How I learned to stop worrying and enjoy the social media negotiations between Von Miller and the Broncos

Contract negotiations play out in the press all the time. It’s a regular part of the playbook for NFL teams and players trying to court public opinion and gain leverage in talks. Occasionally, it bleeds over into social media, but Von Miller’s opened a second front on Thursday with an Instagram post promising that there was “no chance” that he would play the 2016 season on the franchise tag.

And Miller’s team really, really wants you to see this Instagram post. They’re even sending out press releases about it.

That sounds like a much different message than the one he was rattled off the day before. Talk show host Chelsea Handler asked Miller if he would sit out the 2016 season, and he said “no.” Miller also told Handler that he “wants to be a Bronco forever.”

Not exactly the way to play the brinkmanship game. So what exactly is going on here?

Miller and the Broncos have been talking. There hasn’t been any shortage of reports from the media about those talks over the last couple weeks either. But you can’t always take those reports at face value. They’re leaks, information put out there by one side or another for specific reasons.

The last we heard was that the Broncos offered Miller a six-year deal worth up to $114.5 million, and that the two sides had agreed to that framework. The holdup was the guaranteed money in the deal and how much he’d make over the first three seasons.

That offer reportedly had $39.8 million guaranteed, but here’s the problem with negotiations in the press: We don’t know exactly what kind of guaranteed money that is. It could be the guaranteed for the first three years. It could be the guaranteed for injury. NFL contracts are confusing as hell. Players almost never play out their full deal, and the money reported is never quite what it seems because it’s being reported to win some small PR victory.

The $39.8 million guarantee that was reported last week is less than the $39.9 million fully guaranteed in Ndamukong Suh’s deal with the Dolphins (with a max of $59 million guaranteed), and it’s not much more than the $36.299 million guaranteed at signing in the deal Fletcher Cox just hammered out with the Eagles (with up to $63 million in guarantees).

Miller is a Super Bowl MVP. It’s not hard to argue that the Broncos would never have made it to the Super Bowl last year if not for Miller, one of the three or four best defensive players in the league, no matter how you choose to make that assessment.

And we STILL don’t know the particulars of the guaranteed money in the most recent offer from the Broncos because of the ulterior motives by whoever put that number out there (most likely the Broncos in this case).

The Broncos and Miller have until July 15 to agree to a long-term deal. The day-to-day posturing of it is confusing and makes the whole situation look more acrimonious than it probably is. What is clear is that Miller wants to play this season and he wants to play with the Broncos for a long time.

It’s safe to say that a deal will get done, probably not until the very last minute on July 15, but that’s the way these situations play out every year. In the meantime, you can either mute all this stuff on your timeline or just enjoy the ride.