Denver Broncos defensive lineman Kevin Vickerson was stunned to hear that former teammate Elvis Dumervil had officially parted ways with Denver, signing a five-year deal with the defending champs, the Baltimore Ravens.
Broncos’ Kevin Vickerson says ‘someone dropped the ball’ on Elvis Dumervil saga
Defensive lineman was blindsided by the whole Dumervil drama, but thinks the team will step up.
Dumervil was a force last season, racking up 11 sacks to give him 63.5 in his career. Now he leaves Von Miller to get to the quarterback without a proven bookend.
Vickerson believes that while the team will miss everything Dumervil brings to the table, it already has his replacement on the roster, according to the Denver Post.
"Elvis has been a big part of this football team," Vickerson said. "I know business is business, but this is the part of business that sucks. I congratulate Elvis. At the same time those are big shoes to fill coming off the edge. Elvis was a great Bronco. That’s my guy. He’ll be missed. It’s time for other guys to step up. Robert Ayers, Malik Jackson. It’s time for No. 91 (Ayers) to step up. Robert Ayers is going to have a big year.’’
Vickerson is still trying to sort things out, as most are in this situation. However, he knows someone made a very costly mistake for his franchise. Per the Denver Post:
“This is unbelievable to me that we lost Elvis in this way,” Vickerson said. “I don’t know what happened but someone dropped the ball. When I talk to Elvis I’m going to congratulate him. But we’re going to miss him.”
In what has been one of the weirder stories of the NFL offseason in quite some time, Dumervil was granted free agency by the league after somebody failed to fax his paperwork properly by the deadline, which would have kept him a Bronco.
It’s still unclear exactly who committed the error, although smart money might be on Dumervil’s agent at the time, considering Dumervil fired him the next day.
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