Sean Payton, Broncos are happy with young WR core, but still have eye on draft ‘crystals’
There's a stable of shiny wide receiver targets in next week's NFL Draft. But head coach Sean Payton is bullish on the Broncos' young core.
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One by one, a shiny stable of targets came and went in free agency, even as a swath of Broncos Country clamored for a new set of hands for Bo Nix.
Stefon Diggs went from Houston to New England. Cooper Kupp was interested in Denver, but Denver wasn’t interested in the price. Davante Adams went untouched by Denver to the Rams. And despite buckets of cap space and a young receiver room, the Broncos walked away from the initial wave of free agency with virtually the same wideouts who totaled all of 141 yards in January’s Wild Card loss to the Bills.
This, as became clear in Thursday’s pre-draft presser with head coach Sean Payton and GM George Paton, was by design. There were no gambles. There was no hasty all-in on a past-their-prime Pro Bowler. There was simply a bet on themselves.
“I would say we’re happy with the two (receivers) we selected a year ago,” Payton said Thursday, “the one we selected two years ago, and the guys that are already here.”
The group, then, appears all but set for 2025. Both the Broncos head coach and general manager, in recent months, have praised the mid-Year Two leap of 2023 second-round draftee Marvin Mims Jr. Payton said Thursday they “really like” the progress of 2024 picks Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele, who caught a combined 69 passes last year. And Payton praised veteran and contract-extension-hopeful Courtland Sutton as “a positive role model and leader for these guys.”
There’s a stable of shiny targets, too, in next week’s NFL draft. When asked Thursday about his desire to add offensive weapons, though, Payton said there’d be “a focus on the running back position.” And his bullishness on the Broncos’ young WR core all but pointed that Denver won’t look to add early help at wideout next week.
But Payton made clear — in a unique metaphor — that the Broncos’ eyes could well wander to a receiver that falls neatly into a target round.
“Let’s not bypass the crystal for a blender if we need a blender,” Payton said, amid a response to a question about the Broncos’ receiver needs. “So I think you’re still looking at value. It’s the value/need discussion, and I think that exists in every draft room today.”
“There are a number of good young receivers in this draft, and we’ll see how that unfolds,” he continued, a couple of sentences later.
The Broncos have shown clear interest in receivers at every spot of the draft, from a top-30 visit with Texas’ first-round hopeful Matthew Golden, to calls with mid-round prospects like Arkansas’ Isaac TeSlaa and check-ins on late sleepers like Wisconsin’s Bryson Green. It’s likely Denver turns at some point in the draft to a wideout, with just four receivers currently on the roster who had as much as a catch in 2024.
“We’re going to add numbers to the position when you look at what we take to training camp,” Payton said, “whether that’s through the draft or free agency.”
In any case, Payton and company are clearly riding high on the Sutton-Vele-Mims-Franklin foursome, a room that’ll need to take another step forward if Denver doesn’t swing on a Day 1 or Day 2 name in Green Bay.
“I do feel good about that group we have,” Payton said, “and I think that they’ve shown, obviously last season, the jump we took offensively from where we were at.”
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