Attendance
Did not practice:
- Physically Unable to Perform list — OL Nick Gargiulo.
- Non-football injury list — ILB Jordan Turner.
- Did not practice — Caleb Lohner.
- Injured during practice — C Luke Wattenberg.
Wattenberg, the Broncos’ starting center, was injured during a one-on-one drill early in practice and tested the movement and range of motion of his left arm before being taken back into the facility with training staff. He did not return to practice. Head coach Sean Payton didn’t provide a substantive update on potential severity for Wattenberg after practice, but said, “we’ll go ahead and evaluate and I think he’ll be fine.”
Elsewhere, outside linebacker Drew Sanders returned to practice after missing Friday and Saturday last week. Second-year tight end Caleb Lohner remains out and hasn’t been seen since the team’s rookie minicamp in May.
“I always get a little concerned, especially if itap a younger player,” Payton said of Lohner missing time. “… Now, I do know this: I know what I was seeing before the injury and the work he was putting in.”
Will Broncos QB Bo Nix run less in 2026 after ankle injury? ‘Absolutely not.’
Pat Bryant is going to have a say in the Broncos WR room
One of the best battles going in Broncos camp is not for roster spots, necessarily, but for offensive touches and roles at wide receiver.
Assuming all of Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims Jr. and Pat Bryant are on the roster Week 1, they will likely all have roles to some degree. Franklin was a clear No. 2 behind Sutton last year, finishing his second pro season with 104 targets. Mims has put together the loudest start to training camp, making a series of big plays through Denver’s first four workouts last week.
Bryant, however, is just steady. He’s caught the ball consistently in the middle of the field and on Monday made one of the best plays of the day when he leapt up high over Riley Moss to pull down a contested catch.
Another of Bryantap strengths, as a blocker in the run game, should start to show through the more padded work Denver does in camp.
“His weight is in a good spot and he’s got some of the better hands in traffic with his feet on the ground,” Payton said. “He’s really good run-after-the-catch. He’s real smart, so he’s someone that can move from ‘X’ to the slot.
“It’ll be easy creating his role.”
camp news and notes from Monday:
🏈 Luke Wattenberg injured in 1-on-1s
🏈 Two play of the day candidates in a three-play span
🏈 A standout on each side of the ball
🏈 Much more
— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)
Top play
Two plays before Bryant pulled in the highlight-reel grab over Moss, Moss made one of his own.
He tracked Courtland Sutton stride-for-stride up the left sideline and leapt high to wrestle a ball away from the Broncos’ 6-foot-4 receiver. The defense erupted and Moss flexed after coming up with the ball.
The play may not have counted in a live setting because it looked like Nik Bonitto jumped offside, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was a heck of a play by Moss deep down the field.
“He’s a very athletic human being,” safety Talanoa Hufanga said Monday of Moss. “A lot of people discredit it because itap the white corner. I’m not saying that but everybody else does. But he is probably actually one of the most athletic corners I’ve ever been around. Quick twitch. Now itap just, what can we do to get his technique to where itap at? Coaches have been doing a great job, he’s doing a great job. Hopefully go out there and make more plays like the one he did today, go out and make a lot of those this season and he’ll be very happy at the end of the year.”
Thumbs Up
D-lightful start to the week. Denver’s defense gets the nod in general for Monday. The Broncos’ first day in pads was shorter than some practices will be later this week -- Payton said 2.5 hours in pads is on Wednesday’s docket — but Vance Joseph’s group came out flying to start the week. They gave up a couple of big plays but overall had a good day. The first team period out of the gate, the top group snuffed out a Nix throw to the flat, would have had a sack on second down thanks to pressure from Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper and then got a stop for no gain or perhaps a loss by Alex Singleton outside the box.
Thumbs Down
Don’t jump. The first one-on-ones between offensive and defensive linemen are always a fun watch. The Broncos go down the line of scrimmage, so an edge rusher against a tackle, then an interior player against a guard, so on and so forth. WIth Nix and the other quarterbacks running 7-on-7 on the other end of the field, the Broncos use a recording of Nix’s cadence over a loud speaker for one-on-ones. Second-year edge Que Robinson got too jumpy and leapt offsides to start one of his reps. Thatap a no-no. He made up for it, though, by re-setting and then blowing by Alex Palczewski. If Robinson takes off this fall, he can be a real force.
Odds and Ends
* Payton has consistently fielded questions about offensive coordinator Davis Webb taking over offensive playcalling and different versions of their dynamic so far — and in the future when the regular season begins. Nix on Saturday said he figured Payton would be in Webb’s ear during games and would carry a play sheet, which came up with Payton on Monday.
Payton quipped that offensive meetings in the regular season would be about the same, but “maybe not as late.” He said he didn’t want to be as overbearing on the headset during games as his mentor, Bill Parcells, was to him when he was a young play caller. Still, Payton said, he’ll be in Webb’s ear.
“Some suggestions,” Payton said, pausing a moment and laughing. “Some mandates.”
* Payton wanted to make something clear about second-year corner Jahdae Barron: He’s not playing safety so far in camp. There was some online chatter about such a move, but Barron has played corner, nickel and dime so far in camp. He was the No. 1 dime last year and is getting reps so far in camp occasionally with the top defense at nickel, too, though mostly behind entrenched starter Ja’Quan McMillian. He’s getting extensive run outside behind Riley Moss and Pat Surtain II, too.
“When we get into dime he replaces a linebacker,” Payton said. “He’s doing really good. There’s been no position change.”
* Monday was the Broncos’ first day in pads and they wasted no time getting right to getting used to contact. After the team stretched at the start of practice, the first drills featured the offense on one field hitting a seven-man sled. On the defensive field, tackling drills involving padded dummies. Now Payton’s team will slowly ramp up toward a rugged Wednesday practice, likely back off slightly after that and then have a couple more tough days through Saturday. This is Denver’s only true six-day practice week of camp. The preseason opener at Atlanta is a week from Friday.
* Any time a starter is injured, there’s an impact and thatap no different with Wattenberg. The Broncos, however, do have a capable No. 2 in Alex Forsyth, who jumped in with the starters Monday and has experience playing high-leverage moments himself. Forsyth started four games for Wattenberg in 2024 and two more last year.
* Tight end Adam Trautman is apparently tuned into what the internet has to say about the Broncos… and him. Last year he had perhaps the quote of the year when he took aim at “DragonSlayer69 with his 7-Eleven Slurpee in his mom’s basement” criticizing Nix and Monday he slipped in a reference to some fans not being thrilled with the Broncos giving him a three-year, $17-million deal in free agency back in March.
“If they weren’t in it, then obviously I would have moved on,” Trautman said. “I had several other opportunities. Whether people believe it or not.”
Trautman, though, was always a good bet to be back with the Broncos. He told the front office he wanted to be back and they told him they wanted him back early in the offseason. Then it was just a waiting game until the day before free agency began.
