"John Elway spent his first year as the Broncos' football operations boss observing, absorbing, interrogating and learning.

Now, Elway is starting to restructure the team's front office in his image.

Two weeks after he promoted Matt Russell, a former University of Colorado star linebacker, to director of player personnel, Elway made another significant move this week when he brought in a new salary cap director.

The Broncos did not renew the contract of Mike Bluem, their longtime capologist, and replaced him with Mike Sullivan, who oversaw the Octagon Sports agency's football division and has been negotiating player contracts for the past 25 years.

Bluem had been with the Broncos for 17 seasons, working closely with general managers Ted Sundquist, Jim Goodman and Brian Xanders. Xanders remains the Broncos' GM.

Bluem had been responsible for negotiating many of the player contracts and overseeing the team's payroll budget. In some of those contracts, Bluem talked with Sullivan, who will now be negotiating from the other side of the table."