Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos Training Camp: Wide Receiver Room SET For 2025?
Episode Date: July 11, 2025As Denver Broncos Training Camp approaches, the wide receiver room appears to be set for 2025 as Bo Nix has a handful of targets this upcoming season. Courtland Sutton, Devaughn Vele, Troy Franklin, M...arvin Mims, and rookie Pat Bryant headline the room, but how will Sean Payton get all of these names touches? Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get $150 in BONUS BETS when your first $5 BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Denver Broncos wide receiver room looks set with the top heavy players of this offense for Sean Payton,
but which players are competing for touches.
We'll dive deeper to that here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network,
your team every day.
What's up, Broncos country?
Welcome into another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast,
part of the Lockdown Podcast Network where you know it's your team every day for all your
The Broncos news, content coverage analysis more every single day all year long.
This is the place to be.
So a special shout out to all the everydayers out there in Broncos country.
Thank you so much for tuning in and making us your first listen.
However, you choose to do so, whether it's on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.
And if you're not yet in every day, be come on.
Hit that subscriber of that follow button.
That way you never miss out on what's going on with your favorite team,
including these in-depth training camp position previews.
I'm Cody Roark, Broncos reporter from Ohio sports.
And I'm Sarah Bedinger, side expert.
Dominantly Orange.com.
Our training camp position previews continues.
We focus on the wide receiver position here today.
And we'll go through while the Broncos wide receiver room is set with all of the top guys being listed at that position.
And what that means for the guys on the roster behind them, are they competing for practice squat spots?
We'll dive deep into that.
Plus, we'll go into why this Broncos wide receiver room specifically here, they're competing for reps and touches.
They're not competing here for roster spots as Bo Nix has a wide arsenal.
of weapons to choose from this upcoming season.
And then we'll go through some of the biggest questions surrounding this wide receiver
room, individual player questions and narratives that we want to highlight as well.
You get all that here on today's episode of the show.
Sare, look, I mean, not really a bold take here, but from what Sean Payton said back in the
off-season program, there was a heavy indication that this Broncos wide receiver room.
When we look at the guys who are returning, Cortland-Sutton, Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin,
Devon, Valet.
These guys are back in the fold.
and new edition Pat Bryant.
Seems like this wide receiver room in terms of that top four,
top five is pretty much set in stone at this point.
And Sean Payton gave the indication about snaps and touches versus roster spots.
We'll dive in that later.
But what do we think if this is the Broncos top five wide receiver room right now going into training camp?
I think it's a good one.
It's a young one.
It's got lots of upside.
Maybe a bit of boom or bust.
I think you look at this roster as we've been doing these training camp position previews,
Cody, I think wide receiver is one of those position groups that you could maybe argue is the biggest boom or bust position out of any group on the Broncos roster.
And I'm sure some of the listeners will have different opinions on that.
But to me, this is where Sean Payton is really trying to prove himself right.
Remember earlier in the offseason, the interview that he did with Kay Adams where she's like, I want to tell, I want to guess what your number one, you know, your number one need is.
You know, and she's like, I think it's a veteran wide receiver.
And he basically said, I think we're better at receiver than people think.
And I mean, he's certainly put his money where his mouth is, hasn't he?
Like, he's banking everything on Troy Franklin, Devon Valle, and a third round pick that
was probably the most controversial of the entire 25 draft class here for the Denver
Broncos and Pat Bryant.
So to me, Cody, this is the position group where you could say arguably the most.
Sean Payton is really having to put his money where his mouth is.
and he's betting on these guys.
He's putting all the chips into the center on a young position group
that has a lot of question marks, a lot of upside,
but a lot of question marks and certainly a lot to prove here in this,
as we get into July where you want to see that chemistry develop with Bo Nix.
Yeah, and we'll ask and answer all those questions that we have
surround this room a little bit later on as the show progresses here.
But obviously those guys round out that solidified group of wide receivers.
But then let's factor in, you know, an offseason signing in free.
agency, a veteran ad more so for special teams, not necessarily wide receiver.
And that was Trent Sherfield, who has been primarily a special teams guy.
And he wants to become a special team's ace and the likes of, you know, the guys like
the Matthew Slaters, the New England Patriots back in that day.
You know, I'm trying to think about another guy.
I mean, Tremont Smith is a special team's ace, but was he to the level of, you know,
Matthew Slater, probably not.
But Sherfield has aspirations to do that.
So because of special teams, that definitely makes things a little bit interesting for
Sherfield, but then they have A.T. Perry, who was a six-foot-five option that they really,
really liked that was on the practice squad last year for them. He'll more than likely enter
training camp, possibly ready to go for day one, or as what Sean Payton said at the end of
OTAs, maybe someone who's a week late into training camp because he had some sort of medical
procedure done in the off season. And then you got other guys like Michael Bandy, who was on the
practice squad last year in a group of undrafted, a rookie for instance, Jirwan Newton, Courtney Jackson,
and Kyrice White and Joaquin Davis added into the mix here.
I mean, the Broncos have a lot of guys.
There's a lot of miles to feed at this position.
We know who the top heavy guys are.
But for a lot of these other guys,
it's more so trying to come in and maybe compete to make a case for,
can they be that six wide receiver if Denver ends up carrying six guys onto the 53?
Or more so, can we impress enough to get a spot on the practice squad,
which gives the team flexibility to elevate them on game days a few times.
If there's an injury, you can move a guy up onto the active rock.
There's flexible options here for Sean Payton, but there's a lot of young guys and they have
traits of size, explosiveness.
And it's a really good speed too, which is something that maybe the Broncos are looking
to continue to add there outside of the guys who are tall as Sean Payton likes those guys.
Cody, did the Broncos do joint practices in recent years with the Green Bay Packers?
I can't remember for some.
They did.
Last year.
Last year.
Okay.
So to me, when you look at this wide receiver group for Denver, it's being
constructed very similarly to the way that the Green Bay Packers have been constructing theirs.
Like there's clarity at the top. You have guys that you've invested the most in, which for the
Broncos, that would be Cortland Sutton, who's your big money guy, Marvin Mims, second round
pick. And then you have all these other players who have this intriguing blend of route
running, athleticism, after the catch, size, speed, et cetera. That's kind of what the Packers did.
And I can't help but wonder if the Broncos saw that last year in joint practices.
And they were like, okay, you can get all these different guys involved because is there any team better than Green Bay at getting like five, six guys, maybe even seven, I think last year involved in the passing game at receiver plus the tight ends, plus the backs.
I just wonder about that because that's the boat the Broncos are in.
You've got a solidified group that you believe in.
you've invested in these young players.
And I think you could even say,
Cody, the top six spots on this team are pretty well set in stone.
I don't know that barring a surprise, right?
I mean, we don't see Veilet getting cut.
We don't see Franklin getting cut.
We don't see even at this point,
Sherfield with his special team's ability.
I mean, it's maybe a little bit up in the air,
but you say those top six spots are relatively set.
And so you feel good about that as a team builder going into the offseason program,
I'm going into training camp because you feel like you have guys that, like you said,
you want these players competing for snaps and targets, not just roster spots because I think
there's a healthy difference between those two things.
Yeah, and the Broncos, you know, last year they were going into that where guys were essentially
competing for spots.
I mean, that's why they moved on from Tim Patrick, who, you know, I felt like last year,
and all rest of my case on this, I'd still feel like Tim would have been such a valuable asset
to bow throughout last season.
And granted, look, we're not saying he went to Detroit.
and put up these astronomical numbers, but he had a huge impact for Jared Goff and that offense there where he was catching passes in the red zone.
He was catching clutch passes on third down to move the chains for them.
He didn't need to be a 100-yard receiver.
He just needed to be an impact guy.
And the Broncos, I think at various points of last year, were looking for somebody opposite of Cortland to do that.
And Marvin became that down the stretch here.
But, and it was almost kind of like pulling teeth to try to figure out which guy's going to emerge here.
and that's banking on continued player development.
So I'm in agreeance with you.
I think the Broncos right now going into camp,
they have comfort.
They're not going into camp saying,
oh, we're really trying to figure out if this guy's going to make the roster,
whereas they already know which guys in mind that they have are going to be on this roster.
And the rest is filling out, hey, who's going to be on the practice squad?
I think that's a good problem to have here for the Broncos,
especially for Bow Nix as he goes into year number two with different guys to throw the football,
too, which is going to bring us up to our next point here, Broncos country.
We've already talked about Broncos receivers competing for snaps and touches, not necessarily roster spots,
but what will those roles be and who will be competing for more pivotal roles this upcoming season?
Sarah and I, we're going to break that down here on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
Today's Lockdown Broncos podcast is brought to you by our friends over there at Monarch Money.
Every wish managing your money felt easier.
With Monarch money, it can be.
Whether you're growing your savings or planning on a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver's seat.
And it's like having your own personal CFO giving you full visit.
ability and control over your finances.
And Monarch Money, it's more than just a budgeting app.
It's a complete financial command center where you can track all of your accounts,
investments, and spending in one place.
So in addition to managing your money, you're also building wealth.
Cody, you know me and my wife always have a goal to get back to Disney World,
a couple of times every single year.
So what do we notice with Monarch money?
Well, we notice we're spending literally thousands going to Starbucks.
So what do we do?
We cut the Starbucks addiction.
We got an espresso machine.
we can save properly to get back to Disney World and you can do the same with Monarch
Money. Take control of your finances and use the code locked on NFL at Monarchmoney.com for 50%
off your first year. That's Monarchmoney.com code locked on NFL for half off your first
year. There's some nice clarity on the Denver Broncos roster at wide receiver right now.
The young players, Cody, they are going to be making an impact this year.
Sean Payton has made sure of that.
But what is that going to look like?
How are these guys going to rotate in?
It is going to be fun to watch these guys getting involved and utilized as chest pieces in Sean
Peyton's offense.
We're going to break that down on today's episode, Lockdown Broncos.
And Broncos Country, if you haven't already done so, you're going to want to hit
subscribe wherever you listen to the show and go find Lockdown Broncos on TikTok because
there's short form content that you can digest.
Get that on your 4U page all offseason long so you don't miss out on anything that happens
with your favorite team.
But Cody, I think this is an interesting layer to the discussion as you don't necessarily
want to count your chickens before they hatch.
I mean, somebody could emerge at training camp and cause a discussion about, hey,
maybe even you consider keeping seven receivers.
I don't know.
You get into the weeds of discussions like that.
But with the Broncos being relatively set in the six, five, six guys that they want to
keep at receiver, the discussion does pivot to what does the rotation look like?
I think we all agree.
Cortland Sutton is the top receiver on this team.
Marvin Mims looks like he should be the number two.
But maybe there's even a discussion there.
I'm interested to know your thoughts on this based on what you saw at OTAs and
Manny Camp.
Do you think there's currently an established hierarchy or is it pretty wide open after
Cortland Sutton?
I feel like there's kind of an established hierarchy, but it's not in the way I think many
people would think, right?
I mean, theoretically, we would love to see Marvin Mims be wide receiver too.
But I wrote about this too.
Someone asked me in a Broncos mailbag at Mile High Sports about this very thing.
And I said, if the Broncos want Marvin Mims to be a wide receiver too, they need to give him more snaps.
I mean, Sarah, he played 27% of the team's offensive snaps in 2024.
And for him to put up the numbers he did down the stretch with only 27% of those offensive snaps,
very, very impressive, right?
He had significantly less snaps in 2024 offensively than he had in 2023.
when Russell Wilson was the quarterback, when Marvin was caught on video talking to a fan saying he don't throw me the ball anyway.
So for me, I'm just trying to figure out, okay, if Marvin is going to become a wide receiver too or, or, you know, do that.
The Broncos and Sean Payton need to give him more offensive snaps.
You know, there's no other way about it because you can use Marvin anywhere and everywhere.
You can use him on the outside.
You can use him in the slot.
You can use him in the backfield as we have seen.
And I feel like it's like, all right, with a guy of that skill set, don't you want that threat to be present,
almost every, like every two downs on an offensive series.
Like I feel like that would be a little bit more of the response here.
I don't see it going that way right now and that could change.
And maybe it's by design here in practice, right?
Because everyone's going to be counting snaps and reps and things like that.
But, you know, for what I have seen so far in the offseason program before he missed all
of mandatory minicamp, it very much appeared like Cortland Sutton and Devon
Velae were the two outside guys, right?
The two pillars there are getting those primary reps.
And then you would see Marvin brought in.
in. You'd see Troy brought in. You'd see Pat Bryant brought into the mix as well. It seems like those
two guys, Sutton and Velae, are the primary guys, right? And I think if you look at snap percentage last
year, it matches up to that standard. But then I think everybody else is rotating in. And part of me
feels like, Sarah, it has to be maybe like a personnel grouping. It has to maybe do with a game plan
where you're at on, you know, what side of the field you're on. Are you an opponent territory? Are you
and your own territory is it third down, second down.
The rotation may change specifically based on those situations here.
So I'm very, very curious to see how this rotation actually works itself out.
If I had to give a guest today,
Vela and Sutton on the outside, the primary two receivers, the pillars there.
And then I would say that Troy and Marvin are more gadget players here in the offense,
whereas Pat Bryant will probably rotate in and spell both Cortland and Vail in that role that those guys play.
And I also think Troy could play that role as well as the Z.
that is a
you kind of just blew my mind with the stat about Marvin's
snap count percentage last year
I think that yeah it is crazy
you would assume based on how well he played down the stretch
that he was playing at least 50% of the snaps
but that's not the case I just looked Cody
I found that the percentage of snaps that he played
down the stretch of last season was not even 35%
and that's pretty wild because
for those final
Seven games, I think it was.
Yeah, seven games.
He was on pace for over a thousand yards.
If you would extrapolate those numbers over the course of this season.
So playing less than 35% of the snaps,
he's on pace for a thousand yard receiving.
That's crazy.
I mean,
so there's got to be a healthy balance between gadget player
and like consistent involvement.
I think about Jayden Reed to bring the Packers again into the mix here.
Jaden Reed is utilized on a weekly basis to the point that,
yes, he's got the gadget qualities, but he's consistently involved in the game plan.
They are drawing up plays for him every single week.
And I think Marvin deserves that kind of treatment as well until it's proven that teams can shut it down.
Because on less than 35% of the snaps, if you're on pace for over 1,000 receiving yards,
not to mention the times that he gets the ball as a ball carrier and the threat that he poses to defenses anyway,
I think that's a real incentive to get him more involved.
And Sean Payton said about Troy Franklin as well that they believe he has untapped potential after the catch.
And so to me, that gets my brain going of like, all right, so how can they utilize that?
Because we saw them try to do it on quick screens last year.
And that really didn't work all that often.
A couple times did.
I mean, it wasn't like it was never effective, but it wasn't as effective as I think you would hope for a guy who's good after the catch.
You want him to get the ball when he's already running at full speed instead of,
all right, catch it from a dead stop and then go.
So there's so much more Franklin can do.
And I was just reading recently, Cody, another thing about Pat Bryant and how impressive
he was at OTAs.
And just the contested catch that he made over Ja de Baron in practice, which I know
that fans can make a big deal about that and things like that.
But look, I mean, Pat, it has to factor into the mix too, doesn't he?
I mean, he might be immediately,
one of the guys with the best hands on the team.
Yeah.
Look, and I would say that that reliability,
like you could see that he and Bo have been building chemistry quickly.
And when Devon Vele missed minicamp,
who was the guy getting Velae's reps?
It was Pat Bryant.
And Pat Bryant scored a couple of touchdowns
in some of the passing periods that the Broncos had there.
And once again, you saw him catching passes in traffic.
Like, that's a thing about Pat that I really like.
And I just read an article too that Mike Cliss put out not too long ago,
kind of about what Sean Payton,
how he learned a lot about player development from his high school coach going back to his high school days.
And obviously when he went to college, how everything kind of compounded to now.
And one of the things I got mentioned in that article over there on nine news was gone was really fond and really keen on Pat Bryant because they underwent a coaching change.
Lovie Smith got fired and Pat Bryant could have easily transferred and said, you know, I'm going to go elsewhere, get money and go play somewhere else.
He stayed and was a very productive, impactful guy.
was a team captain for them.
And I think that's something that Sean likes is like,
we know if something happens to any of our guys.
Sean knows and believes in his heart that,
hey, Pat Bryant can be a guy that can literally step in.
And we're not going to worry about that because this guy's a competitive.
He's got a heart.
He's a leader.
He's a captain in a sense there.
And this is a guy who works extremely hard.
You saw that in the offseason program with Pat Bryant,
who I'd argue is probably one of the more impressive players
from a consistent day-to-day basis.
has, I say great ball skills, can jump out of the gym, I think,
which is another factor there that you really like for a guy like that.
And, you know, we're talking about all these guys.
I mean, Sarah, you go back to Troy Franklin.
One thing I also want to highlight here is, can we see a little bit more of that connection
from Bo to Troy, like what worked for them at Oregon?
Of course, the deep ball was there for them at the University of Oregon,
but that wasn't the primary.
They would get them open on crossing patterns, different mesh concepts,
where Troy would catch the ball sometimes at 7 to 8 yards across the field.
and then he yards after the catch.
That's where I think that emphasis is.
And I even, against the New Orleans Saints, Thursday night football,
we saw the same exact thing.
Troy Franklin was on the left side of the offensive formation,
ran a backside crosser.
Bow Nix found him for like a 20-something yard gain,
yards after the catch.
And it's like, why didn't the Broncos do that more with Troy?
I think now that they have other positions addressed where I think really,
if RJ Harvey, J.K. Dobbins, the run game is big for Denver this year,
it opens everything up for this offense.
You add Evan Ingram, who's going to be another wrinkle at the tight-in position in the past catching game that is going to add another wrinkle for how defenses choose to play you.
In a perfect world on paper, the Broncos and Bow Nix have everything that they need right now to explode this season and this wide receiver room.
I think Sean Payton sitting saying, hey, I know what I'm doing.
I know what I'm talking about.
And now we have the pieces to go out there and do it.
I hope they unleash it.
I really do too.
And I think that we will see it because these guys know they have to max.
their opportunities to get more snaps. That's what we're talking about. They're competing for
snaps. They're competing for targets. How do you compete for snaps and targets? Well, you go out
and make plays when your number is called. And that's what I think these guys are going to be
ready to do in year two. Just like with Bo Nix, we heard at OTAs in minicamp. Man, he's really
taking command of the offense. He's out there doing a lot more doing and a lot less thinking.
I hope that the same is true of these receivers. That we get to see that at training camp as well.
when the pads come on especially because part of having big receivers too, Cody,
is that you want these guys to be physical, especially against a secondary,
like they're going to face every single day at practice.
I mean, they're going to earn every single target, every single rep out there.
They're not going to get anything cheap.
So go out there and do what you do best and maximize those targets,
those opportunities that you get now so that you do build that trust with your quarterback,
with your coach, with your offensive coordinator,
with everybody that's putting together the game plan to say,
we have to get Troy the ball.
We have to get Velae the ball.
We have to get Mims the ball and Bryant too.
Like none of these guys.
The last thing we want is for any of these six receivers that we've been talking about,
including Sherfield, to be inactive for a game day,
to be a healthy scratch because you want all these guys to be a threat to the opposing defense
in the biggest way that they possibly can.
100% agree.
And if Sean Payton has his way,
then I think that will be the reality for this Broncos wide receiver room here in 20.
25, but Broncos country, we're not done yet as we continue.
Our training camp position preview here, we're going to focus on some of the biggest questions at wide receiver.
Will Cortland Sutton get his contract extension?
Will Troy Franklin finally have a big breakout year in year number two of his career?
Can he take that Marvin Mims like Leap?
We'll debate and discuss that here on today's episode, lockdown Broncos.
The biggest question surrounding the Denver Broncos wide receiver room, we're going to take a look at every single wide receiver that has some pertinent question surrounding them going into this upcoming season.
And can the Broncos find a way to answer that question early on the season and sustain it?
That is the biggest question.
We'll go through here on today's episode, Lock on Broncos.
Sarah, let's start off with wide receiver one, Cortland Sutton.
Really, there's no question about Cortland, about his play or about his production.
That is guaranteed, that is proven.
The only question surrounding Cortland Sutton is, will he get a contract extension before the season begins?
I think that's probably question number one.
It is.
And I think he showed a good sign of faith.
for his part by showing up to mandatory mini camp
and doing all the things that are asked of him there
as a leader of the team and setting the example
and doing what you, I mean,
you see a lot of other guys around the league not doing that.
So Cortland has come off the two best seasons of his career.
The Broncos kind of rewarded him last year, right?
And gave him a little bit of a little bit more cash,
a little bit more money.
But at the same time,
you want to get him to the point that you can definitively say,
Cortland Sutton's going to retire at Denver Bronco.
And I think that's where he's at.
I think that's where the team's at.
It's just a matter of now we got to adjust to the ever-increasing market out there, right?
That's the rub right now is that the wide receiver market, it's different than it was before the start of the offseason.
So you're paying a bit more of a premium now with the increasing salary cap and Cortland coming off the two best years of his career.
And also this being probably the last big money deal that he'll sign in the NFL.
You know, that's the reality.
He's going to be in his 30s next time he signed.
So it won't be as much of a contract.
I just think that this is the opportunity for the two sides to,
remember how excited George Payton was when he came to the Broncos in 2021?
He got his son, a Cortland Sutton, Jersey.
I just feel like that's, this is kind of the full circle moment to where George can now help
Cortland retire a Bronco.
No, I agree with you 100%.
I hope that the team finds a way to get it done in Cortland.
You know, I've seen Cortland's work ethic.
This is a guy who works extremely.
He's a great leader inside that locker room for the younger guys of that position.
And that's something that Sean Payton has publicly noted there.
So I think there's even some campaigning by Sean Payton saying, hey, we really,
really like Cortland.
We really want him here.
Hopefully the team can find a way to do just that.
Let's go to our next player here.
Marvin Mims.
We've kind of talked about it a little bit here.
We'd be able to put on maybe a little bit more of a complete year, factoring what we saw
his strong finish down the second half of the schedule.
Is that more so in Europe?
And is that a Marvin Mims thing as to why we didn't see it?
in the first half or was that a coaching thing?
I'm leaning on the coaching side just because I feel like we have two years of history
from Sean Payton that kind of showcase like, hey, Marvin's got these traits.
How come we're not getting in the football?
There were even a lot of games, I think, in the first half of the season,
you and I were sitting here post game saying, how come Marvin Mims only had 10 offensive
snaps or 14 offensive snaps in this game?
That's crazy.
It's ridiculous.
And I hope that Sean Payton, the Broncos can avoid that here in year number two.
Get him volume early on and let him.
and thrive. Agreed. And is it going to be more of a Jaden Reed or even Percy Harvin type
situation or is it going to be more of a Ted Ginn Jr. type of situation, right? I think that's
the question right now is Ted Ginn Jr. was a great return man for the majority of his career
and occasionally made splashes on offense. I think everybody in Broncos country wants to see the
former where he's Marvin Mims is making more of an impact on the offense as well as in the
return game where he's going for his third straight all pro.
Cody, my other big question here at receiver is can Troy Franklin take that jump in year two?
I mean, we want to see Troy take the jump.
It seems like everything we heard about the offseason program, everything you guys saw out there,
seems to indicate that a year two jump is very much in the cards for Troy Franklin.
Yeah, he's got a lot of confidence too.
And I think the one thing that Troy had mentioned during the off season, he did a sit down and
interview, I think, with Eric DeLalov Denver Broncos.com, then they kind of just talked about it,
where last year, Troy felt like at times he was thinking a little too much,
whereas he's coming into the season.
He understands the playbook a lot more.
I think his role is more defined.
I think behind closed doors as to what the Broncos have kind of envisioned for him.
And so with that, he's going out there and he's just playing and he's making plays.
And on the last day of minicamp, I thought he had a terrific, you know,
catch from Bo Nix with Jada Baron in coverage as well.
And it would have been a big play for the Broncos in a real game.
So I think that there's going to be a more concerted.
effort to feature Troy a little bit more. But I think his role is going to be clearly established.
Whereas last year, what was it? Denver had Cortland Sutton. They had Marvin. They had Devon
Vele, who emerged into a little bit of a big role early on. And then they had Josh Reynolds, who was
getting a lot of featured snout. So really for Troy, it was there wasn't an idea as to how Troy could
get on the field right away as a rookie, right? That was something that they wanted to see. They loved
his speed. But now I think we're actually going to see a lot more featured prowess here from a guy
like Troy Franklin. My question is, is, you know, Sean Payton has hinted, we believe he can take
that leap that Marvin did here in year number two. If that's the case, it's good, good eating.
Maybe the Broncos like, you get a touchdown, you get a touchdown. You get a touchdown.
That's the hope here in terms of that line of thinking. But I agree with you. I think that's
one of the bigger questions that we have surrounding Troy here. Let's take a look now maybe at
Devon Velae. You know, Devon has seemed like the consistent pillar opposite of Cortland
Sutton, at least early on in the offseason program.
He's expected to be ready for the start of training camp.
We don't know exactly why he missed.
I'm sure we'll find out over time if he wants to share that with us.
But if he's there for day one, that's great news.
He was getting the volume reps opposite of Cortland.
And I think that Sean really likes the size of having a six foot five and a six
foot four dude at wide receiver in their primary base foundational offense and then
getting everybody else involved.
What would you say the biggest question for Devon Velae is coming into a second
season because I mean obviously his case is different you know he came into the NFL as an older
rookie and he didn't really look like a rookie most of the season which is a good sign but it's like
how much more can this guy grow considering he's getting up there he's getting closer to 30s a few
years away from it but just considering how young he is but how old he is at the same time yeah he's
a really unique case isn't he because he's not only an older guy but as far as second year players go
but he's also got elite athletic traits.
And he's got all these different facets to his game that you're like,
man, he just has so much untapped potential,
especially from what we saw last year where we didn't really see the Broncos
use him a ton as a downfield guy, you know,
go up and make a play on the ball.
We didn't see them use him a ton as a go-to weapon in the red zone.
We didn't see his speed often exploited.
He was almost like a, you know, a big wide receiver or, you know,
doing what small wide receivers do, playing a big slot role,
kind of making, you know, tough contested catches at the sideline as well.
So we saw the body control.
We saw the catch radius at play,
but did we really see Devon Valle,
the vertical threat?
Did we see him utilize his speak?
Because he's a big time Rass guy, Cody.
We know that.
Devon Vailay scored very well in the Rass department.
He can jump.
He can run.
He's got a great catch radius.
Utilize those things.
I think that's the biggest question for me when it comes to Devon Valle
this season.
I agree. I'm excited. Then we'll get to obviously the rookie Pat Bryant. I think can he continue to build on its impressive offseason program performance when the pads come on?
I'm excited about this because I think we will start seeing some mixing and matching where you might see Pat Bryant getting covered by PS2. How does he fare in coverage against PS2 at Trendy Camp?
Riley Moss, these other guys. Riley also had coverage in the offseason program against Cortland Sutton a lot of the time. It did really well.
So for a lot of the people that are kind of poo-pooing on Riley Moster,
I'm saying Riley has, he had a good off-season program as well,
and he's covering Cortland on a consistent basis.
So I think there's some comfortability level with the Broncos secondary.
How does Pat Bryant do that when the pads come on?
Because I guarantee you the Bronco is going to play a lot more pressing.
So I'm excited to see how he responds to press coverage.
Once again, I just think he works well in traffic.
He's great at creating separation as a route runner in the intermediate side of the field
where I think that's going to open up some.
opportunities for him this upcoming season to, I think, move the chains when it's a third down situation.
Can he be a good red zone threat because of his route running ability?
I think that's certainly a possibility here.
But we're excited.
In Broncos country, we want to hear from you on today's episode of the shows we previewed
the wide receiver position going into training camp.
Do you agree with us that we believe that the Broncos wide receiver room, that top five
is set in stone and guys are competing for touches, not necessarily roster spots there.
If you feel like we got it wrong, make sure you let us know.
tell us who you think we should be keeping our eye on as well.
We appreciate you so much,
Broncos country.
Our training camp position preview series continues tomorrow as we take a look at the inside
linebacker room here,
quite arguably,
the biggest question mark on the Broncos defense going into 20, 25.
You'll get all that and more on tomorrow's episode,
Locked on Broncos.
