Safety Lynch Agrees to Return to the Broncos

One of the leaders of the Broncos has decided to come back for one more year, as safety John Lynch has agreed to return to the Broncos for a fifth and what will surely be his final season. Lynch agreed to a pay cut, reaching a deal with the team after a meeting with coach Mike Shanahan and owner Pat Bowlen. “I could probably go make more money elsewhere in the free agent market,” Lynch told Denver-area media outlets. “And I had really gone to bed excited about that. And then I woke up thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ I’ve got four kids who are happy here. I’ve found a home here and I didn’t want to be one of those guys going from team to team. I felt I had earned what I had coming to me but sometimes you have to step back and look at the big picture. And the big picture to me was: I had to find a way to make this work.”

Lynch will be 37 when this season starts, last season he had 62 tackles and one sack in 13 games. In 15 seasons with the Broncos and Tampa Bay, Lynch has 26 interceptions, 13 sacks and 1,075 tackles. He won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers in 2002.