Despite the “colossal mistake” that led to last week’s release of Denver Broncos defensive end Elvis Dumervil, head coach John Fox said he’d like to see the player return.
“He’s definitely in the mix,” Fox said during a press conference at the owner’s meetings. “He’s definitely a player that I’ve enjoyed coaching. He’s done good things for our staff, defensively and as a football team as a defensive captain. The kid made a lot of big plays for us this year and last. He’s definitely a guy that is in the mix for us and will be in the mix, should be in the mix, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
The Broncos released Dumervil on Friday, about 35 minutes after he accepted a $4 million reduction in salary (from $12 million to $8 million), because the necessary paperwork wasn’t filed by 3:59 p.m. ET deadline.
This led to Dumervil firing his agent Marty Magid and replacing him with well-known veteran representative Tom Condon, who along with the Broncos then lost an appeal to have the verbal agreement honored by the league, according to the Denver Post.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t do much faxing,” Fox said. “That was part of the issue, but at the end of the day, the greater issue was that we waited and waited and it didn’t happen. But we’ve expressed about as much about that as we can. I think we did a 500-word report on that. The timeline—I think it was just one of those things that just happens. Sometimes unfortunate things happen and now we’ve moved on.”
Dumervil wants to return to Denver, but teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens may have interest if he leaves.
“He’s a guy we obviously like,” Fox said. “He’s played good football for us. He’s a defensive captain. We like him as a player. It’s just unfortunate — and we’ve been through the timeline — it’s just unfortunate that these things happen. We’ve regrouped and we have different options now. We’re looking at all those options and he’s one of them.”