After receiving a much-needed clean bill of health through most of the week, the Broncos suddenly may be down a key receiver for Monday night’s Week 4 contest against the Bengals.
Wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. was limited in Saturday’s practice with a hip injury and is questionable to play against Cincinnati, according to the team’s afternoon injury report. It’s an unexpected development, as Mims hadn’t been listed on the injury report through Friday.
Mims had his coming-out party last year against the Bengals, racking up eight catches for 103 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a Week 17 overtime loss. It was a potential turning point in the young wideout’s career, as head coach Sean Payton seemed to unlock his potential down the stretch in 2024 by running him out of the backfield on various plays.
After totaling six touchdowns in his final seven games last season, though, Mims has been quiet to start 2025, with six catches for 40 yards and a touchdown through three games.
“We have packages where we have tags where he’s in there, and so a lot of it, just — when you have 48 plays in a game, you don’t get to two-thirds of your offense,” Payton said Saturday when asked if Mims’ backfield usage was still in the back of his head. “So, yes.”
Bengals with a couple key absences: There will be no Noah Fant revenge game in Denver on Monday.
The Bengals tight end has been ruled out with a concussion, according to the team’s Saturday injury report. Fant was the Broncos’ first-round pick in 2019, and was later traded to the Seahawks in 2022 as a key piece in the Russell Wilson deal.
Cincinnati will also be without 2025 first-round pick Shemar Stewart, who suffered an ankle injury in Week 2 and will now miss his second straight game. The Broncos’ offensive line, then, will primarily face veteran Joseph Ossai off the edge Monday night opposite star pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson.
Payton not looking ahead much: The Broncos are set to embark on one of their more grueling season stretches in recent memory: a short week after Monday that rolls right into a road trip to Philadelphia, and then a flight to London for Week 6 against the Jets.
Payton made clear he hasn’t given one iota of thought to the upcoming schedule, cracking that he’d simply given his passport to his assistant Paul Kelly.
“I promise you — I’ve given my passport, he’s put the itineraries on my desk,” Payton said. “I’ll get a chance to look at ‘em.”
