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The news that John Elway is graduating to the post of president of football operations means that the next GM on the team will have a chance to quickly move into the new John Elway position in the franchise.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the search for a new General Manager could eventually lead the team to someone who will, in one year, become the team’s top and last football executive.
A lot of that depends on what happens to Elway after 2021. He has another year on the contract. This new role could eventually result in Elway not remaining with the team in any role. At the very least, any new deal would have to reflect Elway’s new role and responsibilities.
His current pay (which some in league circles believe is in the range of $ 6 million a year) is unlikely to change. But, with much of his work going to someone new, a large part of his salary (if he stays beyond 2021) will likely go too.
The new GM may also end the type of contract, both in value and in duration, that provides security in the event that current ownership problems result in a sale. In other cities, a fully guaranteed six-year agreement has essentially become malfunction insurance. The new GM in Denver could achieve something similar when it is hired to ensure that if a new property arrives in the next few years and wants to have its own GM, there will be adequate financial security.
With no owner in Denver, as curators work to resolve a unique Willie Wonka competition within the family, Elway essentially becomes the indeed owner, with respect to the football operation. This makes the Broncos GM job fundamentally different from the openings in Houston, Atlanta and Detroit, where other executives act as a buffer between GM and the owner. With the Broncos, Elway has the same role that an owner would have anywhere else. When it comes to football, there is really no one but Elway, as Joe Ellis deals with the commercial side of the operation.
So while the job at first glance looked like it would possibly be GM Lite, the most accurate characterization is that it is a traditional GM job, that GM will have the absolute final say in all football issues, that Elway will not be involved in the day-to-day routine, that Elway may not even be with the team come 2022, and the new GM will be operating essentially with the same type of autonomy that Elway has enjoyed, in the absence of a traditional owner.
Frankly, it seems that in any other organization, Elway would simply have been discharged from all functions, receiving a one-year purchase. In Denver, an important role existed for Elway, because the curators who ran the franchise for several years have not yet decided which Pat Bowlen’s son will receive the keys to the chocolate factory.