Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. isn’t going to like reading this obituary any more than he appreciates the salary Denver is paying him.

The No Fly Zone is dead. And it ain’t coming back.

Hate to break it to Harris, but the evolution of Denver’s defense appears to be yet another reason why the veteran cornerback miscalculated by pressing football operations chief John Elway to give him a huge raise to $15 million per year.

Under the direction of new coach Vic Fangio, the concepts of how the Broncos will defend the pass have changed, whether Harris is in a Denver uniform or not.

This team has lost some of the macho “real men play man” swagger in the secondary that was the No Fly Zone’s calling card. Since winning Super Bowl 50, however, the big personalities in Denver’s defensive backfield couldn’t always back up their braggadocio with shutdown pass coverage. The Broncos’ secondary became a field of orange poppies where tight ends skipped carefree.

Don’t tell Harris, but under Fangio, the Broncos will actually play some – gasp! – zone.

I asked safety Justin Simmons to explain how the defensive philosophy has changed from the time he walked into town as a rookie in 2016.

“The defense that we were previously … prided themselves on that (man-to-man) mentality. Just playing straight-up, smash-mouth football,” Simmons said. “By the time the route is open, our pass-rushers are getting to you, and vice versa. It was a great concept to be part of. I loved every minute of it.”

That was the No Fly Zone. RIP. This is now: The Broncos won’t be afraid to play man coverage, but they won’t die on that hill. The Fangio defense will give everyone a chance to be the hero.

“There are a lot of man concepts and a lot of zone concepts,” Simmons explained. “I think the biggest thing is you never know what is coming. It’s always mix and match. We’re always moving around. We try to make it as tough as possible on everybody.”

Just as the Broncos needed to wrest control of the offense from quarterback Peyton Manning to win the Super Bowl, the team now must evolve from the defensive schemes that made Harris great. And Harris is Pro Bowl awesome, but he’s no Champ Bailey. Elway would be foolish to make Harris the league’s top-paid cornerback.

While Harris regards anything less than fawning praise as a slight, everybody loves Harris, including me. Any NFL defense, including the unit being reshaped by Fangio, can pack more punch with Harris in the lineup.

To a man, teammates want Harris to get paid and get his booty back in the locker room. Linebacker Von Miller, however, might have said it best: “He’s a top DB in the league. You want to take care of guys like that. But it’s not all simple. It’s not all as simple as it seems.”

Stubbornly clinging to the past, Harris is guilty of Sears thinking in an Amazon world.

Even after the Broncos traded cornerback Aqib Talib to the Los Angeles Rams a year ago, Harris got agitated at the suggestion the No Fly Zone was dead. “It still exists. I started that.” Harris insisted at the time. “It’s not going (anywhere).”

Sorry, man. The No Fly Zone is not only grounded, it’s buried 6 feet under.

Hey, goodbyes are difficult for us all. The Super Bowl 50 rings will shine forever. But it’s time for the Broncos to let go of the past, change with the times and morph into a championship defense that’s the vision of Fangio rather than Wade Phillips.

At the risk of oversimplifying, look for the Broncos to rush the quarterback with four and cover in varied looks designed to confuse not only the QB in his pre-snap reads, but also offensive linemen trying to call out blocking assignments.

Yes, Harris wants his money. He’s willing to make a fuss, despite the fact nobody forced him to sign a contract that’s still valid at $7.9 million for the upcoming season. Here’s guessing even Elway respects the veteran cornerback’s stance, especially from an athlete who celebrates his 30th birthday next month.

So to soothe Harris’ ego and bolster Fangio’s defense, let’s bump his salary to $12.5 million, so he can feel good about walking into DB meetings as the highest-paid guy in the room this season. Then let him test his value on the open market in 2020.

If Harris cannot accept he won’t get top dollar in Denver, where things have changed, then maybe what he really needs is a change of scenery in a different NFL city.