The Broncos travel to New Orleans on Friday afternoon for Saturday’s preseason finale.
Devaughn Vele is heading to the Big Easy even sooner than that.
The Broncos swung a trade with the Saints on Wednesday evening — Vele for a 2026 fourth-rounder and a 2027 seventh-rounder. In the process, they cleared a suddenly fully stocked receiver group by one and opened the door wide for second-year man Troy Franklin and rookie Pat Bryant.
A year ago, this was a group that got muddled fast behind Sutton. The next-man-up baton hanged hands several times, from Josh Reynolds at the outset of the season, through a midseason surge from Vele to a strong finishing kick from Marvin Mims, Jr. The man who played the second-most snaps over the course of the year behind Sutton? Lil’Jordan Humphrey.
Fast forward a year, and the Broncos still may not actually have a clear-cut No. 2 behind Sutton, but they displayed the kind of quality depth that brought attention from around the league. Denver’s coaching staff and front office thought highly of Vele, but a fourth-round pick from a team that could be picking near the top of the draft order represented too strong an incentive to pass up dealing from a roster strength.
Just hours before the trade was finalized, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi lauded Vele’s versatility and noted he “can play all the positions.”
His departure leaves Mims, Franklin and Bryant jockeying to be the next guy in the pecking order behind Sutton. Veteran Trent Sherfield, Sr., also figures to play a big role as a rugged blocker in the run game, reliable target in the passing game, and core special teams player.
Who’s the No. 2 behind Sutton? Denver’s head coach doesn’t quite think about it that way.
“Some teams are more predictable with where the ‘X’ is, and the slot and the ‘Z’,” Payton said this week before Vele was traded. “Then that term, the No. 1, the No. 2, I get all that. (The Broncos receivers) are all going to play in different roles.
“We probably are a little bit different with our rotation and substitution patterns that you guys can decide who two is, and three is, and four is.”
Itap perhaps worth pointing out that when Payton and the Broncos kept most of their top guys out of uniform for Saturday’s second preseason game against Arizona, the three receivers from the top group who did not play were Sutton, Mims and Vele.
Mims, the third-year man out of Oklahoma, put together the kind of finishing kick to 2024 that makes him look like a good bet to be on the field a lot and produce consistently in 2025. Over the Broncos’ final seven games, Mims played at a 1,000-plus-yard pace and caught six touchdowns.
Of course, the caveat there is Mims actually played less in 2024 than he did as a rookie, and even down the stretch he never played more than 30 snaps. The No. 61 overall pick in the 2023 draft has only played 30-plus snaps three times in 33 career games.
Then there’s second-year man Troy Franklin, who has been a near-unanimous pick during training camp as a breakout candidate for the Broncos. His two touchdowns in Saturday’s preseason game only put an exclamation point on whatap been a strong August.
Payton, after the game, said categorically of Franklin’s rise, “Itap happening.”
Vele actually finished second among the team’s wideouts in catches last year despite missing five games with a fractured rib.
The Broncos brought him along slowly in camp due to what Payton called “maintenance” on Vele’s knee, but he’d looked like his normal self in recent days before Wednesday’s trade.
Franklin’s rise helped make Vele expendable, but the real benefactor from this trade might be Bryant, the third-round rookie out of Illinois.
He’s been productive in camp and in the preseason games with four catches for 70 yards vs. Arizona. And while some of his role looks a lot like Sutton’s — Denver’s top receiver played 85% of snaps last year — Bryantap got the versatility to do some of what Vele did last year.
On Saturday night against Arizona, Bryant put on display what he’s shown all of camp: The ability to separate in the middle of the field, catch the ball in traffic, and operate with confidence.
“What quarterbacks like about me (in the middle of the field) is I come friendly,” Bryant said after the game. “I don’t drift from the ball and I attack it, so they can throw it anywhere in the middle of the field and just based on how I run my route, I’m going to be able to catch the ball.”
“We’re always focused on what everybody does well, and try to put ’em in those positions,” Lombardi said. “So, there are times where you want Courtland in on the boundary, other times where you might want him in the field at No. 2. So, we have an extensive — we have a lot of formations, but then we’ve got a lot of different personnel groupings to put people right where we want ‘em.
“We know that each receiver has strengths, and most of ‘em have a weakness or two, and you just want to maximize your strengths and make sure the right people are doing the right thing.”
So, a true No. 2 receiver? The Broncos may not have one to start the season. They won’t have Vele anymore, either. But they’ve still got options they think will make for a dangerous and versatile group.
“There’s going to be a role if they’re dressing and they’re getting on the field,” Payton said. “They’re not going to line up in the same spot all the time. I think that would be the easiest way to describe it.”
