How Marvin Mims Jr. got his swagger back with Broncos and made the biggest play of his career to date against Cleveland
In the past four games, Broncos receiver Marvin Mims Jr. has taken on a new role, provided a jolt for Bo Nix and made the biggest play of his career to date.
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Marvin Mims Jr. took off out of the slot, ripped up the middle of the field toward the Broncos’ south end zone at Empower Field and came open just as Bo Nix cut loose a throw.
The ball hit the turf harmlessly and Mims looked to the sky after the latest in a string of what-could-have-been moments.
This, of course, was not the 93-yard thunderbolt of a touchdown that the pair hooked up on Monday night against Cleveland.
This was near the end of the first half of a Week 8 win against Carolina, in the depths of Mims’ frustrating first half of the season.
Mims had originally been coached to try to run past the safeties and then look for the ball. Late in the half and protecting against a big play, Carolina’s safeties aligned 30 yards off the ball at the snap.
Mims figured the ball wasn’t coming his way. It did, but he wasn’t looking for it.
Fast forward five weeks and so much has changed, not just for the Broncos overall but for Mims specifically.
He’s got a new role. He’s got his groove back.
And in prime time, he got a shot to make good on the Panthers miscommunication.
“It was the exact same play,” the second-year receiver told The Denver Post after the biggest moment of his career to date.
This time, the Broncos were backed up, third-and-11 from their own 7-yard line. This time, Cleveland’s safeties weren’t playing so far back.
The nickel didn’t carry Mims up the field and instead, a linebacker tried hopelessly to turn and run with him.
“It was a read-the-field route for me, so they ended up being in Cover 2,” Mims said. “I had the middle of the field open and I just kind of shot it. Bo ended up trusting me and put the ball in the perfect place, literally, and it ended up being a big play for us.”
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It ended up tying for the fourth-longest passing touchdown in franchise history.
It put the Broncos back up two scores, if only momentarily, in a wild back-and-forth second half.
Perhaps just as important, it also helped cement the fact that Mims has re-discovered the swagger he arrived with last spring as the No. 63 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
It didn’t happen overnight. This has been a few weeks in the making.
Mims had essentially fallen nearly entirely out of the Broncos’ receiving rotation and had minimal offensive impact in his second season.
Carolina was just one in a series of frustrating outings. He didn’t have more than two catches and 18 yards in any of the team’s first nine games.
Then Payton and company decided to give him a few snaps aligned in the backfield as a running back at Kansas City in Week 10.
The results have paid off.
“As a coach, I’m mad at myself that we didn’t begin looking at this earlier,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said last week.
Mims now has 21 offensive touches the past four games — 12 catches and nine carries — after just eight total in the first nine games of the season. They’ve resulted in 234 yards and a pair of touchdowns. In that span, he’s also averaging 19.5 yards on six punt returns.
Each of the previous two weeks Nix had hit Mims for big gains out of the backfield on third down.
Against Atlanta, Mims was in the game with three other receivers and tight end Adam Trautman. He motioned into the backfield, then ran a wheel route and the Falcons didn’t account for him.
In Las Vegas, a similar grouping — Mims, three receivers and tight end Lucas Krull — but this time Mims lined up behind Nix in a pistol formation. He ran a wheel route again and again the defense dropped him.
Mims easily converted a third-and-5 and it turned into a 37-yard gain down to the Vegas 2-yard line thanks in part to a perimeter block from Devaughn Vele.
“The first time, you’re not sure how it goes,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said last week. “So when he does it and he does it well, then what goes through your brain is, ‘OK, what else can he do? What’s next?’
“So expanding that role and letting him do different things — he’s a talented player and finding ways to get him the ball is important. I think we’ve done a better job of that of late and will continue to do it.”
The long touchdown on Monday came from more traditional usage, but without the uptick in work and the revamped role in recent weeks, perhaps it doesn’t happen at all.
“Confidence helps so much,” Mims said. “… You make those plays and then you’re like, ‘OK, this is nothing.’”
That’s why Mims has embraced the role change.
“Honestly, it’s been pretty cool getting to do different stuff,” he said. “It’s been tough having to memorize all the different stuff at different positions, but whatever helps the team. This role for me, other than today, really, a little bit more of a running back role — I’ve been able to make big plays out of it.”
As the big group of reporters receded from his locker, Mims couldn’t help but smile. Any early-season frustration feels a long way in the past now.
The Broncos have won three straight, they’re 8-5 going into the bye week and they’re now getting production from a player who up until this point has been something of an enigma.
“It’s fun,” Mims said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
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