Broncos Agree to Terms with Second-Round WR KJ Hamler
The last domino has fallen. The Denver Broncos have signed second-round rookie WR KJ Hamler.
It's a four-year deal worth $6.045 million and the first two years are fully guaranteed. Hamler's deal also comes with a hefty $2,750,644 signing bonus.
The Hamler deal marks the 10th rookie draft pick to be signed by the team over the last several days, putting the Broncos' entire 2020 draft class under contract. Hamler reported to UC Health Training Center on Thursday along with his fellow rookies, Drew Lock and the quarterbacks, as well as any rehabbing veterans, to begin step 1 in the team's COVID-19 testing protocol.
Hamler will take another test on Sunday and if that one is clean, he'll be allowed through the doors Monday morning to begin training camp in earnest. With no rookie mini-camp, no OTAs, and very little organized football taking place since his final season at Penn State, time is of the essence for Hamler and his fellow rooks to draw as deep a draught as he can from the firehose that is life as a pro.
Vic Fangio and the Broncos coaches really have to get creative and buckle down to ensure that the rookies and veterans all get up to speed in time to open the regular season on September 14. The purview becomes all the more complex as there will be no preseason games with which to iron out the kinks under the real-game conditions that coaches have come to rely on for all manner of evaluation purposes.
Hamler (5-foot-9, 178 pounds) eats, sleeps, and breaths football, so I wouldn't worry too much about him assimilating. WRs Coach Zach Azzanni has already proven apt at helping his young wideout pupils navigate their NFL learning curve relatively quickly.
Still, it might be too ambitious to expect Hamler to leapfrog DaeSean Hamilton as the No. 3 wideout before the season-opener, in light of there being no preseason games and very limited padded practices.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
