Read More: Kyle Orton (QB – DEN), Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos

The NFL trade deadline has come and gone and only Brandon Lloyd was traded by the Denver Broncos. Eddie Royal stayed and so did quarterback Kyle Orton. However, the Broncos apparently would have accepted any offer for Orton. According to Mike Klis of the Denver Post (via Ross Tucker), the Broncos were looking for anything, even a conditional seventh-round draft pick for Orton.

No team in the league wanted to give up anything for Kyle Orton, it seems, and now anyone can sign him in the offseason as a free agent. He won’t receive anything near the $7-plus millions he makes in base salary this season, but then he could have avoided all of this earlier in the 2011 offseason. Had he been willing to rework his deal in a trade with the Miami Dolphins, the Broncos would likely have relented on draft pick compensation.

For now, all Orton will do is wait on the sidelines and watch Tim Tebow quarterback the Broncos for the rest of the season.

For more on the Broncos, visit Mile High Report. Visit SB Nation NFL for more news and notes around the league.

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Preview: Raiders at Broncos

THE STORY: Most of the offseason talk surrounding the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders centered around their respective quarterbacks. No surprise there, except in both cases the quarterbacks in question are not expected to be contributors this season. Tim Tebow and Terrelle Pryor will be watching from the sideline when Denver opens the season by hosting Oakland in an AFC West matchup on Monday night. Of more consequence, each team will feature new head coaches (John Fox for the Broncos and Hue Jackson for the Raiders) amid renewed optimism that both can challenge for the division crown.

TV: ESPN, 10:15 p.m. ET. LINE: Broncos -3, O/U 40

ABOUT THE BRONCOS (2010: 4-12, 4th, AFC West): Ex-Carolina Panthers coach Fox was brought in to help plug a sieve defense that allowed an NFL-high 471 points last season. Kyle Orton, the subject of major trade rumors in the offseason, returns as the starter after throwing for 3,653 yards and 20 TDs in 13 games last season. Although Brandon Lloyd led the league with 1,448 receiving yards, expect a more balanced offense with Willis McGahee joining former first-round draft pick Knowshon Moreno in the backfield. LB Von Miller was drafted No. 2 overall to bolster the defense, and the pass rush in particular.

ABOUT THE RAIDERS (2010: 8-8, 3rd AFC West): Oakland ended a string of seven straight seasons with double-digits losses, but it couldn’t save head coach Tom Cable’s job. The Raiders went 6-0 against the division, helped in large part by a breakout season from RB Darren McFadden, who finally lived up to his billing as a No. 4 overall pick and was second overall in the league with 128.0 yards from scrimmage per game. With a stable of speedy, young receivers, QB Jason Campbell (2,387 yards, 13 TDs) may be asked to do more in his second season with the Raiders.

EXTRA POINTS:

1. The Raiders annihilated the Broncos in two meetings last season, outscoring them 98-37. That included a 59-31 thrashing in which McFadden romped for four touchdowns.

2. Denver usually starts the season well, posting an AFC-best 32-18-1 mark in season openers, including winning 16 of the last 22. The Broncos also have won 11 consecutive home games on Kickoff Weekend.

3. In their glory days under owner Al Davis, the Raiders were known as the Kings of Monday Night. Not anymore. Oakland has lost 11 straight games in prime time since beating Denver in November 2008.

PREDICTION: Broncos 20, Raiders 19. One of the league’s best home-field advantages comes into play as Fox wins his debut – narrowly – and Denver avenges a pair of humbling beatings by Oakland last season.

DENVER — Here are seven letters representing a trade from the Josh McDaniels era that worked in the Denver Broncos’ favor: Joe Mays.

“You have to have faith in yourself,” said Mays, now Denver’s starting middle linebacker. “I worked harder than I’ve ever worked before in an offseason. I have coaches who have faith in me, and it’s paid off. They believe in me to go out there and lead the defense.”

For all the personnel moves, all the draft picks that were traded, all the players who came and went in the past two years while not panning out for the Broncos, there is Mays. He came to Denver last August when McDaniels, the Broncos’ coach at the time, traded tailback J.J. Arrington to the Eagles for Mays and a draft pick.

A year later, with McDaniels fired late in the 2010 season, Mays has found a home playing for a new Broncos regime and coaching staff.

“Joe was one of those guys you thought could have big things in his future,” said Denver defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley, a teammate of Mays’ in Philadelphia. “I think he just needed somebody to give him a chance.”

That chance rose out of the Broncos’ turmoil in the past year. Out of a coaching change, immense roster turnover and the reality that the team couldn’t repair everything from a 4-12 season during one offseason.

A roster incumbent or two were going to have a golden opportunity to push themselves to the front of the line under new coach John Fox.

Mays was coming off a career-high five starts last season. He had his best game — nine tackles against San Diego — just before suffering a knee injury Nov. 28 against St. Louis, ending his 2010 season.

Throughout the offseason when Fox was asked about reconstructing what had been the NFL’s worst defense, he routinely hit the high spots, mentioning players such as veterans Elvis Dumervil and Champ Bailey.

Often, when asked about the middle linebacker position, Fox would add “and we’ve got Joe Mays.”

“I thought I put some good things out on film before I got hurt,” Mays said. “The coaches saw the same thing. I think that’s why they had some faith I could come out and do what a middle linebacker is called on to do.”

Mays, now in his fourth season, said during the NFL lockout that he realized his marginal playing time in two years with Philadelphia was partly because he didn’t force coaches to give him an opportunity.

Mays stepped up his workouts this spring and summer, determined to show new Denver linebackers coach Richard Smith that he was ready for the starting job despite the Broncos using a third-round draft pick on North Carolina State’s Nate Irving with the intention that Irving compete for the No. 1 job at middle linebacker.

“I knew that was going to happen in the draft,” Mays said. “You know you have a defensive-minded coach, he’s going to bring a lot of defensive players in, so get ready to compete. I had to get out of my comfort zone too. I had to work a lot harder than I’d ever done in the offseason, push past where I used to. (Smith) wants the best out of me.”

Mays opened training camp at middle linebacker with Denver’s No. 1 defense and has stayed there, putting himself in position for another career first — starting the Sept. 12 opener against the Raiders on “Monday Night Football.”

“When I got here last year after the trade, I didn’t know what to expect,” Mays said. “You just know it’s going to be a new beginning. You believe they brought you here for a reason, but maybe you don’t know the reason right away. I felt like I was going to find out the reason. I hope this is the reason.”

The Broncos have resumed contract negotiations with star cornerback Champ Bailey. “He’s a guy we definitely want to bring back,” coach John Fox said.

Senior analyst Pat Kirwan takes a look at a busy offseason for the Broncos. The story includes a video interview with John Elway.

Jeff Legwold of the Denver Post looks back at how the past several No. 2 overall picks in the draft have panned out.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Star looks at the former “star pupils” of new Chiefs quarterback coach Jim Zorn.

Oakland Raiders

Former Raiders player Jerry Porter is heading north of the border to play for former Raiders offensive coordinator Marc Trestman and the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.

The Raiders are apparently “deep into discussing defensive philosophy and options” even though the team hasn’t hired a defensive coordinator yet, writes the Oakland Tribune’s Jerry McDonald.

San Diego Chargers

Vincent Jackson expected to get the franchise tag this offseason and plans to play under its terms in 2011 if the new CBA includes a franchise designation.

The Chargers on Tuesday signed 5-foot-10, 240-pound running back Frank Summers to a futures contract.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos’ deep wide receiver corps has taken another hit with word that last year’s top pick, former Georgia Tech star Demaryius Thomas, tore an Achilles’ tendon during an offseason workout in Atlanta.

Thomas, the first receiver selected in last year’s draft, was working out at his offseason home when he was injured, according to CBS4 in Denver. The extent wasn’t known, but if it’s a full tear, his entire 2011 season would be in jeopardy.

Last week, slot receiver Eddie Royal had hip surgery that could sideline him for up to six months, although the Broncos are hopeful he’ll be back by late May.

Neither Thomas nor his agent, Todd France, responded to messages from The Associated Press.