In 2008, the Broncos fielded the youngest team in Mike Shanahan's tenure, a testament to an increased emphasis on keeping and developing the team's draft picks, an emphasis many in the league believed wasn't there during much of Shanahan's time with the team.

But it was also proof to many in the NFL that the Broncos did not have the cash reserves on hand to lavish signing bonuses on the high-end players available in the free-agent market.

In the weeks before free agency opened in 2007, it was chief operating officer Joe Ellis sitting in the organizational meetings when the plan was made and providing the cost analysis for any prospective moves.

Cash was tight last season, and it reflected in the Broncos' work.

While their money, in retrospect, could have certainly been spent better - they paid a $2.5 million signing bonus to wide receiver Keary Colbert, a $2.5 million signing bonus to linebacker Niko Koutouvides, and signed safety Marquand Manuel and safety Marlon McCree - there are plenty of signs the Broncos will not be rushing out front to pursue high-dollar players when free agency opens Feb. 27.

First, there isn't a soul anywhere who doesn't understand the nation is experiencing economic troubles of historic proportions, which might certainly chill free agency leaguewide.

And for the Broncos, there is also the rather substantial matter of paying people who no longer work for them.

With their franchise-rattling shake-up, they will be writing plenty of checks to folks who no longer have desks in their building.

Leading the way will be Shanahan, with three years left on a contract worth $7 million per year and containing a clause that guaranteed him to be one of the three highest-paid head coaches in the league.

There is also former defensive coordinator Bob Slowik, who has two years left on a deal that comes in at a little more than $1 million per season.

Both Jim Goodman and Jeff Goodman, two of the team's top football officials until they were fired last week, will be paid in the upcoming season.

There are a handful of former Shanahan assistants, like defensive backs coach Ryan Slowik - he interviewed with the Lions recently but did not get the job - defensive line coach Jacob Burney, tight ends coach Pat McPherson and linebackers coach Jim Ryan, who are still owed at least one year's pay on their contracts.

And until Jim Bates was hired as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' defensive coordinator last month, the Broncos were set to pay him for another season. Bates had two years - at $1.3 million per - left on his deal when he and Shanahan agreed to part ways after the 2007 season.

Shanahan had told others in the league that the team and Bates had reached a financial settlement when Bates refused a demotion, but Bates was paid by the team last season and would have been paid in '09 had he not joined the Buccaneers.

That's a lot of cash in the outgoing mail before the Broncos even begin talking about jumping into the free-agency pool. In fact, it would not be a stretch to say the current football staff - coaches and personnel - won't make, combined, what the people who don't work for the team do.

This week, newly minted Broncos general manager Brian Xanders was describing the kinds of players the team is seeking in the draft and free agency:

"Toughness, smarts, intelligence, instincts, versatility and production all into the system that we have in place here."

Those are all buzzwords for fitting pieces into the puzzle rather than finding as many high-priced pieces as possible and then trying to see what puzzle it will make.

Double take

In the might-be-something or might-be-nothing department, a look at the salaries used to set the franchise player tag at each position this year reveals a little something.

A player with the franchise tag gets a one-year deal for the average of the top five salaries from the previous seasons at his position.

The Steelers, who won Super Bowl XLIII earlier this month, have only two players among the top five at their respective positions - nose tackle Casey Hampton (fifth highest at defensive tackle) and safety Troy Polamalu (No. 2 at safety).

The Steelers have nobody on offense in the top five at their respective positions, and only tackle Max Starks and wide receiver Hines Ward are in the top 10 at any position, each at No. 9.

The Broncos had two in the top 10 - Champ Bailey, No. 1 among cornerbacks, and Daniel Graham, No. 6 among tight ends.

Neither the Steelers nor the Cardinals, the NFC champs, had a player in the No. 1 spot at any position.

Cardinals linebacker Karlos Dansby, whom the team tagged its franchise player Wednesday, was second among linebackers ($8,475,000 in '08).

The Cardinals' Adrian Wilson was fifth among safeties and uber receiver Larry Fitzgerald seventh.

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