest it’.

The Broncos version of the story says that they made the $8 million offer at 1 PM EST this afternoon and did not change the deal at all throughout the day. Instead, they gave Magid the hard dead line of needing to know Dumervil’s decision by 3 PM EST.

At 3 PM Magid informed Denver that Dumervil would not be taking the Broncos offer and the team prepared to release Dumervil from his contract. At 3:25 PM the team was informed that Dumervil would sign and the team waited on the paper work.

“The bottom line is that our offer did not change from 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock Eastern to the time they decided to take the deal. By the time they decided they did not give themselves enough time to send the signed document back to beat the 2 o’clock deadline,” John Elway said just moments ago.

Desperate to get any type of indication of the status of the contract Denver apparently was asking for cell phone photos of the signed contract, meanwhile Dumervil had reportedly set up shop in a FedEx Kinkos somewhere in Florida — receiving faxes and signing the contract.

At 3:55 PM EST Broncos contract expert Mike Sullivan indicated to Magid that the team had not received the fax, they had to release Dumervil.

At 4:06 PM Denver received the fax from Dumervil, but it was too late. The Broncos had already faxed the NFL offices at 3:59 PM to indicate that they would forgo paying the defensive end the guaranteed $13 million and released Dumervil. This was a precautionary measure, but it puts the team deep into a corner.

Elway was asked by the Denver Post’s Mike Klis if this meant that the team would attempt to re-sign Elvis, “We’re going to talk about all our options. We’re going to let things settle down, see what happens.”

The only given is that Dumervil will count at least $4.87 million against the Broncos 2013 salary cap regardless of whether he is wearing the orange and blue’s ninety-two or not.

“Elvis has a timestamp at 3:53, 3:54 of him faxing it back. They had him fax it to two different numbers. He was sending it in, and then at 3:55 I get a call on the other line and the Broncos are telling me they’re running out of time and they have to get the paperwork to New York [the league office, to file his release by the waiver deadline], so I told them, ‘It’s going through the fax right now, but I guess you have to do whatever you have to do,'” Magid told to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora.

PFT floated a theory that Magid, given the already indicated $4.87 million allowed news to break that Dumervil would sign for $8 million and then held up the contract. Forcing Denver to release Dumervil and allowing Dumervil and his agent to double dip — collecting the nearly $5 million from the Broncos and gathering the $8 million from a new team, as well as whatever signing bonus the new team would be willing to pay.

This contradicts an earlier report that Dumervil was telling friends in the Denver area that he was returning to the team.

PFT’s theory does hold a little weight though, as their theory (minus the cahoots) is the best case scenario (money wise) for Dumervil.

The other scenario is a little more complicated and it is not quite clear, but given the fact that the team is already $4.87 million into Dumervil, they could just pay him the remainder. It is not that simple, but my contacts familiar with NFL contracts (and 104.3 The Fan’s Alfred Williams corroborates) have expressed to me that they could do something in the form of a signing bonus in order to straighten this whole thing out.

As we know in being fans of the NFL, where there is a will there is a way.

The team and Dumervil have not had contact since the debacle and Magid claims that teams have already begun contacting him now that Elvis is a free agent.

“We haven’t talked yet, but I think we all needed to take a deep breath and then we’ll see where it goes,'” Magid said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way we wanted, but everything happens for a reason and it’s not like this anybody’s fault. This wasn’t just a case of an agent taking too long to send something. It’s not anyone’s fault, but Elvis is a free agent now and we’ll see how that process plays out.”

As former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura once said, ‘Follow the money.’ Who gains from lying on this one? The Broncos could only hope to sideline some bad fan PR by pulling something like this. If they did and they did it for that reason, putting this whole thing on Magid is a genius move, as fans won’t complain about anything other than fax machines and a terribly negligent agent. The silver lining being the $8.75 million that Denver immediately frees up towards the salary cap.

“Due to this situation, there are now salary cap implications associated with this transaction that we must consider with regard to potentially re-signing Elvis. At this moment, we are discussing all of our free-agency options to determine what’s best for the Denver Broncos.” Elway said to wrap up his press release on the Dumervil situation, and so it is.

UPDATE 3/15 11:20 PM EST:

Klis is reporting that the hold-up on Dumervil’s end was due to a change in the 2014 and 2015 language in the contract. According to Magid, Dumervil’s salary was guaranteed in 2014 in the event of injury only.

According to the the NFL Network’s Michelle Beisner, the team will not work anymore tonight on the contract. So that is it until tomorrow at the earliest from the team. We will keep you updated on details as they emerge.

UPDATE 3/16 1:20 AM EST:

Klis again on the scene with this tidbit, Denver asked the NFL if they would honor the verbal agreement that Dumervil had given them. The league denied the Broncos request, there is precedent here — sort of. Klis has a story of a time that something happened, with Terrell Owens. It isn’t the exact same situation unfortunately.

UPDATE 3/16 11:35 AM EST:

NFLN’s Michelle Beisner reports that contrary to what Magid claims, a source close to the situation is saying the Dumervil is not generating a lot of interest from other teams.

UPDATE 3/16 5:05 PM EST:

Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun is reporting that Dumervil and his agent are parting ways, citing sources close to the situation. In a previous update Wilson reported that Dumervil is ‘firmly’ on the Baltimore Ravens‘ radar.

With Dumervil no longer having an agent, he will have to field his own calls until he hires a new agent. This is probably a good thing for fans who would like Denver to re-sign the free agent defensive end. The free agent apparently told Magid to, “Move in a different direction.”

Under NFLPA rules Dumervil would have to wait five days before hiring a new agent. This would allow  the Broncos (or any other team) to deal directly with Elvis. However, an agent apparently has the ability to waive this five day waiting period. Apparently Magid plans to do just that.

The Ravens are no stranger to a situation in which an agent got a fax to the league office too late, in 2004 they had traded a second round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for Terrell Owens services. Only to have Owens taken away and eventually ending up with the Philadelphia Eagles. Hat tip to our reader Pete Baron, who may or may not have jogged Mike Klis’ memory for his story which has become the theme of the Denver Post’s Broncos’ page since Friday night.

UPDATE 3/16 6:35 PM EST:

USA Today’s Alex Marvez is reporting that Tom Condon could be Dumervil’s new agent. Condon represents Peyton and Eli Manning, Drew Brees, Tony Romo, Matt Stafford and Matt Ryan.

UPDATE 3/16 7:00 PM EST:

Gary Miller of Denver’s KCNC-TV just tweeted that an NFL source told him that the Broncos were, “Moving on without Elvis Dumervil.”

In my experience Miller is very tuned in, but he also is a bit behind sometimes. For him to tweet this though, it probably came from a reliable source.

We will keep you as up-to-date as we can, but it doesn’t look like this will be over as quickly as we had hoped.