Denver Broncos cornerback Chris Harris has given the team an ultimatum: give him a large pay raise or trade him. The Broncos do not plan to make Harris the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL so the team will at least consider trading him for extra draft picks.
After the first round of the draft concluded on Thursday evening, general manager John Elway said Denver has heard from several teams but he indicated that no trade is imminent.
“No, there was no traction today,” Elway said. “We haven’t heard a lot. We talked to a couple people, but there’s been no traction.”
If the Broncos are planning to trade Harris, the team would be wise to select a cornerback in this weekend’s draft. Asked if the team plans to draft a cornerback, Elway seemingly dodged the question and said Denver will stick to its draft board.
“We are going to continue to stay with our board and stay true to our board,” Elway said. “We spent a lot of time setting that board and getting people where we think they should be, so we’ll stay true to our board.
“It does help having an extra second this year because we really feel like there are a lot of good football players left. We’ve got three picks in the next [day] — 41, 52 and 71. [Friday] will be a big day for us, and we think that there are a lot of good football players left.”
Harris has said that he has not ruled out playing for the team in 2019 so there’s still a chance that the two sides could come to an agreement on a contract extension. The situation is worth monitoring as the draft continues over the next two days.
