The Denver Broncos selected Demaryius Thomas in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft and broke out as the team’s go-to guy in his third season, first as a starter, once Peyton Manning came to town. In his four seasons with Manning, Thomas accumulated 402 catches for 5,787 yards and 41 touchdowns and played a huge role in helping the Broncos come out on top in Super Bowl 50.
However, once Manning called it a career Thomas experienced a drop in his stats. In his first season without the 5-time NFL MVP, Thomas recorded his lowest totals as a starter, finishing the year with 90 catches for 1,083 yards and five touchdowns. The following season he recorded 83 catches for 949 yards and five touchdowns, which is still a good season for most players but considered a bit of a letdown coming from someone like Thomas.
Ultimately, Thomas’ decline in stats led to the Broncos trading the wide receiver to the Houston Texans at the trade deadline and now he’s speaking out about how he was mistreated throughout the process. On Tuesday he joined Orange and Blue radio in Denver and went into detail about the trade and mentioned how Vance Joseph told him he wasn’t going to get dealt.
Via chron.com:
“When he said that to me, I said, ‘How is this not true?” Thomas said. “My agent [Todd France] called me today and said Elway wanted a fifth-round pick for me. ‘So, we’re telling stories to each other now? I thought we were going to be men about this.’
“Listening to that from him and then another couple of coaches coming up to me saying, ‘It’s all fake; it’s all fake,’ and then it really happens, it’s like, ‘Man.’ It is what it is, though.”
The 5-time Pro Bowler wasn’t done there, though, as he also went off on how John Elway blamed the Broncos’ passing game struggles on him.
“You know what bothers me – I don’t want to stir any pot – but it bothers me I had people from Denver saying like, ‘They really said they got rid of you because you were the problem on offence and they said they wanted to be better on offence,”’ Thomas said. “I’m like, ‘Really, bro?’ People just kept stirring it on. I heard they were saying that Vance was saying something, and Elway was saying something. I did so much for this organization and never had nothing bad to say about anybody.
“None of the players I played with. I just did my job and kept it as professional as I could. For you all to say that I was one of the reasons that the offence wasn’t going, and say this and that, man, that hurt.”
You can’t blame Thomas for feeling betrayed after the recent trade. In his eight seasons with the team he accumulated 9,055 yards and 60 touchdowns, the second most totals by any receiver in Broncos franchise history.
(H/T chron.com)
