Attendance
Did not practice: Physically Unable to Perform list — OL Nick Gargiulo. Non-football injury list — ILB Jordan Turner. Did not practice — WR Jaylen Waddle (muscle strain), C Luke Wattenberg (shoulder) , TE Caleb Lohner (foot/ankle), OLB Dasan McCullough. Left practice — LG Ben Powers
The Broncos really got mostly good news on the injury front Thursday. They were not in pads, but star outside linebacker Nik Bonitto returned to practice in a limited capacity, taking walk-through reps. Bonitto watched when the team went full speed and 11-on-11.
Wide receiver Courtland Sutton was limited for a third straight day, but Payton and Sutton each insisted it was due to a workload management plan the club has for the veteran.
Waddle has “a strain,” according to head coach Sean Payton, but is expected to return to practice in four or five days.
Wattenberg didn’t practice but had cleats on and a harness on his left shoulder. He did side field conditioning work.
Powers started off practicing but left midway through and wasn’t spotted in the later parts of the session. A source said Powers had a planned partial rest day. He, of course, missed nine games with a torn bicep last year and played the final five with a Lisfranc fracture in his foot.
Payton said several players are going to have their workloads managed over the next three days.
RJ Harvey is dynamite in the passing game, but whatap next?
The Broncos clearly have three running backs pacing the room at this point in J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey and rookie Jonah Coleman.
The question is how those three – assuming good health – will fill roles. Dobbins is the lead back, to be sure. Coleman’s pass protection experience in college might give him the inside track for third-down work over Harvey, but Payton said recently he thinks Harvey is squarely in the mix for that work, too. The Broncos would love it if he’s ready to handle the protection stuff in third-down and two-minute situations because he is dynamite in the passing game and has made a series of big plays as a receiver out of the backfield in training camp already.
What does making a jump in that department look like?
“RJ is certainly starting to see how we’re (identifying the Mike linebacker) and where that puts him,” Payton said. “Some of that is just the (college) they come from. But I think he gives us a lot of versatility. …
“Technique is one thing, and I think thatap the easy part. The challenging part is the front and the pieces (to the puzzle). Who the line is going to. Who are you left with? And if you’re not careful, you get left staring in the backfield, and you should be out right now. Being able to get into the pattern and then recognize where the pressure is coming from. And how to see it. Usually those back-end safeties are going to move to where the pressure is coming from. All of that is part of it. But the technique, if you have the stature — and he does — that part of it you can quickly polish up on.”
Top play
Two candidates from a little further down the depth chart in the middle of a six-day work week.
First, nickel Reese Taylor made a heck of a play to break up a pass from Jarrett Stidham to Michael Bandy over the middle. Bandy leapt and stretched out to try to snag the ball, and for a moment it looked like he would, but Taylor recovered, got his hands on the ball and knocked it away as they went to the ground. He flies under the radar, and the path to the 53-man roster is a rough one, but Taylor was on Denver’s active roster down the stretch last season and was a special teams contributor. He’s a valued player, even if he doesn’t make the initial roster in a few weeks.
The other: A pretty deep ball from Sam Ehlinger to undrafted rookie wide receiver Cam Ross. Ross has started to make more plays the past couple of days and is probably running alongside Kolbie Katsis — he also had a long catch Thursday — as Denver’s most impressive undrafted receivers.
“Cam’s doing really good,” fellow receiver Marvin Mims Jr. told The Post this week. … “The biggest thing for him is just trusting his ability, trusting his speed. Itap a lot coming in here, especially when he had some injury stuff earlier. Come out here, try your hardest and we’ll coach it up in the (meeting) room after practice.”
Thumbs Up
Jahdae Barron, hello. Jahdae Barron hadn’t been off to a particularly bad start in training camp, by any means. He just hadn’t made many splash plays, either.
That changed Thursday. In one team period alone, Barron knifed in front of Pat Bryant on a short catch for what would have been, at minimum, a jarring hit just after a catch. Then on the next snap he broke up a pass over the middle to Lil’Jordan Humphrey. The 2025 first-round pick, like his rookie season, is playing all over. He’s Denver’s dime like last year, he’s getting extensive run at outside corner with the second unit, and he’s Ja’Quan McMillian’s backup at nickel.
“He’s got a lot more patient,” cornerback Riley Moss said. “Itap a lot different — you throw a guy in, and he’s playing dime and then nickel and then outside, itap totally different. The job description is DB, but it is totally different. He’s done a great job of being a little more patient, his eyes have got a lot better, and he’s just a great athlete. It just takes time to get used to the outside stuff, but he’s doing a great job.”
Thumbs Down
Frustration bubbling. As training camp progresses, a lot of different factors wax and wane. The length and physicality of each practice, for example. Players who stand out. Who’s getting the No. 2 reps at quarterback. So on and so forth. One thing thatap been consistent: The Broncos’ defensive front has dominated. Particularly so in the run game, but they’re generating pressure, too. On Thursday, Broncos offensive linemen were visibly frustrated. They talked among themselves and in small groups after sets of repetitions. Tight end Evan Engram joined in at one point. Thursday was a different kind of day because, without pads, there’s not as much of a true line play evaluation to be had. The OL is rotating through several veterans seeing limited reps, but so, too, is the defense. D.J. Jones didn’t do much team work Thursday, and Zach Allen had the same treatment earlier this week. Still, the defensive front has clearly been a handful for Denver’s veteran offensive line.
Odds and Ends
* If there’s a player having a better camp than Riley Moss, the list is short. He’s been sticky in coverage, and Denver’s deep receiving room has had its hands full against him, no matter who he’s covering.
* Payton on Thursday said there are eight total Broncos staffers and players leaving Friday night to head to Canton, Ohio, for Drew Brees’ Pro Football Hall of Fame induction. Payton, of course, has many more New Orleans connections on his staff than that, from assistant coaches Zach Strief, Ronald Curry, Joe Vitt, John Morton, Willie Snead IV and Darren Rizzi, strength coach Dan Dalrymple, VP of player health and performance Beau Lowery and VP of player personnel Cody Rager. Players who played with Brees in New Orleans include tight end Adam Trautman, receiver Lil’Jordan Humprprey, kicker Wil Lutz and defensive lineman Malcolm Roach.
* Speaking of the Hall of Fame, former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan was in attendance on Thursday. He chatted with Payton for a while early in practice and saw the new training facility. Payton has stumped for Shanahan to be in the Hall of Fame and said there’s frustration with the difficulty of getting coaches enshrined the past couple of years. Still, Payton said itap a matter of “when, not if” Shanahan’s inducted.
* The Broncos had Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew in town for practice each of the past two days. Payton said it’s a quiet year on the officiating emphasis front — there were no major rule changes this offseason. Hochuli’s crew presented to players and staff Wednesday night.
Next: 10 a.m. Friday, lots open at 8 a.m., gates open at 9 a.m. The Broncos are expected to be back in pads.
