Broncos sign Aqib Talib to six-year, $57 million deal

Aqib Talib and Wes Welker will meet again... under more pleasant circumstances. (Charlie Riedel/AP) Upended to the tune of a 43-8 loss to the Seattle Seahawks

Doug Farrar | Mar 12, 2014

Broncos sign Aqib Talib to six-year, $57 million deal /

Aqib Talib and Wes Welker will meet again... under more pleasant circumstances. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

Upended to the tune of a 43-8 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl -- and primarily by the league's best secondary -- the Denver Broncos took decisive steps in the first day of free agency to build their own defensive backfield to a slightly similar model. Denver signed former Cleveland Browns safety T.J. Ward to a four-year, $23 million deal, with $14 million guaranteed. And on the first evening of free agency, the Broncos made a far bigger splash by signing ex-New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib to a six-year, $57 million deal with $26 million guaranteed.

It's the most guaranteed money ever given to a cornerback, and it's a lot of money for a player who's never played all 16 games in a season since he was selected in the first round of the 2008 draft out of Kansas. Talib had league suspensions before he got his act together, and he played very well for the Patriots after New England traded for him in November 2012. He had been given a four-game suspension the month before for a violation of the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances.

"This is especially regrettable because, for the past several months, with coach [Greg] Schiano's help, I've worked very hard to improve myself -- professionally and personally -- as a player and a man,'' Talib said when he was suspended. "I am truly sorry to my teammates, coaches and Buccaneers fans, and I'm disappointed in myself. I will work diligently every day of this suspension to stay in top football shape and be ready to help this team in the second half of the season.''

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But it was the Patriots that he helped, especially in 2013 -- Talib was targeted 89 times in 486 passing snaps and allowed 38 receptions and a 72.3 opponent quarterback rating. He played through a hip injury in-season, and was knocked out of the AFC championship game against the Denver Broncos when former Patriots receiver Wes Welker ran a pick play. New England's secondary struggled without Talib in the lineup, and the Broncos clearly noticed.

Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie

Darrelle Revis

Published Mar 12, 2014

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.