The Denver Broncos acquired extra second- and third-round draft picks from the Los Angeles Rams when they agreed to trade outside linebacker Von Miller on Tuesday.
The Rams didn’t have enough salary cap space to acquire Miller, so the Broncos agreed to $9 million of the linebacker’s remaining $10.5 million salary this season, according to KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis.
That doesn’t change Denver’s cap situation much because Miller’s salary was obviously already counting against the team’s books before the trade.
After trading Miller, even after paying most of his salary, the Broncos still have around $15 million in 2021 salary cap space, according to an estimate from OverTheCap.com. Whatever cap space Denver does not use this year will roll over and be added to the team’s 2022 cap total.
A way-too-early rough estimate for the Broncos’ 2022 salary cap space is about $73.8 million, but that number is subject to change in the coming months. Even if that estimate is $10-$20 million too high, though, Denver is going to have plenty of cap space — and draft picks — to use in 2022.
Broncos general manager George Paton is clearly preparing for a rebuild next offseason, and trading Miller helped him start the process.