Kiszla: Broncos should dare to go big with Richard Sherman or Lavonte David in NFL free agency – The Denver Post

Money can’t buy the Broncos what they really want, as this team is more than a player away from Super Bowl contention. But with more than $40 million of wiggle room under the NFL salary cap, the Broncos just might get what they need:

Leadership.

While this team could use help at too many positions to count, Denver has void in the locker room between the jokes cracked by Von Miller and the silly dancing of Drew Lock.

There are not enough adults in the room for the Broncos to be a big winner.

So as new general manager George Paton dips his toe in free agency for the first time, here’s hoping he goes shopping for more than a veteran quarterback or a linebacker capable of sticking with a tight end in pass coverage.

Bring me Richard Sherman. Or Lavonte David. What the Broncos need most is a veteran who can both play and lead at a high level, reversing the fortunes of a franchise that has fallen into the habit of losing.

The Broncos no longer have legit swag (sorry, Drew). A five-year playoff drought can do that to a team.

While defensive lineman Shelby Harris has been known to take great pleasure in swatting a pass back in the QB’s face and linebacker Alexander Johnson leaves dents when he tackles, the arrogance and defiance of a Denver defense that dominated Super Bowl 50 have largely disappeared.

Although safety Justin Simmons is a Pro Bowl caliber player and even better person that deserves far more than the insult of another franchise tag from the Broncos, he doesn’t bring the noise required to ramp up the Rocky Mountain thunder when the D needs to make a stand late in the fourth quarter. That’s why I’m intrigued by Sherman, even as he approaches his 33rd birthday, when even one of the best cornerbacks of this generation can begin to feel hints of his football mortality.

At this advanced stage of his career, Sherman figures to depart San Francisco in pursuit of a team closer to championship contention than the Broncos currently find themselves. But his intelligence, his dedication to tape study and his ornery competitiveness are precisely the traits that would make Sherman invaluable in a Denver locker room too long defined by Miller’s goofy nature.

While Paton could shop the bargain bin and sign an solid-but-average cornerback such as CU alum Chidobe Awuzie for less than Sherman, which free agency move do you think would attract the attention of everybody in the league, including Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson, pining for a change of scenery to a team serious about winning.

Perhaps what irritated me most about the Broncos’ decline in recent seasons was John Elway’s reluctance to join the 21st century and admit the way he won big as a Hall of Fame quarterback is no longer the way the game is played. It was Elway’s stubborn adherence to old-school traditions that led him to draft Brock Osweiler as quarterback with the 57th overall pick in the 2012 draft.

We won’t re-litigate why Elway would have been far more perceptive to ignore the short stature of Russell Wilson and realize he was a better QB than Osweiler by every measure except height. Instead, let’s focus on the gut-churning realization that with the very next pick after Osweiler in the second round, Tampa Bay took a lean but lightning-quick linebacker out of Nebraska.

It drove me nuts nine years ago and I’ve never gotten over how Elway could think Osweiler would make a great impact at the pro level than David, whose sideline to sideline presence was on full display in the Buccaneers’ 31-9 victory against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. At age 31, he remains so vital that Tampa Bay would be foolish to let him go. But in a year when every business, including the NFL, has been impacted by the pandemic, stranger things have happened. David has the right stuff to redefine the mission of Denver’s defense.

While there’s nothing wrong with the idea of signing Andy Dalton to teach Lock that it takes more to succeed as a pro quarterback than memorizing all the words to a Jeezy song, Dalton would not move the the meter even one tick in terms putting a smile on the face of a grumpy fan base or getting the Broncos within striking distance of Kansas City in the AFC West race.

Didn’t Denver already try the Dalton thing with Case Keenum? If signing a journeyman QB is Paton’s idea of a solid move in free agency, the Broncos are hopelessly stuck with a loser’s mentality.

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