After the Denver Broncos defeated the Oakland Raiders 16-15 in Week 17, veteran cornerback Chris Harris tweeted a “thank you” to fans. That prompted the question, ‘Why would he thank fans if he wasn’t on his way out the door?’
“Thank You Broncos Country for everything,” Harris tweeted on Sunday evening. “It’s incredible what we’ve accomplished. Undrafted and 9 years later…Love y’all !!!!! 🙏🏾🙌🏾”
Does that mean Harris isn’t coming back?
Not necessarily.
Denver made Harris a three-year, $36 million contract offer earlier this season so the team clearly is open to giving him an extension. The 30-year-old cornerback is open to returning, too.
“I’d love to,” Harris said Monday. “We’re getting the right pieces back — definitely need some more pieces around me to just do what I do. That’s one thing I’m looking at in the offseason.
“My family loves it here. Of course, my kids growing up here — I grew up here. It’s definitely my first home for sure.”
Given that the Broncos are open to an extension and that Harris is open to returning, the only holdup would be contract terms. Denver general manager John Elway was non-commital during his Monday press conference when asked if the team will increase their offer to Harris this offseason.
“We have to go back and look at the money that we have available,” Elway said. “We will go through and make a plan before we get to that. We will budget it out and see what our plan is and put that plan together. I can’t answer that question right now.”
The Broncos are expected to have well over $70 million in salary cap space next year so there should be enough to re-sign Harris. The question is, how much of that cap will Denver be willing to use on Harris? Elway will have to make a decision on that this spring.
“We’re going to look at our budget, see how the pie fits, see how everybody fits in the pie and do the best job of using our money in the best ways that we can but also find the players that we hope can get us back to the playoffs and compete for a World Championship,” Elway said.