Von Miller: 'No chance' I play season under franchise tag

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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Denver Broncos outside linebacker and Super Bowl MVP Von Miller hardened his stance on contract negotiations Thursday with an Instagram post saying there was "no chance" he would play the season under his franchise tag.

A day earlier, he had appearedin a recorded segment on the Netflix comedy show "Chelsea" and said there was no chance he would sit out the upcoming season.

"I want to be a Bronco forever, I just want the feeling to be the same from the Broncos," Miller said. Asked by Chelsea Handler whether there is any chance he would sit out during the upcoming season, Miller said, "No. We still have a month."

Miller turned down a six-year, $114.5 million offer from the team last week.

The stalemate largely centers on guaranteed money. While the Broncos' offer to Miller would be the biggest total contract for a defensive player in history, the guaranteed money in the first two years of the deal is less than Olivier Vernon received from the New York Giants and what Fletcher Cox received in a deal he signed this week with the Philadelphia Eagles.

There was $38.9 million in guaranteed money in the first two years -- and $58 million in potential guarantees overall -- in the offer that Miller and his representatives rejected. Vernon has $52.5 million worth of potential guarantees in a five-year, $85 million deal, with $40.5 million guaranteed on signing and $12 million more potentially guaranteed on the fifth day of the league year in 2018.

In Cox's six-year, $102.6 million deal, he received $36.299 million in guaranteed money at signing and an additional $19.25 million in additional salary guarantees in March 2017 for $55.549 million in guarantees within nine months of signing.

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