The Denver Broncos announced the return of Peyton Manning on Thursday – at a special $4 million discounted rate (or paycut, whichever you prefer). While that’s the biggest news in Broncos land, another Denver-related story caught my eye.

Grantland published a piece today about Broncos tight end (and free agent) Julius Thomas and the strong likelihood that the burly pass catcher would end up elsewhere.

The story goes into detail about about Greg Thomas, father of Julius, and his opinions on numerous things Broncos including a rather intriguing tweet about Captain Comedy Peyton Manning:

https://twitter.com/lethylg60/status/554845017525587968

Now, I’m going to take an educated guess that Mr. Thomas isn’t around Broncos practice and games as say, his son Julius might be.

Where is he getting his vibe on Peyton from?

Maybe in some reverberating issue from the Peyton-Julius dust-up from earlier this season?

It’s kind of weird to publicly refer to one of your son’s teammates as “uncoachable, unapproachable, and bigger than the team.”

Does this mean that Thomas is automatically going to flee for greener pastures? Of course not.

However, if someone brings the cheddar Thomas’s way (say Jacksonville, Oakland, or Seattle), he may leave a vapor trail on the way out of Denver.

Luckily for Denver, getting Manning to take a cut may allow them to keep the former Pro Bowl tight end.

Yet, it’s hard to imagine Thomas veering away from a big payday to stay in Denver for another year (and for possibly, another one and done run in the playoffs).

Eherer