Englewood, Colo. • Every week during training camp, when Broncos coach Sean Payton, general manager George Paton and other personnel evaluators would gather to dissect the roster, one position in particular kept igniting spirited debate.
“Receivers, we thought (Nos.) 1 through 12 could play in a game. So how do you get down to five?” Paton said Tuesday after the Broncos settled on their initial 53-man roster that featured Courtland Sutton, Josh Reynolds, Marvin Mims Jr., and rookies Troy Franklin and former Ute Devaughn Vele as the team’s wide receivers. “There was a lot of collaboration between Sean, the scouts, myself and the coaches. It’s hard. It just doesn’t happen overnight. We talked about this really all through camp. We knew we had some tough decisions to make.”
Two weeks ago, Payton said there was more competitive camp depth at the position “than I can recall anywhere.” The sentiment only increased as cutdown day drew near.
“I said in a meeting, ‘I think there is going to be a receiver or two who ends up playing for other teams based on what I’m watching from the group,’” Payton said. “I knew and felt we were deep.”
The words turned prophetic. Former Ute Tim Patrick, Jalen Virgil and Brandon Johnson, three of the receivers who were released or waived Tuesday, drew immediate interest from a handful of other teams. Patrick signed a deal to join the practice squad of the Detroit Lions less than two hours after cuts were made. The eighth-year veteran figures to have a quick path to the team’s active roster. On Wednesday, Johnson signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ practice squad, reuniting him with quarterback Russell Wilson. Speedster Virgil, meanwhile, joined the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad.
“I think there were three players and we could choose two of them,” Paton said of the back end of Denver’s receiver group. “So it’s a tough call.”
A lot is riding on the choices the Broncos ultimately made at wide receiver. It is the group of targets that will surround Bo Nix as he wades into the season as Denver’s first Week 1 rookie starter in 41 years. The Broncos believe they have settled on a mix of experience, size, physicality, speed and young upside that will benefit their young quarterback.
The spotlight will be especially bright on Sutton. He is the team’s unquestioned top receiver after sharing that with Jerry Jeudy the previous four seasons. He looked like Nix’s security blanket at times during training camp. He was the rookie’s target on his first high-leverage pass of the preseason — a 22-yard connection on third-and-10 that began with Sutton shaking his defender and finding space along the sideline. Sutton’s quasi-contract standoff during the offseason — he trained on his own in Florida and didn’t attend OTAs, but did show up for mandatory minicamp — reflected his awareness of the importance of his role this season. The Broncos’ move to add $1.5 million incentives to his contract this season could be seen as a recognition of that.
“I would say he is important,” Payton said of Sutton at the end of minicamp, “and I think he knows that.”
Sutton’s offseason program was unique. Since being drafted in the second round in 2018, he had never missed OTAs. Doing so this season gnawed at him, Sutton said. But it didn’t impact his fitness. Sutton put together a strong training camp, clearly more at ease with the offense than he was at this point last year. That comfort, Sutton said, allowed him to focus more granularly on his craft.
“Things like route details, getting to my depth, making sure I have the right technique when I get to my depth, releases and all of those things,” he said. “All the fine details that go into playing the position that we play, just fine-tuning it. Each year I tell you guys, ‘I’m not where I want to be and I always feel like there’s more for me to be able to get to.’ I feel like this year, so far, I’ve been seeing so much more of an improvement in my route detail and my route technique.”
Pick up The Athletic 2024 Fantasy Football Guide to read expert evaluations & everything you need to know to win your fantasy football league.
Pick up The Athletic 2024 Fantasy Football Guide to read expert evaluations.
The Broncos may like their depth at receiver, a point Payton emphasized Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant questions facing the group.
When the Broncos traded Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns in March, they hinted that one motivation behind the move was opening up a larger role for Mims, the second-round pick last season who impressed early as a rookie, then faded into the background of the offense. Though he caught a touchdown pass from Nix during the preseason opener, it wasn’t a particularly flashy camp from Mims. His deep-ball connection with Nix appears to be a work in progress. He played only 28 offensive snaps in the preseason and was targeted four times, catching two passes for 17 yards. The Broncos will no doubt have wrinkles in the offense that feature Mims — he was used consistently on jet-sweep plays last season — but can he forge a more consistent role that expands Denver’s passing attack?
Outside of Mims and Franklin, the Broncos had a clear goal with their roster construction: create more physicality. Payton said routinely throughout the offseason that he liked the size of Denver’s receiver group. Sutton, Vele and Lil’Jordan Humphrey, who signed to the practice squad Wednesday and is a prime candidate to be elevated to the active roster in Week 1, are all 6-foot-4 or taller. Reynolds is 6-foot-3 and 192 pounds, but he was one of Detroit’s best blocking wide receivers.
“We all want to run the ball well, and that requires bigger, stronger, physical receivers,” Payton said, noting that was one of Patrick’s attributes, part of why it was “an extremely difficult” decision to release the veteran. “Devaughn is an outstanding blocker.”
Vele was the surprise star of camp. The Broncos believed his age (26) and experience (47 games played across five seasons at Utah) could be assets, and that played out as the seventh-round pick began standing out from the start of the offseason program. He became good for at least one daily highlight play as camp progressed, and his ascension ultimately pushed Patrick to the roster’s edge. Vele is still a rookie, but he appears ready for game action.
What’s yet to be determined is whether the same is true of Franklin, the fourth-round pick out of Oregon. The 21-year-old did not impress in the same way Vele did during camp. There were flashes at various points in camp of a player who could stretch the defense vertically, but he didn’t produce a catch during his first two preseason games. Payton insisted Wednesday, though, that he’s pleased with Franklin’s progress.
“I see great speed,” Payton said. “He’s playing ‘Z’ (receiver), and I like where he’s at. I like the selection, especially where we were able to draft him. He has rare speed and he’s very comfortable catching an in-route and then, all of a sudden, he’s taking it for a big gain. But, yeah, is there development with any of these rookies? Absolutely. Working on his lower body, getting stronger there. He’s smart. He picks things up. There are good questions he asks. I’m excited about him.”
The Broncos have not had a 1,000-yard receiver since Sutton went for 1,112 in 2019. A rash of injuries (Patrick and Sutton missed a combined three full seasons between 2020 and 2023), a revolving door of quarterbacks and a constant turnover of coaches and offensive schemes certainly haven’t helped Denver’s wide receivers. But after a camp of competition that created a handful of difficult choices on cutdown day, the Broncos are hopeful a higher level of production from the group will follow.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.