ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos elected not to pick up the fifth-year option on nose tackle Sylvester Williams’ contract and informed Williams' representatives early Monday afternoon.
It means Williams, who was the Broncos’ first-round pick in 2013 (28th overall), will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Under the guidelines of the collective bargaining agreement, if the Broncos had picked up the fifth-year option on Williams’ contract his salary would have been $6.75 million.
Broncos executive vice president of football operations John Elway hinted at the team’s thinking this past weekend as the draft drew to a close. He repeatedly referred to the option as a “big number.”
In the current collective bargaining agreement, teams have the option of engaging a fifth year in a first-round draft pick’s contract. The Broncos did engage linebacker Von Miller’s fifth-year option -- he was the team’s first-round pick in 2011 -- and the Broncos traded out of the first round in 2012.
Williams has been a productive rotation player for the Broncos over the past three seasons with 44 games played, including 32 regular-season starts. He had a career-best 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks last season as primarily an early-down player in the Broncos’ defense.
The issue for the Broncos is that picking up the option would have put Williams among the highest-paid defensive tackles in the league. The Broncos have been trying to squeeze out more salary-cap room for much of the offseason. Elway said Saturday night he is “already thinking about next year’s cap, too.”
The Broncos also used a second-round pick this past weekend on Adam Gotsis, a player who lined up at nose tackle for Georgia Tech and one the Broncos envision playing across their defensive front.
Among defensive tackles in the league, including those three-down players who also work in more pass-rush roles in 4-3 defenses, there are only nine with contracts for base salaries of $6.75 million or above in 2017.
That group is led by Tampa Bay’s Gerald McCoy, who has a base salary of $13.25 million in 2017.
The Broncos also signed defensive end Derek Wolfe to a four-year, $36.7 million deal this past January and signed Jared Crick, who is expected to get plenty of work in the team’s rotation, to a two-year deal in free agency.