AP

Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas is headed from Denver to Houston along with a seventh-round pick in a deal that will send a fourth-round pick and a seventh-round pick back to the Broncos.

There hasn’t been a formal announcement of the deal yet, but Broncos General Manager John Elway has acknowledged that Thomas is done with the team after more than eight full seasons with the club. Elway said that Thomas, who is second in many franchise receiving categories behind Rod Smith, will be in the team’s Ring of Honor someday, but that they wanted to look at younger players in the second half of this season.

“With the youth we have at receiver, we wanted to get them on the field and Demaryius goes to a team that wanted him,” Elway said, via Mike Klis of KUSA. “It was best for both sides. We weren’t going to do this unless we got value. We weren’t taking less than a fourth.”

The leader of that group of young receivers is 2018 second-round pick Courtland Sutton and he should see the biggest spike in playing time with Thomas off of the depth chart. Sutton has 17 catches for 324 yards and two touchdowns so far this season.