After the Denver Broncos lost outside linebacker Von Miller to a season-ending ankle injury on Tuesday, many fans and pundits pointed out on Twitter that Ryan Kerrigan would make sense as a possible replacement.
Kerrigan is set to become a free agent in 2021 so Washington would be wise to get something for him now in a trade before he leaves for free. D.C. has two promising young edge defenders in Chase Young and Montez Sweat so the team can afford to move on from Kerrigan.
Because he’s 32 and only has one year left on his contract, Kerrigan likely wouldn’t have an expensive price tag in a potential trade. The only downside to trading for Kerrigan would be his salary cap hit.
This year, Kerrigan is set to have a cap hit just over $11.68 million. Denver wants to carry over as much cap space from this season into 2021 as possible because the cap will be lower than usual next year. Acquiring Kerrigan would eat up a large chunk of the Broncos’ $25.43 million in cap space.
If Denver did bring in Kerrigan, he would start across from Bradley Chubb as an outside linebacker. Kerrigan is entering his 10th season in the NFL. He has totaled 90 sacks — 16 fewer than Miller — in his career.
