Broncos Would Have To Trade Or Cut Ryan Clady To Make Room For Colin Kaepernick

According to Jeff Legwold of ESPN, the Broncos would have to trade or release LT Ryan Clady and restructure a contract or two in order to create the cap room for QB Colin Kaepernick.

• In regards to a restructure candidate, Legwold suggests WR Demaryius Thomas as someone to keep in mind in the event the Broncos and 49ers reach an agreement for Kaepernick.
• Legwold believes the Broncos could offer the 49ers their fifth-round pick, which is towards the top of the round at No. 144 overall.

As of now, Denver has just $1,620,296 in available cap space to work with, so you can see why these moves would need to be made, even if they’re able to get Kaepernick to accept a pay cut.

Clady’s future with the Broncos was already in question after Denver signed Russell Okung to a contract a few weeks ago.

A source previously told Jason Cole of B/R is that there are 4-5 teams considering the idea of trading for Clady, so there’s at least a chance they could move him a deal, especially when you consider that  possibility of trade  Giants and Lions were both in the market for offensive tackle help.

Clady, 29, has another two years remaining on his five-year, $52.5 million contract that included contains $33 million guaranteed. He stands to make base salaries of $9.5 million in 2016 and another $10 million in 2017.

Clady wound up missing the entire 2015 season, due to a torn ACL, so that will be a concern for prospective teams.

According to OverTheCap.com, trading Clady would free up $8,900,000 in available cap space for the Broncos and create $1.2 million in dead money.

In 2014, Clady appeared in all 16 games for the Broncos and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 41 offensive tackle out of 84 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding a potential Clady trade as the news is available.