ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - A person familiar with the situation says the Denver Broncos were forced to cut defensive lineman Elvis Dumervil after a delay in getting paperwork completed on a new contract that both parties had agreed to.

The person who spoke to The Associated Press on Friday did not want to be identified because the negotiations were not public.

The Broncos, who wanted Dumervil to take a pay cut, had to reach a deal by 1:59 p.m. Denver time on Friday, or Dumervil's $12 million contract in 2013 would be guaranteed.

They came to an agreement about a half-hour before the deadline, but because the team hadn't received the paperwork to make the deal official before 1:59, it was forced to release him.

Denver could still bring back the defensive end.

John Elway released the following statement Friday:

For the last week, Elvis Dumervil and his agent were aware of our desire to change the financial terms of his contract to ensure he would remain a Denver Bronco. After numerous conversations with both Elvis and his representative, we submitted our final contract proposal to Elvis today at 11 a.m. MDT. Based on our previous discussions, we believed our offer was fair and were hopeful it would resolve this matter.

Due to the procedural elements that were involved in executing the new proposal, we imposed a 1 p.m. MDT deadline for a decision, one hour before the NFL's waiver wire at 2 p.m. MDT. Our deadline was clearly communicated to Elvis' representative.

At 1 p.m. MDT, we were informed by Elvis' representative that he declined our offer. We then prepared Elvis' termination notice to officially file his release with the NFL office.

At approximately 1:25 p.m. MDT, however, we were informed that Elvis changed his mind and accepted the same contract we proposed nearly two-and-a-half hours earlier. Although we expressed our concern regarding the time constraints, we were assured that the signed documents would be submitted to us before the league's waiver deadline.

We did not receive the documents from Elvis by the league's deadline and were forced to release him shortly before 2 p.m. MDT.

Due to this situation, there are now salary cap implications associated with this transaction that we must consider with regard to potentially re-signing Elvis. At this moment, we are discussing all of our free-agency options to determine what's best for the Denver Broncos.

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)