The team plays Arizona on Saturday night and then returns to closed practices next week before its preseason finale Aug. 23 at New Orleans.

Sean Payton’s team, though, went out with a bang on Thursday over two-plus hours of joint practice with the Cardinals.

Payton had high praise for Arizona head coach Jonathan Gannon, and he said Thursday’s joint practice was among the most productive he’s had in his long career as a head coach.

“I thought both teams were outstanding just relative to the tempo and communication,” Payton said. “… There’s going to be a lot of tape — a lot of good things and a lot of things we’ve got to get cleaned up.

“That����ap how you get better.”

Here are observations from The Post����ap beat reporters on hand for practice, broken up into the Broncos offense, defense and miscellaneous.

Offense

Key standout: For a day, at least, Bo Nix quashed the thinkpieces.

Two days after his worst day of training camp, Nix had his best day of somewhat-organized ball since he torched the Kansas City Chiefs for four touchdowns on Jan. 5. He sprayed lasers over the middle in 7-on-7 to Pat Bryant and Lucas Krull. He ripped a seam ball to Devaughn Vele and a deep out to Trent Sherfield in 11-on-11 periods. He escaped the pocket and found Marvin Mims Jr. and Troy Franklin on the run.

That last point is particularly important. Nix has thrown the majority of his camp interceptions when he’s been off-platform. On Thursday, though, he seemed to drive off his front foot better on throws on the move. His decision-making and accuracy impressed Arizona’s defense.

“I’m extremely proud to see … the rest of the story,” said Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson Sr., a fellow Alabama native.

• Jerjuan Newton is listed at all of 5-foot-11. The undrafted rookie from Toledo, though, has made some of camp’s most acrobatic catches. He’s certainly earned Sam Ehlinger’s trust with the third-team offense. In a team period, Ehlinger chucked a “he’s down there somewhere” ball down the right sideline for Newton. A Cardinals defensive back was all over him. Didn’t matter. Newton leapt back and plucked it out of the air.

• Speaking of undrafted rookie receivers: If the Broncos elect to cut Joaquin Davis in the hope he sneaks through waivers, they’d better hide his camp tape in a vault. The 6-foot-4 North Carolina Central product showed sticky hands on an end-zone grab from Ehlinger in team reps, and immediately turned and barked at the Arizona defensive back he’d beaten. It’s the second sort of skirmish Davis has been involved in at a joint practice.

• The run game had its moments Thursday. Jaleel McLaughlin made one beautiful cut back on an outside-zone carry, and Blake Watson, Audric Estime and Tyler Badie all had plus reps. Beyond that, though, the offensive line had trouble creating between-the-tackles holes for J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey. There simply wasn’t enough juice inside.

Still, Payton is bullish on his backfield’s overall evolution.

“We brought in leadership, with J.K., and we drafted Harvey early,” Payton said. “And so you’re going to see a difference, and hopefully a markedly different running game. It����ap not always going to be perfect, but that����ap the magic of the good back.”

• Get ready for a whole bunch of reserve offensive-line snaps Saturday, as the starters’ rest will give a long look at some competition for roster spots. Alex Forsyth has had a solid camp at backup center, but he and starting center Luke Wattenberg have both struggled at times to create rushing lanes up the gut. Nick Garguilo is another name on the bubble who’ll get a long look at guard.

• After a silent first week or so of camp, tight end Lucas Krull has stacked standout days. He was one of the Broncos’ most oft-targeted receivers Thursday and made several nice grabs. Krull faced tough odds at a roster spot after the Broncos drafted rookie Caleb Lohner, but he’s making a strong case.

“He’s not a rookie or a young player anymore,” Payton said. “And he’s found some confidence.”

Defense

Key standout: Ja’Quan McMillian continues to have a boom-or-bust training camp. The Broncos nickel made the biggest play of the defense’s day when he intercepted Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray in a 7-on-7 drill. He’s been on a heater in terms of taking the ball away.

McMillian also logged interceptions in both the joint practice and preseason game last week against San Francisco.

The counter, though, is that McMillian has given up his share of big plays, too. In the preseason game, quarterback Mac Jones made a great throw to Jordan Watkins for a 50-yard catch over McMillian. He got beat again in 7-on-7 Thursday, giving up a big play on a fade to Cardinals star Marvin Harrison Jr.

McMillian played with the No. 1 defense Saturday, and that����ap largely been his role throughout camp. The next couple of weeks will determine whether he holds off Jahdae Barron for the job.

• Barron, the first-round pick, had a play-of-the-day candidate, too. In a two-minute drill to end the practice, Murray had a wide-open option in the flat that would have gone for a big play. Barron came on a blitz and leapt high enough in the air to two-hand block the throw. Impressive leaping ability, reaction time and athleticism.

• Broncos cornerback Riley Moss has had a terrific camp, but he had his hands full and then some against Harrison.

These settings, though, are a terrific chance to get players work they might not otherwise get. If the teams played in the regular season, conventional wisdom is that Pat Surtain II would cover Harrison most of the time. In this setting, though, Moss can get the reps going against a top-flight receiver. Denver’s got Cincinnati in Week 4, and Moss will likely get another heavy dose of Tee Higgins, like he did last December. Days like this against Harrison are good prep.

• Former Colorado State tight end Trey McBride had a heck of a day against the Broncos. He ran wide open several times, including a deep throw from Murray on a busted coverage where McBride had time to throw up the touchdown signal while the ball was still in the air.

McBride had a massive year last year, racking up 111 catches for 1,146 yards.

“That����ap a joker,” Payton said. “… When you get one, they’re hard to find.”

• Payton said he hadn’t seen much of the defense’s outing, but coaches told him that they thought the group started slow. Defensive tackle Zach Allen concurred.

“Days like this, there’s always some good and some bad,” Allen said. “We’d like to come out a little faster, but we’ll watch the film.”

• Jonathon Cooper’s high-level training camp continued Thursday. The veteran outside linebacker generated consistent pressure and appeared to play the run well, too. With fellow starting OLB Nik Bonitto (foot) still out, Cooper played mostly opposite Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman.

Sights and sounds

• Broncos owners Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner were on hand Thursday, as was Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. Payton recounted after practice being a ball boy at St. Louis Cardinals training camp back when the club camped at Eastern Illinois.

“I handed out rosters, and Mike Bidwell was, I think I was 18 and he was 17. (ESPN broadcaster) Joe Buck was 15 and running around. We were just football brats.”

• Other notable folks who were on hand for practice: Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Tory Lovullo, and former Broncos assistant and San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan.

• Quite a summit formed after practice when Manning was chatting with Nix and Payton and the group eventually was joined by Murray and Harrison. Manning, of course, played with Marvin Harrison Sr. in Indianapolis for years.

• Murray and Allen had a nice moment during a special teams drill, exchanging big hugs and catching up. They played four years together with the Cardinals before Allen signed with Denver as a free agent. Earlier this month, of course, Allen signed a four-year, $102 million contract.

“He’s a dynamic athlete,” Allen said. “It was good to go against him again. … He’s obviously matured and everything like that. He’s a top quarterback in this league, and every year he gets better. Today he had a hell of a day.”

• The only kerfuffle of practice came during a special teams drill. The sidelines emptied, but nobody really seemed to do much shoving or punch-throwing. Broncos Keidron Smith and Levelle Bailey were in the mix, and Nik Bonitto joined the jawing despite not being in pads.

• Payton said the teams have already talked about matching up with the Cardinals again in the preseason next year. He likes playing non-division opponents who are in the West, which means Arizona, San Francisco, the Los Angeles Rams, and Seattle are likely to continue to show up regularly on Denver’s preseason slate.

That has made this Broncos training camp a different kind of challenge for Denver’s head coach. The Broncos went to the Bay Area last week for a joint practice and preseason game with the San Francisco 49ers. They are hosting the Arizona Cardinals for a joint practice and exhibition contest this week.

It’s a curveball for Payton and his staff.

“This is the first time for me and for us (with) back-to-back joint practices,” Payton said. “When you have a joint practice, you lose a day. The day before, you have to be smart. When you get the calendar at the start of preseason and you lay it out, you see where your games are and when you add a joint practice, it����ap a little different the day before and the day (after). So when you have two of them, it can maybe cut into your installation and your normal camp routine.

“This is the first time for us doing two. We’ll see if we ever do it again.”

That didn’t sound like a resounding endorsement. The team’s experiences while in the Bay Area might not have helped, either.

While the Broncos did win the exhibition game, 30-9, against the 49ers, Payton said he had written down 14 things that he was “pissed off about.” He was asked to expand on that comment after practice Tuesday.

“When you take your first road trip and you’re seeing it through my eyes, there’s certain notes you make,” Payton said. “It could be (on the) sidelines. It could be at the hotel. It could be 2 a.m. there’s a music festival outside the hotel. It could be the travel. It could be a number of things that you want to clean up, but I’m not going to go through all 14 of them. There was probably 17 by the time I got home.

“All of them can be cleaned up and easily corrected. They weren’t necessarily game-related. It����ap just that when you do that, and you haven’t done it in a while and you’re doing it with a new group of people, a lot of interns — you can’t assume anything.”

While it might say San Francisco on the schedule, the 49ers play in Santa Clara, which is just a few minutes north of downtown San Jose. The Broncos stayed at a hotel just off Plaza de Cesar Chavez, the centerpiece park downtown, and ended up adjacent to San Jose Jazz Summer Fest.

Payton also mentioned the team’s plane had issues when the Broncos were trying to fly home after the game. That played a role in adjusting the schedule for this week, giving the players an unplanned day off Monday.

Add in the extra joint practice, and this is a very atypical week for a coach who loves routine and repetition and seeks perfection in the smallest of areas. Payton noted that he may not keep the starters in for as long as he normally would in a second preseason game.

While the coaches do not love the disruption, it might be a slightly different view for the players.

“Just looking to get a step better,” said Pat Surtain II, who will line up across from Cardinals wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. during the joint practice. “It’s always good to go up against a new opponent, especially in a practice setting. You can try different stuff, try new things as well. You can see a new look, different personnel. … I’m looking forward to it.”

What Payton is looking forward to is what comes after the second preseason game. The Broncos will finally have a typical week of practice. Six normal days leading into the exhibition finale against the New Orleans Saints. It will be a grind for the players — just the way their coach wants it.

“I think there’s a mental and physical toughness of fighting through the fatigue and soreness,” Payton said. “It����ap also training the body to get in season. That����ap how it feels in season.”

He accelerated with a smoothness that undersold what came next. The wide receiver split Buffalo corner Rasul Douglas to the outside and Taylor Rapp to the inside and glided past both veteran defenders.

Bo Nix dropped a perfect pass over his right shoulder. Touchdown.

Not for the Oregon Ducks, mind you. For the Denver Broncos. In the NFL playoffs. On the road against the No. 2-seeded Buffalo Bills.

The opening-drive lightning bolt gave the underdog Broncos a first-quarter lead and a shot of adrenaline back in January.

When Franklin first hauled in the 43-yard score, he had one simple thought.

“I thought we were about to go stupid and win the game,” Franklin told The Denver Post recently.

What followed proved far more sobering for Franklin and the young Broncos.

A 31-7 playoff drubbing.

A season that, in retrospect, for both receiver and team held promise but also came up short of what they wanted.

A season that featured signs suggesting 2025 could be different.

“I thought I had a pretty good year just for where I came in at and everything like that,” Franklin said. “It wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t think it was bad. I finished the year strong and that����ap really all I care about.”

That and making a major Year 2 leap, of course.

Franklin is making noise like that could be in the cards at Broncos training camp. He’s playing confident and fast. He’s catching the ball down the field and in traffic. He’s attempting to show receivers coach Keary Colbert, head coach Sean Payton and the rest of the staff that he’s got the whole playbook down and can play anywhere they want him to.

In the early stages of that pursuit, Franklin looks like a guy who could be the No. 2 option in the receiving group behind Courtland Sutton. There are other challengers. Marvin Mims Jr. is perhaps the favorite and certainly the most experienced, while Devaughn Vele is polished and rookie Pat Bryant intriguing.

Franklin, though, has the raw ability to scare defenses and, according to those who see him up close every day, a growing database of knowledge, releases and route-craft that should serve him well this fall.

“He’s not thinking as much anymore. He’s like me,” Nix said recently. “When you go through the first year, you just get kind of drowned in installs and new technique, new fundamentals, new coaches telling you different things. It can be really hard. It can be challenging.

“It����ap not as easy as just going out there and getting open most of the time, which is what his natural gift is. Now I feel like he can take what he knows, and he can go out there and naturally get open.”

The head-scratcher during the 2024 season: When Franklin did get open, he and Nix struggled to turn that separation into explosive plays despite their shared history at Oregon.

Nix targeted Franklin 19 times on passes that traveled 20-plus yards in the air during the regular season, according to NextGenStats. Franklin had just three catches for 85 yards on those targets.

Even with the relatively low probability of completing deep balls down the field, that equated to -29.3% against Next Gen Stats’ expected catch rate. Franklin had some of the worst metrics in football when it came to deep balls.

There was a flat-out touchdown drop against Las Vegas early in the season after Franklin roasted corner Jakorian Bennett. A gettable one against Carolina in Week 8. Fourth-down almost-touchdowns that went begging against Baltimore and Indianapolis and a close-but-no-cigar third-and-6 in overtime at Cincinnati in late December.

But then came the touchdown against Buffalo and — after the initial excitement — a broader sense of calm for Franklin.

“In hindsight, it was kind of just like a weight off my shoulders, and it kind of let me know that I’m here and I’m meant to play in the NFL,” he said. “It was pretty cool for me.”

Franklin, though, also knew he needed a big offseason.

“My breaks and my whole game,” were on the to-do list, he said. “… I just want to be a well-rounded player and just make sure I’m good all-around.”

While training locally at Kula Sports Performance this spring, he, by happenstance, got introduced to Drew Lieberman. Lieberman specializes in receiver play and route running. Perhaps his most well-known client is new Broncos tight end Evan Engram.

Engram had just arrived in town, and he and Lieberman were looking for a place to work out in bad weather. They ended up at Kula, and there was Franklin.

“I saw him play some last year and he’s a fast, twitchy, explosive kid who has never really been coached (before the NFL),” Lieberman told The Post. “The problem with sports now and the landscape of high-level football, the coaches move around so much that there’s really no system for player development anymore. It����ap really just guys out there using their natural ability and making plays. … He was just a kid I saw as this raw ball of clay who has all the potential in the world but just didn’t have a full understanding of how to really, properly do things. And that����ap not a knock on his former coaches; it����ap more a knock just on the system.

“There’s no time for player development.”

Franklin only had so many offseason weeks to work with Lieberman, but he got in somewhere around a dozen workouts between Denver and two and a half weeks in Atlanta with other pass-catchers like New York’s Wandale Robinson, Las Vegas’ Jakobi Meyers and Chicago’s Olamide Zaccheaus.

“He took to it really, really quickly and he ran with it,” said Lieberman, who added that Franklin, “needed to learn how to play more powerfully.”

Franklin learned, notably, from several guys who thrive in the slot. As a rookie, the 2024 fourth-round pick ventured inside or in motion at times but took most of his snaps from the perimeter.

“Him and (Meyers) meshed really well,” Lieberman said. “They actually have some similarities. He’s faster than Jakobi, but Jakobi has that twitch. Their workouts were pretty cool because they’re similar size, similar build, and Kobi helped him a lot.”

Franklin has shown just that in training camp’s early days.

He reported about 5-7 pounds heavier, he said, noting that he wanted to get stronger without putting on too much weight too quickly.

“I have a nice weight I like to play at where I feel explosive and where I can do everything,” Franklin explained. “Not too heavy and not too light. And I just have a lot more room to grow anyway. I don’t want to put on everything right now.”

He’s put it to good use, showing signs from OTAs onward that a breakout might be in the offing.

He’s tracked the ball well when it����ap up in the air. He’s caught it consistently in traffic. He’s worked back to it over leaping defenders.

And he’s done what his natural talent makes look easy: Separate and get open.

“His releases from last year to this year have improved a lot and you can see it in 1-on-1s,” said third-year cornerback Riley Moss, who sees Franklin’s abilities as up-close as anybody. “It����ap been good work for us because there’s a lot of guys like that that are twitchy off the line and then can get out and run.”

That in turn leads to confidence, which leads to playing faster, which leads to more confidence.

“I’m getting a little bit more of, ‘Hey, I’m open. Throw me the ball,’” Nix said with a smile. “And that����ap usually a good thing from guys like that who don’t usually do that. I know he’s confident right now, and he’s practiced really well so far.

“I’m just excited to see him back doing what he does.”

All that and more in the latest episode of the 1st & Orange Podcast.

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Friday in Dove Valley marked the first full day of Broncos training camp, and thereby the first day hosting (limited) fans — a sea of blue and Nix jerseys eagerly peering from the south bleachers for their first glimpse of this new-look Denver roster. But they didn’t see anything different from what they would’ve seen during Wednesday and Thursday’s acclimation period. Or June’s minicamp. Or May’s OTAs.

This Denver pass rush has made it near-impossible for any offensive unit — whether led by Nix, Jarrett Stidham or Sam Ehlinger — to consistently move the ball.

Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper have only continued to add power to blinding speed-rushes. Rookie Que Robinson continues to blast into Denver’s backfield on roughly half his reps. Even on the offense’s best play of the day — a Stidham bomb to zippy wideout Troy Franklin — second-year bulldog Dondrea Tillman would’ve sacked Stidham before he ever got the chance to cock back his arm.

A few days into training camp, a front that easily led the NFL in sacks last year somehow looks better in 2025.

“I don’t see a reason for us not to be the most dominant unit in the league,” Cooper told reporters after practice. “There’s nothing holding us back, there’s nothing stopping us.

“So, taking it up another level — I don’t think any of us have reached our potential. And we’re just going to keep working until we’re the best in the league.”

That starts with Cooper, who’s become more of an authority figure — both amid his edge group and the general locker room — after racking up a career-high 10.5 sacks in 2024. He dangled in an extensionless void for half of last year. Then Denver slapped him with a four-year, $60 million deal that now looks like highway robbery compared to the rest of the NFL’s inflated edge market.

A secure Cooper has been a more vocal Cooper this summer. Head coach Sean Payton called him one of the group’s “team leaders.”

“I think it’s extremely important to him,” Payton said. “And I think he’s one of our tough competitors. Like, you know, there’s something to him relative to the importance of playing hard with good technique. He’s very coachable.”

He’s a chatterbox, too. The loudest group on the grass on Friday was that defensive front. It was Cooper, beaming and chirping at the offense. It was defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, who Payton cracked sometimes you “hear him before you see him.” It was even John Franklin-Myers, whom Roach barked was pushing him.

They’ve got plenty of reason to be confident, a swarm of fire ants sending Nix and Stidham running for their lives on most every play-action rollout.

“We know we have a lot of work to be done,” Cooper said. “We know we haven’t really proven what we want to yet.”

Indeed, in an even scarier proposition, few in the room have actually hit their NFL ceilings. The 25-year-old Nik Bonitto, Cooper’s right-hand man off the edge, is playing for an extension himself. Cooper affirmed Bonitto’s “not satisfied” with his production even after a 13.5-sack season in 2024. Second-year edge Jonah Elliss is battling back from an end-of-year broken scapula. Rookie Robinson is a “big talent,” as Cooper put it.

And Tillman, the most underrated name of the group, has been as impressive as anyone in the room in the sheer quality of his camp reps.

“Man, he’s out there hooping every single day,” Cooper said. “If you really just sit back and watch him, he’s really crafty and really working.”

Yes, the pads aren’t on just yet. That comes Monday. And Payton mentioned it was “difficult” to properly evaluate younger members of that edge group without full gear.

But Cooper and the rest of his room are plenty bullish.

“We’re really just getting started,” Cooper said.

All the same, an early precursor to fall is upon us.

The Broncos report to training camp Tuesday and hit the field for the first time Wednesday. By Friday, fans will make their way to Broncos Park — albeit in a makeshift way around the team’s headquarters construction project — for the first of more than a dozen open camp practices.

It����ap not quite time for real football just yet. Denver’s first preseason game is Aug. 9 at San Francisco, and the regular season doesn’t open until Sept. 7 against Tennessee at Empower Field.

Still, this week marks the beginning of Sean Payton’s third season at the helm in Denver.

It begins with more optimism and more external expectations than either of his first two seasons here and arguably any since Peyton Manning retired.

A playoff appearance? As recently as a year ago, such a benchmark might have felt more like a mirage than an oasis in the midst of a near-decade-long desert.

Now, Payton considers it base camp. Sure, it takes grueling training and plenty of adversity to get there, but any real goals or true sense of accomplishment can only be found further uphill.

As the offseason ends and that mission kicks into gear around the NFL, here’s a guide to Broncos training camp and all the storylines to watch between now and Week 1.

Offseason skinny

From the day after the Broncos’ 31-7 Wild Card loss at Buffalo in January, the club’s offseason has proceeded along two different tracks. The roster stayed largely intact, with 14 of the top 15 defenders by playing time returning and every major offensive contributor back except for running back Javonte Williams. That allowed for a targeted approach to adding via free agency and the draft.

Off the field, however, it����ap been an offseason of change. Teams raided Sean Payton’s coaching staff and George Paton’s front office, leading to several departures and retooling in both departments. There are major pieces back in both, of course, highlighted by defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and newly promoted assistant general manager Reed Burckhardt. And despite all the turnover, a palpable sense of continuity and calm permeates because of the leaders at the top in Payton, Paton and CEO/owner Greg Penner.

Impact additions

The progress made by many young players last year left the Broncos’ roster in an enviable spot heading into free agency and the draft: Solid and with weaknesses at positions that are on the easier side to address. So Denver did just that in early free agency, landing a trio of veteran, proven impact players — though each with his own lengthy injury sheet — in tight end Evan Engram, safety Talaoa Hufanga and inside linebacker Dre Greenlaw.

Ready, set, rookie

Several members of the Broncos’ draft class will be counted on to produce right away, led by first-round corner Jahdae Barron and second-round running back RJ Harvey. The list doesn’t end there, however. Sixth-round punter Jeremy Crawshaw is the man unless he proves he’s not ready, while mid-round defenders like defensive lineman Sai’Vion Jones and edge Que Robinson play in deep position groups but have traits that could allow them to carve out roles early.

Two broad questions

Can the Broncos handle the hype?: There will be no surprise run from Payton’s team this fall. They’re widely considered at least a Wild Card contender and anywhere from possible Kansas City dethroner to Super Bowl dark horse to fully ready to join the AFC’s upper crust. Payton last year had his team convinced that the modest external expectations meant nothing and could be used as fuel. They’ll need a different accelerant this time around.

Is this defense 2015 good?: The Broncos checked in near the top of the NFL across many categories last year, including EPA, scoring, sacks, pressure rate and red zone performance. They really only lost ILB Cody Barton from that group and they’ve added Greenlaw, Hufanga and Barron, plus they should get ILB Alex Singleton back from a torn ACL that cost him the final 14 games of the regular season. That makes for a group that����ap got sky-high expectations around the league and even loftier goals internally.

Extension 411

A training camp subplot: Denver features several key players entering the final year of their contracts. That list includes defensive linemen Zach Allen, John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach; edge Nik Bonitto; and wide receiver Courtland Sutton.

Only Bonitto is nearing the end of his first contract. Last year, the Broncos got a four-year deal done with Jonathon Cooper midway through the season. Perhaps they go the same direction with Bonitto.

The others are all interesting. Allen feels like a sure bet, but can Denver really pay all of its talented defensive linemen? And after a spring of kumbaya and good vibes between Sutton and the team, does a deal actually get done? Remember, the Broncos like their young receivers and drafted Pat Bryant in the third round in April — a guy who plays like Sutton and whom Payton has outlined a similar vision for.

For reference, last year’s major extensions came on the following timeline: Quinn Meinerz in mid-July, Pat Surtain II going into Week 1, Cooper in Week 9 and Garett Bolles in Week 15.

Best position battles

Nickel: This could end up being Barron vs. Ja’Quan McMillian straight up to be the starter in what either way will be one of the best trios in football. McMillian has made his share of plays, but Barron’s a first-round pick for a reason.

Running back: There’s little doubt J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey are featured prominently in Payton’s offensive plan. But A) In what order and capacities? And B) Who else is in the picture? Jaleel McLaughlin had a strong offseason program and is the most accomplished of the rest. Audric Estime is just entering his second year after being one of the youngest backs in football as a rookie. And Tyler Badie got the nod in a playoff game over Estime after being out for 14 weeks. Let the wild rumpus begin.

Wide receiver: Not so much who but how. Try to guess the number of targets for a young receiving group after Sutton and you could come up with a dozen different combinations. Is the Marvin Mims Jr. ascension really here? Is Devaughn Vele, a third-down machine as a rookie, next up? Or is Troy Franklin — as talented as anybody in the room — primed for the big breakout? Then there’s Bryant and maybe another young player like A.T. Perry or an undrafted rookie who will be trying to make moves, too.

Numbers to know

39: The Broncos’ 2024 sack differential (sacks generated minus sacks taken). That led the NFL by a wide margin (Baltimore was No. 2 at plus-30). It����ap a number Payton considers critical and one Denver should fare well again in this fall.

100%: Continuity on both the offensive and defensive lines for Denver among players who played an offensive or defensive snap last year. A rarely seen level of retention in the trenches that the Broncos cannot squander.

51: Catches by four Broncos tight ends on 71 targets last year. They went for 483 yards. Engram, the new guy in the room, approached those numbers (46/64 for 365) in just nine games for Jacksonville.

45.6%: Total regular-season games missed the past two years by Denver’s four biggest free-agent additions, who have all had substantial injury issues. Of 34 regular-season games each, Dobbins (Achilles/knee) has missed 20, Hufanga (knee/wrist) and Greenlaw (Achilles/calf) 17 each, and Engram (hamstring/shoulder) eight.

Training camp basics

The Broncos have 13 open training camp practices beginning Friday, July 26, but limited capacity due to ongoing construction. The team put up temporary bleachers for about 800 fans over the parking lot while its headquarters are under construction. Tickets are required to attend practice. Tickets are free, but the initial availability sold out within 10 minutes of becoming available, per the team. They plan to release a limited number going forward at ticketmaster.com/broncos. Each open practice begins at 10 a.m.

The Bo Show

You didn’t actually think we’d get through an entire preseason primer without some quarterback talk, did you? Of course not.

So much of the Broncos’ momentum is propelled by what Bo Nix did in his rookie season. Not only the 34 total touchdowns and 10 wins, but the way he took command of the locker room and looked comfortable shouldering everything that comes with being the face of a franchise.

The challenges are clear, but how Nix and the Broncos handle them remains to be seen. The league’s got a book on the 2024 No. 12 overall pick now. They’ll try to force him into less comfortable parts of his game. Nix and Payton know this and will counterpunch. It����ap the great cat-and-mouse game of football. Somebody pops up as a surprise, the league reacts with force. Then it becomes a race to stay ahead of the curve.

That����ap Nix’s challenge. He got to enjoy his smoothest offseason in years. He’s got continuity for the first time since high school. He’s got his position coach and backup back in Davis Webb and Jarrett Stidham, respectively. He’s got the entire offensive line in front of him back in the fold and most of his skill players from last year, plus Engram, Bryant, Dobbins and Harvey.

Unlike last year, he’s also got the burden of real, loud external expectations.

What does Year 2 look like for Nix? We’re all about to find out together.

He has gotten better at football every single year of his career since he was a teenager. He’s matured along with it, now entering Year 4 with the Broncos. And this offseason, seeing the examples set by lifer Garett Bolles and others, Bonitto decided to host his first youth football camp in Denver. Why not, he figured.

“Love the community that I’ve kinda made myself in,” Bonitto said at his Sunday camp at Littleton’s Columbine High School.

It was a clear point to his commitment to Denver, where he’s gone from third-round backup to second-team All-Pro in a matter of three years. Whether he’s able to plant true roots will hinge on Denver’s commitment to him as he enters the final year of his rookie deal.

On Sunday, Bonitto confirmed to reporters at his camp that contract-extension talks with the Broncos were “happening right now.” The edge didn’t specify when his camp was looking to have a deal finalized by, though. He said his focus was simply on “trying to get a championship.”

It was a largely �ɲ�����-���Ի�-�������public stance, a direct contrast to the public tactics wielded by edge contemporaries in a bonkers NFL offseason. Cowboys OLB Micah Parsons’ . T.J. Watt skipped the Steelers’ mandatory minicamp to put pressure on Pittsburgh, . The Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson before his contract talks resumed.

Beyond , Bonitto has spent his offseason posting workout videos and glowing reviews of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” He was at Denver’s OTAs and minicamp and gave no reason to believe he’d skip either. He wore a tank top and an easy smile on Sunday.

“The edge market is kinda crazy right now, just knowing that everybody’s getting these big deals, and it����ap only getting bigger and bigger,” Bonitto said. “And luckily for me, I’m in a good position right now, where the market����ap kinda in my favor.”

Bonitto now floats in the middle of an inflated landscape. There’s Watts’ deal. Raiders star Maxx Crosby inked a three-year extension worth $35.5 million per year in March, too. And roughly 30 minutes before Bonitto’s camp Sunday, the Chiefs re-upped with George Karlaftis III on .

Bonitto and Karlaftis hail from the same 2022 draft class. Karlaftis had eight sacks in 2024, and Bonitto racked up 13.5. It’s reasonable for Bonitto to command a larger extension than the Chiefs’ defensive end. A lengthier delay from Denver’s end risks the Cowboys slapping Parsons with a monstrous deal, further elevating Bonitto’s negotiating power.

Bonitto said those conversations, though, were being left strictly to his agent. And as Broncos training camp kicks off this week, he’s the centerpiece of a pass-rushing unit that led the league in sacks last year — and that he feels will “be even better” this fall.

He certainly can, he said, after re-watching tape from his 2024 breakout.

“Knowing how much food I left on the table, and how much better I feel like I can get in my game, I kinda wanted to address all those things in the offseason,” Bonitto said. “And just, continuously trying to be a better player each year.”

Seating, however, will be substantially curtailed due to the ongoing construction of the team’s new headquarters.

Sean Payton’s team reports to camp July 22 and then goes through a series of ramp-up workouts before the first two open training camp dates of the summer on Friday and Saturday, July 25-26.

The team then has six straight days of open practices the following week, running Monday, July 28, through Saturday, Aug. 2.

The Broncos are also hosting fans Aug. 4-5 before they head to California for an Aug. 7 joint practice and the Aug. 9 preseason opener against the .

Then the team returns to Denver and hosts the final three open practices of the summer from Aug. 12-14, culminating with a joint practice against Arizona before the teams square off Aug. 16 at Empower Field in the second of three preseason games.

The Broncos close the preseason Aug. 23 at New Orleans and open the regular season Sept. 7 at home against Tennessee.

Each open practice begins at 10 a.m. Parking lots open at 8 a.m.

The club is in transition at Broncos Park, which will impact fan attendance this year.

The berm adjacent to the team’s practice fields is gone, swallowed up by the massive new headquarters being built. In the future, it will return on the opposite side of the practice fields where the team’s current building is, but this year is a construction year.

As such, the club plans to erect temporary bleachers off the end of the practice fields, but the seating will be limited to about 800. Last year, the Broncos averaged about 2,200 fans on the first weekend of camp and a shade under 2,000 across 15 open practices total.

Tickets to training camp practices are free but they are required in order to attend. Season ticket members have a chance to claim a limited number beginning 10 a.m. Tuesday and the general public can reserve tickets beginning 10 a.m. Wednesday via .

According to a team release, there are fewer than 300 parking spots available at the team’s facility and they’ll be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner said earlier this spring that the club was intent on having fans at practices this year despite the construction. The target is for the building to be completed next summer, meaning a new, more permanent setup for fan access to training camp beginning in 2026.

“We’ll have a number of practices that are open to fans, and we’ll accommodate them,” Penner said of the 2025 construction. “We really want to make that happen. Again, the intent is for this to only be one training camp where it really affects us.”

The cornerbacks are locked in one of the most intriguing position battles of Broncos training camp, competing to start opposite one of the league’s best, Pat Surtain II. Moss, Mathis and the rest of the defense will face a stern test when the Green Bay Packers are here in Denver for a joint practice Friday and the second preseason game Sunday.

“We don’t play Green Bay in the fall, so it����ap a nice time to test out your scheme and also test your players,” Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said. “This offense has a great quarterback, four or five great young receivers, good tight ends, two good runners. And it����ap a really good scheme. For us, it����ap going to be a nice challenge to kind of test where we are.”

Surtain did not play in the exhibition opener against the Indianapolis Colts, but Broncos coach Sean Payton said the two-time Pro Bowl corner will be available this weekend. Either way, there should be plenty of reps to test Moss and Mathis.

While Surtain is locked in on one side of the field and Ja’Quan McMillian at the nickel back, the competition between Moss and Mathis is tight. Moss had two tackles against the Colts, while Mathis had one and also was credited with a pass defended.

“I thought both guys played with composure,” Joseph said. “They covered their guy. They tackled well. We had no mental issues with those guys. It����ap an ongoing battle. That being said, we need both guys anyway. I’m cheering for both guys. Our team needs them.”

Moss is in his second NFL season and was a third-round pick from Iowa in 2023. He appeared in 14 games in 2023, finishing with six tackles as a special teams contributor.

He was injured during his first training camp but did find a way to make an impact as a rookie.

“I’d say the one thing that he does exceptionally well is he phases with receivers well,” Payton said. “So it����ap hard — you don’t see him out of position. He’s longer than you think and so the ball is contested if it����ap caught. You’ve earned it.

“At Iowa, they played a lot of quarters and his eyes were inside a lot … but you saw his hips and you saw his movement skills. To see him now in some of the other defenses that maybe you didn’t have film on from college, I’d say his technique is good. He’s long and I’d say he has really good instincts.”

While Moss is looking for his first opportunity to start at this level, Mathis is seeking a second and some redemption. Mathis began his second pro season in 2023 as the starter opposite Surtain, but it did not go well. He was removed from the starting lineup after the first six games and played a total of 27 snaps the rest of the year.

“He’s been fine,” Joseph said. “Last year, he had a slow start, but he came back and played well for us. He’s confident. He’s engaged every single day. He’s a special athlete. His improvement has been fun to watch.”

Both should be tested often by the Packers. Quarterback Jordan Love was a breakout star in the second half of the 2023 season, his first after taking over for the departed Aaron Rodgers.

Green Bay’s offensive renaissance was also in part because Love was throwing to Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson and Dontayvion Hicks — a quartet of exciting wideouts with two years of NFL experience or less.

For now, Joseph wasn’t tipping his hand on the battle between Moss and Mathis.

“That����ap weekly. That����ap game planning,” Joseph said when asked if he wanted to find a clear starter between the two. “Right now it����ap just training camp and getting better and chasing improvement every day. … We’re just coaching these guys to improve every single day.”

Vele, the son of Afagaila and Efaraima, grew up as a gifted athlete, playing baseball, basketball, volleyball and running track. But he felt a gravitational pull from football. He developed into a star at Rancho Bernardo in San Diego, posting 980 yards and 11 touchdowns in his senior season.

Then his dreams became frozen. He received zero college offers. A shell-shocked Vele was left to consider his options when there were, well, no options.

“There were a lot of things going on in my life at that time. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life especially when it came to football,” Vele told The Denver Post after Wednesday’s practice. “There was a lot of prayer. A lot of fasting.”

Wanting to connect deeper with this faith, Vele elected to go on a two-year mission for the LDS church. He served in his ancestral homeland of Samoa, learning the language, teaching and even baptizing a distant relative.

“It helped me find myself and mature as a person,” Vele said.

Watching Vele at Broncos training camp provides daily reminders of his life experience. He is a rookie in name only.

Remember that third-and-3 connection from Bo Nix to running back Jaleel McLaughlin in the third quarter against the Colts? Nix lofted a pass that hit McLaughlin in stride for a 22-yard gain. McLaughlin found space because Vele executed his lunch pail assignment. Lined up wide left, Vele shuffle stepped on the snap as the linebacker raced to take the angle in coverage on McLaughlin. Vele set a faux pick with his positioning, causing the linebacker to slip avoid it, leading to the easy completion.

“He is a real student of the game,” teammate Courtland Sutton said. “And he is humble.”

Vele turns 27 in December. He is a year older than Broncos backup quarterback Zach Wilson and a year younger than Lamar Jackson, who is entering his seventh NFL season as a two-time MVP.

Vele cannot escape the clock ticking on his career. But he refuses to compromise quality and skip steps. Functioning as a team leader in his fifth year at Utah, Vele developed into a top target despite chaos at the quarterback position with Cameron Rising sidelined.

“He was a tireless worker. A great character kid,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “There’s nothing not to like about him.”

When Vele returned from his mission, there was no interest from schools, only an opportunity to walk on at Utah. That status shaped the receiver he is today.

“I pride myself so much on the details. When I first got to Utah, I knew the thing that was going to separate me from guys on scholarship was being coachable. It is a very important thing so they can trust you,” Vele said. “So when they show how they want the route to be run, that����ap how I am going to run it. Details are huge for me. I think that����ap what has moved my career forward.”

The Broncos saw beyond Vele’s modest college stats, taking him in the seventh round. He has gone from invisible to viral this summer. Vele delivered a one-handed grab — easily the catch of camp — for a touchdown from Jarrett Stidham that offered shades of Odell Beckham Jr. with the New York Giants. It created a media buzz. Only Vele didn’t see it.

“I don’t have social media,” Vele said.

This fits in line with his process. He is all business. He doesn’t have time, you see, to savor one play when he has a team to make.

“It����ap no secret that I am lot older. And that Father Time is undefeated. I don’t have the luxury of developing as a guy who will be better in a  few years,” Vele said. “I know a lot of people had a lot of issues with it when I was first drafted. I feel like it happened this way for a reason. And I am trying to take advantage of this opportunity to be on the team, special teams or on the practice squad. Whatever they need.”

Coach Sean Payton has praised Vele’s ability to transition out of breaks and show daily improvement.

Talking to a former college coach who has watched many of the Broncos’ practices, he ranked Vele as the team’s third-best receiver when removing draft status and contracts. He sees what others praise. At 6-foot-4, Vele wins jump balls, shows no fear in traffic and runs routes worthy of Google Maps.

“Since he declared, I’ve known he was going to be a sleeper. I’ve watched him. I’ve seen his athleticism and everything he’s got,” said Broncos edge rusher Johan Elliss, one of six Utah players on Denver’s roster. “I’m really excited for what he’s going to do and everyone he’s going to prove wrong.”

It goes back to high school when Vele was facing the reality of a life without football. He believed in a dream that could not be seen.

“I trusted my faith,” Vele said. “I think I made the right decision.”