Is time running out for Broncos' OG Ron Leary?

Ron Leary is working back from another major injury but is he running out of time to make an impact?

There are three games left in the preseason for the Denver Broncos, which isn’t much time for the young players to prove themselves. For veterans, though, it's time to prove that they deserve to be on the roster. 

That line of thinking brings one veteran to mind in particular. With the help of my colleague and friend Lance Sanderson, Ronald Leary and everything that surrounds him lands him here.

I have thought about doing one of these on Leary for a while, but his contract situation has kept me from doing so. However, there are other circumstances that have to be taken into consideration. 

In two seasons with the Broncos, Leary has missed 15 out of 32 possible games, almost a full season. The best ability is availability and Leary has hardly been available.

Going back to his contract, though, Leary is not an easy one to move on from for the Broncos. He has a cap hit this year of $9,218,750. That is a lot of cap space on a guy who has missed so many games, and is missing a lot of time this training camp and preseason. 

To flat out cut Leary, the Broncos would eat $6,225,000 in dead money while adding only $2,993,750 to their cap space. That is a hard pill to swallow, but with how many games he has missed, it may be time to swallow it and move on.

There is one way they could get out from under his deal prior to this season, but it is unlikely. To do so they would have to trade him, which means finding someone who will take on that money and the time missed with injuries, all while giving something up for him. 

If they did manage that, the Broncos would free up $8,343,750 in cap space, while eating $875K in dead money. Again that seems unlikely, but maybe to get another team to do so, Denver sends a fourth-round pick with Leary to get him off the books.

The Broncos are kind of low on available cap space, and this is a team that likes to go into the season with more cap room than they currently have. Additionally, moving Leary and freeing up that money could lead them to go pick up another offensive lineman to help out. Leary is their starting right guard, so they would need to replace that production because Don Barclay hasn't looked good enough to be a starter.

Denver would have some options, though. The Broncos have Barclay, but they also could plug in Elijah Wilkinson, who has played guard before, move Connor McGovern to right guard and plug in Sam Jones at center, or can go sign a center or a guard to plug into the interior of the O-line. Freeing up cap space would provide the team options and take more money off the books when Denver has some good young talent set to hit the open market.

Leary isn’t running out of time because of his ability or lack thereof. It's completely because of his injury history coupled with the money the Broncos are on the books for with him. 

When he is on the field, Leary is a very good offensive lineman and helps out the unit tremendously. Again, the best ability is availability and the depth behind Leary is not comforting enough for if he goes down. 

Moving him and the money freed up could be used to help find someone who can stay on the field more consistently and play at a higher level than the current backups.

Time may not be running out for Leary because of that contract, and instead may be running out for the Broncos to try and get out from underneath that contract. 

Follow Erick on Twitter @ErickTrickel.