Peyton Manning In Talks With Broncos To Restructure His Contract?

Ross Tucker of NBCSN has spoken to a league source who believes the Broncos could be in talks with Peyton Manning to restructure contract, and in turn free up some extra cap space ahead of free agency.

Tucker adds that this move would give them an opportunity to retain free agents like WR Demaryius Thomas, TE Julius Thomas and DT Terrance Knighton.

There has been some speculation that Manning could be asked to agree to a similar type of restructure to what Tom Brady has done in the past few years.

OverTheCap.com has the Broncos projected to have around $26 million in available cap space this offseason, which is actually a pretty good amount.

However, the overall expectation is that the Broncos will need to franchise Demaryius Thomas in order to prevent him from reaching the open market. Doing so would reduce their available cap space to around $15.5 million.

That’s still enough money to make some moves, but it may not be enough for them to keep all three of their top free agents.

According to Joel Corry, a simple restructure could free up as much as $9.015 million in cap space.

Mike Klis of the Denver Post reported last night that Manning and GM John Elway met Thursday afternoon to discuss his future.

According to Klis, Manning left the meeting Thursday evening, and isn’t ready to make an announcement as to whether or not he’ll return for the 2015 season.

Manning would still need to pass a physical, which happens to be a requirement of his contract.

Manning, 38, has another two years remaining on his five-year, $96 million contract, which includes base salaries of $19 million for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. If he’s still on the team’s roster as of the final day of the 2014 league year, his base salary becomes fully guaranteed.

Manning’s 2014 season ended with him throwing for 4,727 yards while completing 66.2 percent of his passes to go along with 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. Pro Football Focus rated him as the No. 10 quarterback out of 39 qualifying players.

We’ll have more updates regarding the Broncos and Manning as the news is available.