Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos WR Group the BEST in Over a Decade?!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Broncos wide receiver position is about to be the best we've seen in over a decade. You are locked on Broncos. Your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. It's not going to be easy to sort out one of the deepest positions on the Denver Broncos roster in the 2026 season. But we're going to attempt to do that today. We're talking about the wide receiver position. I'm going to tell you why I think this is the year for,

Starting point is 00:00:34 the best supporting actor at the wide receiver position. And I think what I said in the beginning is true. This is the best room of wide receivers that the Denver Broncos have had in over a decade since dating back to that 2013 season. Broncos country. We're going to break it all down on today's episode of the show. My name is Sarah Bedinger co-hosts here, locked on Broncos site expert, predominantly orange.com. So appreciative of all you every dayers for rocking with us, making us your first listen of the day every single day. And today's, episode of the show is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first

Starting point is 00:01:14 bet wins. Head to fanduel.com to get started. And let's talk about why I think this year's wide receiver group could be the best the the Broncos have had, will be the best that they've had since that vaunted 2013 season, which included obviously the late great Demarius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Welker, and other contributors to that offense, this wide receiver group is arguably the most talented in terms of one through five and then beyond that

Starting point is 00:01:45 that we've ever seen. And it starts with Jalen Waddle's edition. I did a whole bonus episode late last week on Jalen Waddle. Definitely encourage you to go listen to that because we had some really great insight, you know, on our squad show late last week, talking about Jalen Waddle, the importance of what he brings,

Starting point is 00:02:03 not just on Sundays and what he's, and what he's going to do when he gets the ball thrown his direction. But how much he impacts and affects everybody else in the offense, everybody else obviously the running game. We expect the run game to be better because of Jalen Waddle. We expect there to be more balance because of Jalen Waddle. We expect Waddle to test the defensive backs in practice. So there's so much with the just the Jalen Waddle addition that raises all boats in the harbor.

Starting point is 00:02:31 He's the tide that's going to do that. The Broncos already had a lot of talent at the wide receiver position. I mean, we've seen this team be straight up bullish about the talent that they have at wide receiver. How many times I believe the wide receiver position is where the, you know, kind of meme of George Peyton saying, we like what we have really comes into play because that's kind of the mentality the Broncos have taken.

Starting point is 00:02:55 And I think they're right in doing so. But I do think that Jalen Waddle is also the missing ingredient because when you look at this position, I mean, Waddle, Cortland Sutton, Pat Bryant, Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin, who was second on the team in targets last season. Those five guys alone are really good players individually. It's now a matter of figuring out how to involve them collectively, right? You want to make sure there's only one football to go around. Even for a team that led the NFL last year in passing attempts, the Broncos, right?

Starting point is 00:03:29 There's not going to be, you're not going to have five players. that have, you know, 10 touchdown catches. I mean, that'd be awesome. You're not necessarily going to have, you know, seven receivers and tight ends and running backs combined that are going to have 800 plus receiving yards. We're not talking about the Broncos are going to go break the 2013 team's record

Starting point is 00:03:49 in terms of points scored. But what I'm saying is I think this room has more talent than really any room that we've seen. I think that when you talk about Jalen Waddle, a true top end receiver and Cortland Sutton, as his, you know, Robin to his Batman, if you will. I mean, that's a really good duo. That might be one of the best five duos in the entire NFL when you look across the league

Starting point is 00:04:15 because those two guys have such a complimentary skill set, don't they? When Cortland Sutton is in one-on-one coverage, he's borderline uncoverable. I mean, teams focused in on him giving help with the safety over the top so many different times last season, and we still saw Cortland coming through in a lot of different clutch situations. Third downs, one of the best in the NFL, attacking deep down field, one of the best in the NFL. And I know there's been frustration over the past couple of seasons with Sutton's consistency or whether or not he's truly a wide receiver one in the offense. I don't think that matters anymore now with the addition of Jalen Waddle.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And I think that we're going to see just how good Cortland can be because of the addition. of Jalen Waddle. But also I think we're going to see improvement from everybody else in this room. We know the Broncos have a brand new wide receivers coach as of this offseason. Ronald Curry is taking over for Kerry Colbert. Ronald Curry was most recently the quarterbacks coach

Starting point is 00:05:16 for Josh Allen out there in Buffalo, but he's been obviously a, he's been a wide receiver in the NFL himself. For those who grew up in that era of football, you remember him playing for North Carolina. You remember him playing for the Raiders at the time. And he's been on. Sean Payton staff working with receivers.

Starting point is 00:05:33 We also know that one of Sean's former players, Willie Sneed the 4th, is going to be helping in coaching up this room as well, this offseason. So I just feel like there's a little bit of something in the air, if you will, right? There's a little bit of renewed optimism for a unit that, let's just be honest, has contributed the most significantly to the Broncos being among the league leaders and dropped passes over the past couple of seasons. It's not all on the running backs or the tight ends. I mean, the wide receivers have been primary culprits there as well.

Starting point is 00:06:04 We've seen it plenty of times over and over again. And that's part of what's so frustrating is knowing how talented these guys are and knowing just how much more production they could have up to this point. But when you talk about this position being maybe the best it's been in over a decade, it starts with a duo of Cortland Sutton and Jalen Waddle. And then I think you can shift gears immediately to this team having tremendous young talent. I mean, just Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims, and Pat Bryant, each of those guys, although the sample on Pat Bryant is still fairly limited, let's just say. I mean, even though he was just a rookie last year, he got pretty heavily involved as the season went along.

Starting point is 00:06:46 But even with that heavy involvement or the heavier involvement, we just haven't seen a ton from Pat. I still think he has a lot in the tank to offer this team in terms of his hands, in terms of his route running, his just kind of savvy sitting down against zone coverage, finding soft spots, working his way back to the football, in scramble drill, all those sorts of things. And we haven't even really started to unlock any of his skill set in that way. But when you talk about somebody like Troy Franklin, the year two leap that Troy Franklin had, it kind of gets overlooked and underrated because of the fact that the Broncos brought in Jalen Waddle, doesn't it? I mean, yes, he was second on the team in targets last year. But remember as a rookie how badly he struggled with dropped passes, missed

Starting point is 00:07:31 opportunities deep down the field. His target share nearly doubled from 50-something to over 100 targets in his second NFL season, but his catch rate went up. Even with increased targets, his drop percentage went down. We saw Troy really evolve, especially in the red zone. The Broncos locked in on him when they had two-point conversion plays drawn up. I mean, there were so many weeks where it wasn't just that Troy was a secondary option. It felt like there were games and matchups that they had where they circled Troy as this is a game to feature Troy Franklin. And a lot of times when the Broncos did do that, they had a lot of success offensively.

Starting point is 00:08:10 May not have always won every game, you know, where that happened. I think about the Colts game. You had a big game. They still lost. The Jaguars game, you had a nice game. They still lost. But for the most part, when they were more heavily involved, involving Troy Franklin, the team was doing well. The offense was doing well. Think about that Kansas

Starting point is 00:08:28 City game where he kind of struggled in the first half earlier in the season, right? Not the Christmas game, but earlier in the season, right? He kind of struggled in the first half and then they just start feeding him in the second half and he just starts coming through with some big plays, including late in that game. Or how about the Green Bay game, the touchdown catch that they had against Green Bay. So you can point to a number of different scenarios that really highlight, man, the year two progression from Troy, who's still a very young player, it was there. And I think the same can be said of Marvin Mims. We're all asking the same question about Marvin.

Starting point is 00:09:01 Hey, why is he not as involved as we think he should be? Based on what we're seeing when Marvin is at his best, he looks like maybe the most clutch receiver on this team. And he's certainly got some of the best big time speed of any player on this team. He's certainly one of the craftiest players on the roster with the ball in his hands. we see what he can do as a kickoff returner, as a punt returner. So why are we struggling to get him involved in the offense? I cannot wait to see what Davis Webb does to involve him more if he's going to do that, right?

Starting point is 00:09:35 Because we don't know ultimately right now what that's going to look like. But I think the Broncos have a really good problem on their hands because those five guys alone and give you some of the best talent at the position in the NFL, guys that you can legitimately turn to, I think on a week-to-week basis. But I think that's also part of the reason why the 2026 season is going to be the year of the best supporting actor at wide receiver for the Denver Broncos. I'm going to tell you what I mean coming up on today's episode of the show. Today's episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are here and every possession matters.

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Starting point is 00:11:08 The Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, been a great, great series so far, and you can check out that and more action on Fandual. Head to Fandual.com to get started. Fandual, play your game. 2026 is about to be the year of the supporting actor for the Broncos at the wide receiver position. I'm going to tell you exactly what that means coming up on today's episode of the show. Broncos Country, once again, I want to say we appreciate you so, so much for tuning in today, for rocking with us, making us your first listen of the day every single day right here on the lockdown podcast network,

Starting point is 00:11:45 your team every day, the number one sports podcast network out there. And hey, Broncos Country, if you want an ad-free version of this show, check out the Everydayer Club at Lockdown Broncos.com. Let's talk about this idea of the best supporting actor. What does that mean? Well, what that means is that we know who the main characters are. We know the main characters at wide receiver are going to be likely Cortland Sutton and Jalen Waddle on a week-to-week basis,

Starting point is 00:12:12 which means I think this year is going to be the year of the supporting actor, the secondary option at the wide receiver position. We know Jalen Waddle, he's going to be. get his targets, right? Cortland Sutton, he's going to get his targets. So which other player is going to step up on a week to week basis that ultimately could determine the Broncos having a top 10 offense in 26? I think that's fascinating to think about. And obviously, the number one guy that you look at in this category is going to be Troy Franklin, who was second on the team in targets just last season. I don't think Troy is going to be playing too much of a second fiddle this coming season. But I do think,

Starting point is 00:12:52 obviously the arrival of Jalen Waddle puts a pretty big question mark over just the involvement overall of everybody else. How often are the Broncos going to be in their 11 personnel? Who's going to be out there on the field when they're in 11 personnel? How often are we going to see Evan Ingram split off into the slot as a big, you know, big slot player out there? How often are we going to see those multiple tight end sets with Davis Webb calling the plays? But that's where I think this whole best supporting actor thing can really come into play because on a week to week basis, I think it's going to be somebody different stepping up for the Denver Broncos. And I think that's really exciting because you're going to

Starting point is 00:13:30 have the constants. You're going to have those stars, the Waddle, the Sutton on the outside and the slot wherever you decide to put them. And then you're going to have those other guys that give defenses fits because when Waddle starts attracting a bunch of attention, when Sutton starts attracting a bunch of attention, these other options are going to flourish. They're going to be able to do what they do best, getting one-on-one situations, drawing the matchup of, let's just be honest about it, a team's probably third best corner at best or third best defensive back. So this is how Davis Webb can really play the game of chess at a high level this coming season is saying, we know when we go up against, let's just throw out the Kansas City Chiefs,

Starting point is 00:14:12 the Broncos week one opponent. We know when we go up against Kansas City, they're going to put Mansour Delane, their top pick. They're going to put him on either Cortland Sutton or or Jalen Waddle, right? And so we know that the quality of corner going up against, you know, as we go down that pecking order is going to benefit us because of our depth at the wide receiver position. And they can look at those corners for each team and they can say, hmm, as I look at these rosters that we're facing off against, who really, who really matches up well with the second or third best corner on each of these teams? And you look at Kansas City, It's Mansour Delane at the outside.

Starting point is 00:14:49 Noel Williams, a third round pick last year, Cater Cahoo. I mean, those guys at the cornerback position, which you're looking at there, and you're trying to figure out, okay, how do we match up our receivers against those corners? We want to take advantage of these young guys. And so it's almost, it's an advantage right away. You're getting a veteran wide receiver in Waddle or Sutton going up against a rookie corner already. But now you've got these other guys. You can mix and match size. You can mix and match speed.

Starting point is 00:15:17 You can mix a match. Well, do we want to put Franklin in the slot? Do we want to put him on the outside? Do we want to use Mims more in this game? Because these corners struggle with tackling and we're going to get him the ball quickly. Do we want to utilize Pat Bryant a little bit more this week? Because we know this team is going to be playing a lot of off coverage or a lot of zone coverage. And we're going to be able to let him do what he does best, sit down against that zone coverage,

Starting point is 00:15:42 make tough catches with his strong hands and make plays. after the catch. That's where I think you're going to see this idea of the best supporting actor come into play. And how many times did we see that last year? How many different games can we refer back to in our minds where this was actually such a huge part of the Broncos offense already? I mean, we've already talked about Troy Franklin and the impact that he made in a lot of

Starting point is 00:16:07 games as the secondary option alongside Cortland Sutton, sometimes even the number one option in the offense. But when you think about these other guys, I mean, how about Marvin Mims stepping up and being that best supporting actor, especially in the Buffalo playoff game, right? Making the clutch catch the go ahead touchdown late in that game. How about the idea of even somebody like Will Jordan Humphrey who made big plays in that game as well, has made big plays for the Broncos in other games? Michael Bandy against Green Bay, right? When you talk about best supporting actor, that's almost like Sean Payton's favorite thing is to have somebody. out there offensively that the defense is not expecting a lot out of. The defense didn't really

Starting point is 00:16:50 game plan as much for this player. Sean loves to exploit that. Sean loves to get those guys involved, maybe to a fault at sometimes and in certain instances, right? There's not a lot of games where you want to be featuring players who are being shuffled up off your practice squad, but at the same time, the principle still applies in that you have the opportunity to really catch defenses sleeping or to catch them in bad matchups or to take advantage of their lack of depth on the defensive side and flex your depth on the offensive side. That's where I think having five playmakers at the receiver position and just how much it's going to change with Jalen Waddle added to the mix, but also that these guys can still improve, right? I mean, the Marvin Mims, the Troy Franklin

Starting point is 00:17:38 and the Pat Bryant that we saw last year, that's not exactly who we're going to see this year. I'm expecting improvement. And I know that I'm the one who preaches all the time. Like development is not linear. Progression is not always linear. I do think we're going to see a big jump in skill set from all those guys this coming season because of what's at stake. And because they're just, they've gotten that time in the offense that you need. I mean, all of those players is entering year two or later in the offense. There's no rookies at that position right now. But that's where I think this could really come into play, the idea of the best

Starting point is 00:18:16 supporting actor, because, yes, we know there's going to be the constants. Corton Sutton, Sutton, probably going to get a lot of targets. Jalen Waddle, probably going to get a lot of targets. Who's going to step up and move the chains in situations where defenses are able to take those guys away or even when one of those players is not out on the field? Because I think that's going to be a thing as well. We're not necessarily going to see, I don't think, Waddle, and Sutton dominating every single snap, playing almost 100% for the Broncos.

Starting point is 00:18:46 I think because of this team's depth, they are going to be able to mix and to match and to really exploit defenses for their defensive backfields. And just where they're at in terms of roster building in that way, the Broncos have an advantage. And I think that's really exciting as we approach the 2026 season. And we've got to sort out this wide receiver depth chart. We got to sort out the receiver position, the undrafted players, Talk a little bit about them.

Starting point is 00:19:12 Who are the Broncos keep on the practice squad? What about this guy who won a position as a tryout player at the rookie mini camp? We're going to break down the entire position. Talk about the 53-man roster. Talk about the overall depth chart. Talk about the practice squad. We're going to break it all down coming up on today's episode of the show. Support for today's episode comes from Square,

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Starting point is 00:21:18 We're going to break it all down on today's episode of the show, Broncos Country. Appreciate just so much once again for tuning in every single day. Let's talk about this wide receiver position and kind of sorting out the overall depth chart. So we've been talking largely about the top five guys at the position. Obviously, Jayland Waddle, Cortland Sutton, Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims, Pat Bryant. Those guys aren't going anywhere. and I think that's going to be the five that ultimately make it onto the 53 man roster. I could also see the Broncos keeping a sixth when they get to the 53 man and it could be

Starting point is 00:21:50 Lil Jordan Humphrey. I think that he's just, he's a Sean Peyton favorite. He's somebody that this team obviously loves. But I also think that because little Jordan Humphrey is a vested veteran as well as Michael bandy, I think the Broncos can easily justify saying, hey, we're going to bring you right back onto the practice squad. We'll shuffle you up this season. there's always going to be reasons to shuffle players up, sadly.

Starting point is 00:22:14 I mean, injuries do occur. So that's just the reality of the NFL. I think that we will see Lil Jordan Humphrey and Michael Bandy back on the practice squad once again. And they've proven to be really solid depth. I mean, not a lot of teams have practice squad receivers stepping up and making touchdown catches in the playoffs like we saw from little Jordan Humphrey. I know that he can be frustrating to the fan base at times, but I don't think that's really his own doing. I think that the frustration with Lil Jordan Humphrey really stems more from the Sean Payton side of that in the fact that he's really featuring a guy in his offense who's on the practice squad or has been on the practice squad. And that frustrates a lot of people because it's like, well, we're sitting here wondering why is Marvin Mim's not getting targets?

Starting point is 00:22:57 And little Jordan Humphrey is getting fed targets. And that just people don't understand. You know, so I get that. And I understand that tension and frustration. But I do think Will Jordan Humphrey is a valuable piece to this wider. receiver room, not to deliberately exclude him from the top five guys. Or, you know, I think that he's done a lot. I mean, he's been around for a long time.

Starting point is 00:23:17 He knows the Sean Payton offense very well. And I think that he is going to play a role on this team. I really do. So Lil Jordan Humphrey, Michael Bandy, back on the practice squad. I will be fascinated to see what develops over the course of this offseason with Michael Woods the second. He was the guy that I referenced before who actually won a roster spot during the rookie mini camp as a tryout player, a sixth round pick of the Cleveland Browns all the way back

Starting point is 00:23:44 in 2022. And he actually played at Oklahoma, his last year at the college level, where he was teammates with Marvin Mims Jr. So really interested to see what he does. He along with, you know, it seemed like a hundred other players had a really big game against the Broncos secondary on that Monday night against Cleveland in the 2024 season. He caught a couple of, actually he caught three passes in that game. I went back and watched to kind of see, hey, what's this guy about? He caught three passes that moved the chains on third downs, had really great effort as a blocker as well. So I think the Broncos, Sean Payton doesn't forget that stuff, right?

Starting point is 00:24:18 Sean Payton doesn't forget when somebody has a good game against him, when somebody burns his defense on third downs on multiple occasions and is getting after his defensive backs in the running game as a blocker at the wide receiver position, it might not be the biggest deal because he's a guy who just want to try out, you know, as a 90-man roster trial player, right, at the rookie minicamp. But I think he does bear watching just because he's been in the league longer than a lot of these other guys that he's competing against at the bottom of this roster. And the Broncos did bring in a handful of undrafted rookie free agents at the wide receiver

Starting point is 00:24:54 position, Dane Key, who is notably the brother of Broncos safety and all-pro special teams player Devin Key. He is in the fold here and could be an interesting height, weight, speed. type of player to kind of look out for actually was really explosive when he was at Kentucky in the deep passing game. He was somebody that was a favorite target at one point of Will Levis, believe it or not. So really interested to see what he does. Joseph Manjack out of TCU, I got to do a little bit more research on Joseph Manjack. Don't know a ton about him, but obviously anytime you don't know a lot about an undrafted player and the Broncos are bringing somebody in, it's worth going back and looking and saying, okay, what is the scouting department?

Starting point is 00:25:35 seeing from this guy. Cameron Ross and Colby Katsis both seem like they could be options in the kickoff return game. And I think specifically with Colby Katsis, I think that he's somebody to watch for in that regard because that was what made him an All-American where he played college at Northern Arizona. So I think that Colby Katsis is fascinating to watch. Cameron Ross for the same reasons, they got speed, they've got return abilities. And I think that at least, at least, two of those undrafted players will be on the Broncos practice squad. I think we're going to see four receivers on the practice squad. And I do think the Broncos are going to try to evaluate, hey, who could really help us in the kickoff return game? And it's somebody that we could kind

Starting point is 00:26:22 of marinate or let marinate over the course of the next year because we don't know what the future really holds for Marvin Mims. I think optimistically, you would love to see Marvin become a second contract player with the Broncos. But realistically, do the Broncos re-sign him after trading for Jalen Waddle? I think that's a big question. And because Marvin is so good as a punt returner, as a kick returner, it does put a little bit of pressure on the Broncos side of things to figure out, hey, if we do ultimately let him go, if we go to the negotiating table and offer him a deal and we're not close on price,

Starting point is 00:26:59 we have to have somebody who could come in and replace one of the most productive players on the team. So that will be something worth watching. I think at least two of those undrafted guys will make the practice squad along with Lil Jordan Humphrey and Michael Bandy. And we're going to see those five receivers at the top make the 53 man roster and contribute substantially week after week for the Denver Broncos. It's going to be a really exciting season, Broncos country. I love. I've always loved and favored the wide receiver position. Just such a fun position to evaluate so much upside for this team, right?

Starting point is 00:27:35 So much upside for the Broncos at the top of the depth chart, throughout the depth chart. It doesn't feel like this position has truly a weakness right now. It feels like they have so many varieties of skill sets. It feels like they have size. They have speed. They have guys who can win downfield. They have guys who can win after the catch. They have now a truly.

Starting point is 00:27:56 elite route runner and separator in Jalen Waddle. So it just feels like this is the best we have seen the position in terms of overall talent at least since 2013. And I know that those guys had Peyton Manning basically had the best year of his NFL career, statistically speaking. And so I know that I don't want to promise anything that I can't deliver on or anything like that. But I think talent wise is what I'm saying.

Starting point is 00:28:21 Talent wise, I think this group is maybe better than that one. So we're fixing to find out, as Gary Kubiak always said, Broncos Country. And we appreciate you once again so much for tuning in rocking with us every single day. We're going to continue breaking down each individual position group throughout the course of the 2026 off season as OTAs are now creeping ever closer for the Denver Broncos. And we'll have some on field stuff to react to and to talk about. But Broncos Country, have a great day. We're so thankful for every single one of you. We'll catch you on the next episode of the show.

Starting point is 00:28:56 Thank you.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - Denver Broncos WR Group the BEST in Over a Decade?!

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