Broncos TE Julius Thomas joined Woody Paige and Les Shapiro on The Sports Show to discuss his plans for free agency, and whether he wants to be back in Denver next year.
On the subject of taking a hometown discount to return to the Broncos, Thomas unsurprisingly seemed to dodge the question.
“To say whether I would give them a hometown discount — what is a hometown discount?” Thomas said on Friday. “I guess it depends on what the market is at the time and determining what’s a discount, what’s fair? And having to see it. It’s hard to speculate and say, ‘This what I will do. This is what I won’t do’ without knowing what’s going to be on the table, what’s going to be in front of you. So you really need — I have a great agent in Frank Bauer and they’re going to work through it and make sure everything is right. It’s not always about the ending dollar. Sometimes it’s about the contract language. So a lot more goes into it that people think than just, ‘Oh, no, this is the money amount.’ There’s a lot more complexity in those contracts.”
As for being back with the Broncos in general, Thomas said that there hasn’t been a lot of talk as of now, but he stressed that he would “love” to return to Denver.
“I really don’t know. To be perfectly honest, it hasn’t even been discussed for me yet,” Thomas said. “You gotta take your mind off it for a little bit, relax. But I definitely would love to come back. I love those guys. I love the city of Denver. It’s been great to me. So, obviously, business things happen, but I definitely would love to be back in Denver.”
Jason Cole of the Bleacher Report spoke to sources last week who that the Broncos are expected to allow Thomas to test the open market.
Cole expects the Broncos to make “very little” attempt to lock him up before free agency in underway. Although, Cole added that the Broncos could reevaluate the situation once offers start coming in for Thomas.
One concern regarding Thomas is the fact that he only had five catches over the final seven games of the season.
Thomas, 26, may have had a disappointing end to the season, but he still caught 43 passes for 489 yards receiving and 12 touchdowns over the course of 13 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 13 tight end in the league out of 67 qualifying players.
We have Thomas listed as the No. 5 player in our Top 50 Free Agents list.
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