Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - SLEPT ON: Denver Broncos' Pat Bryant Will Emerge With BIGGER Role at WR

Starting point is 00:00:00 Denver Broncos wide receiver, Pat Bryant is being slept on. But in 2026, he'll take a huge step forward. 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? Cody Roak here on today's bonus episode of the show, we're highlighting Bronco's second year wide receiver, Pat Bryant. We'll dive deep into where he aligned in 2025 and even after the addition to Jane Lauddle, how that might impact his role.

Starting point is 00:00:34 upcoming season, but more importantly, how that ties into what we're going to kick things off with, him being the most slept on wide receiver here on this Broncos roster post Jalen Waddle, trade. You'll get all that here today here. Folks, let's dive into a Pat Bryant last season. I tell you what, really going back into training camp last year, you started to see a lot of how he might be used. He quickly rose up, I'd say, in terms of getting more reps over a lot of other guys inside of the offense. he was getting a ton of reps with the first team offense,

Starting point is 00:01:04 which is not a surprise considering the Broncos do rotate guys in quite a bit. But with Pat Bryant, and I noticed this early on when I was watching him, he makes the tough catches. This is a guy who does the dirty work. His releases off the line of scrimmage are definitely something where I'd say that's a polished area of his game. For a guy who was criticized out of the NFL Combine for running a 4.640-yard dash, I think a lot of people look at that metric and like,

Starting point is 00:01:29 oh, well, he's not a fast guy. You don't need him to be a fast guy. but man, this guy is shifty. He is a separator, and we'll go into some of the stats that showcase that as well. And I think he was in kind of the perfect role last year with Denver's offense as they were trying to figure out a little bit of their identity. Now going into 2026, I feel like for Pat, his role is going to be solidified as one of the most impactful players on this roster, not named Cortland Sutton or Jalen Waddle. And I think that his role alongside Troy Franklin is going to be a huge strength here to the Broncos offense this upcoming season.

Starting point is 00:02:02 And what I mean by that is he helped the team in a lot of areas last year. And he ranked high in terms of some of the more important metrics of what you're looking for in a wide receiver in terms of production. Now, obviously, Denver, they led the NFL last season with Bo Nix in passing attempts. But for Pat Bryant, he was third on the team last year in team catches for a first down. He had 22 first down catches. He had 31 total catches last season. So 22 of those moving the chains for a first down, he was a producing player on. third down situations in particular.

Starting point is 00:02:34 He was also getting first downs on second down and first down. So when you think about his volume and how low the sample size was in comparison to a guy like Troy Franklin or to Cortland Sutton, you can look at it and say, man, Pat had a really big impact here for the Broncos offense last season to put things into context in terms of first down catches. We mentioned him being third. Cortland had 52 catches last season for a first down. Troy was the next with 32 total catches last season.

Starting point is 00:03:00 And then Pat Bryant. So for Pat not to have that premier role early on in the season, he earned his opportunities and that volume naturally increased. And of course, he dealt with a couple of injuries, some concussions. Obviously last season down the stretch, but he's all good to go this upcoming season. He's in a good spot here. But he also was third on the team in total yards per catch. Now, this is skewed a little bit because who is second has a small sample size. Michael Bandy had 12.5 yards per catch on four total catches last season, 12.2.

Starting point is 00:03:31 yards per catch when you factor in the larger volume of targets that he had. And of course, we all know, Cortland Sutton leading the team there in yards per catch last season. He's the top dog there in that room. But I also think when you look at Pat's game, he is kind of a complete receiver because he does the dirty work. He does the things like blocking on the perimeter. He's lined up in the slot from time to time. And we'll go through that here in a little bit and what that looks like in terms of where he produced last season. But this is a guy who will block, block, block and his mantra. He even said to it the senior bowl is, hey, I believe if you don't block, you don't get the rock. Sean Payton loves that about Pat, that Pat is the guy that's going to do

Starting point is 00:04:08 the dirty work. And Sean, and hopefully now Davis Webb is the play caller, is going to reward Pat a lot more going forward. He is a great separation creator. You know, in terms of when you look at how defenses play against him, some guys will press him, but a lot of guys will play off coverage. And I think his ability to throttle down, to be shifty, to not showcase exactly where he's going. He creates separation naturally as a route runner without having to have the burner speed that everybody wants a wide receiver to have. I think that's what everyone wants. But can you create separation? Can you make plays in the middle of traffic? He certainly did do that last year. According to our friends over there at NFL next gen stats, he was top 20 in the entire NFL last season in

Starting point is 00:04:50 average separation with 2.4. And how they quantify that is it's the distance in yards measured between a wide receiver or a tight end and the nearest defender at the time of a catch or an incompletion. He is creating separation. He gets safeties and sometimes smaller nickel defenders. He gets them to commit one way and he gets the other. He knows how to play well in space. And I think even in scramble drill situations, I felt like he stepped up in a big way for

Starting point is 00:05:17 the Broncos last year. He became a favorite target for Bow Nix as the season went on. And we saw him start to make more plays. And we saw this. This wasn't a surprise to anybody. but we saw a little bit of this in the preseason against the Arizona Cardinals. And then everyone saying, wow, Pat Bryant, we really like what we have in this guy. And then early on in the season, he didn't have as much of a feature role.

Starting point is 00:05:37 But down the stretch, he really did. He appeared in 15 games for the Broncos last season and had a massive role for them in that department. And there's one game in particular that stands out to me where I thought to myself, this guy does have a clutch factor to him. And it was against the Houston Texans, which we knew. They were the number one defense in a lot of major categories. Roy's last season. Bow Nixon, the Broncos offense had to go into Houston and they had to find a way to come back. And Pat Bryant, it was a third and 11. He caught a 15-yard catch to keep the drive live.

Starting point is 00:06:07 And of course, Denver ultimately settled for a field goal, but that helped them ultimately win that game there. He proved to make big catches and big-time situations there. He did have three drops last season, but they weren't really an issue for him. So I think now that you add Cortland Sutton, you have Jaylen Waddell, you have Troy Franklin here, I still think Pat Bryant's role is going to be largely expanded going into this upcoming season. And the Broncos, they have this double down belief in this room that it's a strength. And they feel like they added an elite level strength there with Jalen into the mix. Well, you take a look at how Pat Bryant aligned last season and you're going to compare it to Jalen Waddle.

Starting point is 00:06:44 Well, Broncos country, you're going to get an idea of how these two guys are going to be used. We'll dive deep into that here on today's episode of the show. Today's episode of the show was brought to you of our friends over there at Fandu. And folks, the NBA finals matchups are officially set. You've got the San Antonio Spurs taking on the New York Knicks. You got Victor Webb and Yama versus Jalen Brunson. It is going to be a fun matchup. I'm excited about it.

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Starting point is 00:09:43 Let's continue our conversation here about PB. Pat Brian. That's the nickname my wife gives him. I converted my wife. She knows obviously I cover the Broncos every day, but she has become a Broncos fan. And Pat Bryant is one of her favorite players. And she always says, too, he does the dirty work. That is the case. But I think in order to now maybe project maybe what his role will look like, you have to understand what the Broncos plan to do here with Jalen Waddle. Now, I think let's first take a look here at Pat Bryant, then we'll take a look how it compares to Jalen Waddle. Last year, Pat in terms of his alignment, and this comes from our friends over there at True Media, he aligned in the slot on the left side of the field for 50 routes. 50 routes and slot left, 20 targets there and 14 catches.

Starting point is 00:10:26 He produced primarily the most in the slot on the left side of the field. His next best production in terms of alignment came wide left. So left side of the field on the outside, very wide, 58 routes right there for him, 13 targets, nine catches. That was probably his most efficient level of production was wide left, but his overall volume in terms of yards produced last season in totality came from the left side slot position right there. Now, he also aligned in the slot on the right side on 28 routes. He had five targets and three catches. Not a lot of volume there in terms of the actual production on the slot right. But when you line him up wide right, he had 42 routes wide right, which was overall third for him in terms

Starting point is 00:11:07 of his usage where he aligned the most, seven targets and five catches here. And now we have to take a look at Jalen Waddle because Waddle changes. everything. You changed the entire dynamic here, the Broncos' offense. Cortland Sutton, and these Broncos, wide receivers, folks, I want to preface it by saying they are going to move around quite a bit. Cortland is, Jalen is, Troy Franklin is, and Pat Bryant certainly is. I believe that the pecking order in terms of wide receivers, it is going to be these four. Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant, you could say 2A and 2B. I've got Cortland and Jalen as 1A and 1B in terms of their roles. And then Marvin is kind of a wildcard. Marvin Mims is here. But in 2025, Jalen Waddle, at least in Miami, and it's interesting to

Starting point is 00:11:49 see what this will look like in Denver. He lined up primarily on the wide left. He had 77 routes where in comparison, Pat Bryan had 58. That was one area where he was obviously a strength. 47 targets wide right. But the thing about Jalen is Jalen's more productive volume comes from the wide left, wide right, but he also produced in the slot left and the slot right when you talk about alignment. Let's take a look at slot left. Route slot left for him, 55 routes slot right. So Jalen is kind of this move around, do everything type of player, at least inside of the offense for Miami last year.

Starting point is 00:12:24 And of course, Tyreek Hill's injury definitely impacted that in some ways. But inside of the Broncos offense, this is why Denver went out and got him because Jalen Waddle is this move around weapon piece here for Denver, where I think they anticipate defenses are going to primarily try to take away Jalen and Corlin or reduce the impact. but you can only allocate so much coverage resources to one guy, and that leaves guys open. That's where I think Denver believes in this wide receiver room. They believe it is a strength of theirs. They committed to it.

Starting point is 00:12:55 They doubled down to it last year at the NFL trade deadline. They didn't make any moves. They didn't even trade any of their players. And they got calls on certain players. They got calls on Troy Franklin. They got calls on Marvin. They got calls on Cortland as well. The Broncos, they have reaffirmed their commitment to these guys saying,

Starting point is 00:13:11 no, we believe that they're an intricate part about what we want to do. Now you go out in the off season, you trade for Jalen Waddle, where it probably makes the most sense to trade for them than than it did at the deadline because the price was higher at the deadline for Waddle. But now you have a little bit of a luxury. You have a separator in Waddle who can now create from anywhere, left, right side, right side, slot left, slot right. But you have a player in Pat Bryant who also creates a top 20 separation in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:13:37 He's a great route runner to that regard. You can split it up. I mean, let's say the Broncos want to go empty. You can have Pat Bryant in the slot to the left. You can have Jalen Waddle in the slot to the right. Cortland Sutton on one side, Tori Franklin on the other. Like the Broncos, if they can get all four of these wide receivers on the field together, I think that they can do some really impressive stuff,

Starting point is 00:13:59 especially in some key passing down situations because the defenses are going to have to account for somebody. And you dictate all your coverage resources to primarily stop in Cortland Sutton, who is a top third down target for Denver, who also produced the most for the team in third down, fourth down, situations compared to everybody had one of the higher catch percentages and 20 plus yard catch plays on third and fourth down specifically last year for Denver. Okay, if you defensively want to focus on him, well, guess what? Here is Jaylen Waddle.

Starting point is 00:14:25 He is going to eat on the other side or in the slot if he's paired up next to Cortland Sutton. Well, let's say that situation happens where they're both on the same side and the defense shifts their focus to that as being the strength. Well, that is where you have Troy Franklin, who had 32 first down catches last season. And then it goes to Pat Bright, who had 22 first down catches last season. Overall, the roles in the archetypes of this room are going to change a little bit. Sean is still invested in the belief that we don't want one guy to specifically be an ex-receiver or slot.

Starting point is 00:14:56 We want all these guys to play everywhere. And that expands, I think, the difficulty of the playbook where these guys have showcased the ability to do it. Now, the biggest thing with this wide receiver room is mitigating the drop passes. Cortland had a lot of drop passes last season. Evan had tied in, Evan Ingraham. He had dropped passes last season. RJ Harvey at running back had a lot of drop passes last season. And then you had Troy who had some drops.

Starting point is 00:15:18 Pat Bryan had three drops as we outlined a little bit earlier here. Those things need to get cleaned up. But that's why the Broncos made a change of a wide receiver coach. That's why they brought in Ronald Curry to revamp this room. Someone that Sean Payton fills and knows will get the job done to take this room to the next level. And Pat Bryant is going to be a major piece of that. Look, the conversation here too, especially about this group, It doesn't necessarily have to be Cortland and Jalen.

Starting point is 00:15:41 You know, Jalen's the wide receiver one and this is the wide receiver two. Sean does not subscribe to that belief about wide receiver one, wide receiver two. He wants four guys ideally that can produce. And I think right now on paper, and this ultimately has to translate into on-field production, this is one of the most exciting and I would say talented wide receiver rooms in the NFL when you factor in the potential, the playmaking ability, when you factor in what Jalen could do, Cortland could do, the rise that we expect. Troy Franklin to continue to take the expectation that Troy has for himself and for Pat Bryant,

Starting point is 00:16:13 who rose in the role that he had, even though it wasn't strong early on in the season, he did the dirty work. He earned those reps and more opportunities. He earned more snaps, and he produced in a big-time way to become one of the Broncos' most impressive young wide receivers in the production category. And we obviously went over that a little bit earlier, and I'll reiterate it for you as well. He was third in team catches for a first down. He add 12.2 yards per catch, which was second on the team when you talk about overall volume, higher volume than anybody else. And then obviously he was top 20 in the entire NFL in terms of average separation here. There's a lot to like about what Pat Bryant can do inside of this offense.

Starting point is 00:16:50 So defenses, beware. You focus on Cortland and Jalen, guys like Troy Franklin, guys like Pat Bryant. They're going to make you pay. And the Broncos offense is banking on that being a real possibility for them this upcoming season. But with that said, Broncos country, that will wrap up today's episode. of the show. Thanks for tuning in here. Do his favor. If you haven't already hit that subscriber, that follow button so you never miss out on what's going on with your Denver Broncos.

Starting point is 00:17:12 I'm boots on the ground every day covering the team in Dove Valley. You get all that bonus coverage content here. Also at Mile Highsports.com. OTAs begins on Tuesday. They'll go through Wednesday and Thursday for the first week. OTA's media will get access to one of those days. And you know that I'll have you covered every step of the way. In the meantime, Sarah and I, we got you covered daily with a 30-minute show. plus you get bonus episodes like this every single day.

Starting point is 00:17:36 On top of that, you also get the squad shows. So, Barraco's Country, thanks so much for Rocka with us. We appreciate you. We'll see you tomorrow for a brand new episode of the show.

Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - SLEPT ON: Denver Broncos' Pat Bryant Will Emerge With BIGGER Role at WR

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