Hey Parker, so I’m quite, um, whelmed by the Broncos’ moves on Day 1 of free agency. We need to get Bo Nix more weapons. George Pickens would be amazing, but I feel like that’s a pipe dream. Are we looking at Romeo Doubs, Calvin Austin III or Jauan Jennings? Dallas Goedert? How about Deebo Samuel? He seems like he’d fit that joker position for Sean Payton.

— Mike, Denver

Hey Mike, you’re certainly not the only one. It didn’t figure to be a spending bonanza for the Broncos, but even given what Sean Payton, George Paton and Greg Penner said earlier in the offseason, it����ap been a slow start.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean ineffective. They’ve retained a bunch of their own guys, which means they think their roster is in a good spot. It����ap good to have a group of players that you want back.

Still, this was the first time since George Paton became the general manager in 2021 that Denver didn’t sign at least one external free agent on Day 1. It����ap perfectly fair to say it����ap been slower than many expected.

The Broncos came out of the 2025 season recognizing they needed more offensive playmaking. They’ve retained tight ends Adam Trautman and Nate Adkins (along with Evan Engram) and, of course, have a two-year deal in place with running back J.K. Dobbins.

But if you thought you needed more playmaking and you retain the group you had, then conventional wisdom would be that you still need more playmaking.

Of course, if the Broncos get a full, healthy season from Dobbins, that issue is partially resolved. Dobbins ardently believes that����ap going to happen. He’s also never played a full season.

I agree with your assessment of weapons and the idea of adding a dangerous pass-catcher, whether a receiver or a tight end.

The issue: Where are you going to find one? Working through your list, George Pickens would indeed be massive, but now that he’s been franchise tagged, that would require trading Dallas a premium pick and then signing him to a massive extension. Romeo Doubs agreed to sign with New England on Tuesday. Denver had interest in him, but never felt like the favorites. Calvin Austin and Jauan Jennings are still available as of this writing. So, too, are Deebo Samuel and Dallas Goedert, though age is a factor with both of those guys.

Several of the other tight ends still available fit the Engram profile as a receiver-first move player, so doubling up there doesn’t quite square. I was intrigued by Cade Otton and Charlie Kolar for their all-around abilities — certainly some projection involved there, especially with Kolar — but Otton went back to Tampa Bay and Kolar got a strong deal at $8 million per year with the Los Angeles Chargers. There, he’ll play for Jim Harbaugh after playing for John Harbaugh in Baltimore.

Denver could see if Goedert, 31, has another productive year or two left in the tank. Maybe there’s a receiver still out there on the free agent market that they like.

At this point, it����ap also worth looking forward to the draft and considering the trade market.

At receiver, there have been persistent rumors about the availability of Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown, Jacksonville’s Brian Thomas Jr., Miami’s Jaylen Waddle and others. Thomas makes the most sense from a money perspective, but I’ve heard they’re not actually interested in trading him and Tuesday afternoon, they seem to be reiterating that to national reporters. There had been back-and-forth reporting on that in recent days. Miami, similarly, has repeatedly said Waddle is a player to build around.

The combined acquisition cost and $29 million guaranteed for 2026 with Brown is a steep hill to climb for anybody and Payton and Paton have rarely carried two expensive receivers on their rosters.

On the draft front, it����ap a deeper receiver class than running back or tight end, but there are interesting players at all three positions. The search continues.

I’ve seen lots of WR draft and free-agent recommendations for the Broncos, but not much analysis of the type of WR they need. Is there a WR style you think the Broncos lack today and who would fit that need? For example, Courtland Sutton and Pat Bryant are big receivers capable of winning contested catches. Marvin Mims Jr. and Troy Franklin are speedsters who seem to lack shiftiness. To me, they lack shifty route runners. Who do you think could fill that need? Thanks!

— Chad, Austin

Hey Chad, thanks for writing and good question. Payton likes receivers that can play in multiple spots, but he also has specific roles that he wants filled.

Denver, the past couple of seasons, has waited until the later waves of free agency and then looked for bigger guys who can run and block. Payton often points back to Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem from his years in New Orleans as sort of the archetypes. The Broncos haven’t found that guy so far in Payton’s time in Denver.

Two years ago, they tried with Josh Reynolds. Last year, it was Trent Sherfield. Neither stuck a whole season. They could be in the market for a similar body type this year.

I agree with you that a pure route-runner would be a value add, too. Payton, though, doesn’t normally look for those smaller, shiftier players to operate in the slot. He likes big, power slots.

In my mind, then any search for a receiver is in one of two buckets: That big, physical player or a guy who elevates the room across the board. The former is maybe still out there in free agency. It����ap hard to see the latter being a free agent at this point, so a trade or the draft are more realistic routes.

It����ap worth continuing to point out that Denver likes its receivers and has either spent a Day 2 pick, traded up or both in each of the past three drafts to select Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant.

It wouldn’t be a surprise at this point if they followed a similar path this spring, though let����ap not count them out at No. 30 overall in the draft, either.

Hi Parker, I’m amazed at all the new metrics and stats that are now available. I recently saw one that measured tight ends and missed blocks rates. It showed that some of the TEs I’ve seen linked to the Broncos, like Cade Otten was rated poorly. How does the Broncos staff use these advanced stats? Sean Payton seems like an old-school guy and might rely on feel or the eye test. Thanks.

— Gene Ryan, Green Valley, Ariz. (by way of Aurora)

Hey Gene, thanks for writing and great question. The amount of information out there these days is staggering. The stuff that����ap publicly available or accessible via subscription has changed a ton in the past few seasons. Now imagine what kinds of systems NFL teams are building.

This is one of the areas where artificial intelligence is booming in football, just like it is across any number of other industries. I was talking with a front office executive of another team at the combine last month about the ways in which they’re building models and tools in-house that can be used across football operations. It could be draft prep, pro scouting, salary cap management, film study or any number of other things.

The Broncos are working on all those kinds of things, too, like every team in football is.

Payton last year marveled at some of the stuff Denver’s technology could do. That will only continue to ramp up into the future and, I’d imagine, when the Broncos move into a new, state-of-the-art building this summer.

Having all of that at your fingertips might help you sniff out something you want to know about a player who has been playing in a different system. Can he move the way you want, even if he’s not moving the way you’d teach? Is he getting to where he needs to go and not finishing a block? Or can he not get there? Is he good only at certain things, or is he used only in certain ways? So on and so forth.

That����ap all good stuff, but the Broncos and other teams around the league also have to see it with their own eyes. Extra data is good, but teams aren’t going to commit to somebody based on analytics alone.

Hi Parker. Longtime subscriber and appreciator of the Post’s Broncos coverage. You guys do a fantastic job.

Thinking about the Broncos’ enviable secondary depth, I was wondering: if Denver extends Ja’Quan McMillian (they should) and also keeps Riley Moss, could Jahdae Barron be converted full-time to safety? Does he have the skillset to play there, for if/when Brandon Jones is let go after his contract expires?

— George, Seattle (Not a “12”)

Hey George, thanks for the nice note and for subscribing. We really appreciate it. Interesting question, too.

In the exact situation you outline, yeah, it����ap a possibility. The Broncos believe Jadhae Barron can play inside, outside or safety and do so at a high level.

From right here and right now, that doesn’t feel like the most likely scenario, but you never know.

There are several machinations in play when it comes to the Broncos’ secondary over the next year and they essentially count as good problems to have because Denver has quality depth that a lot of teams don’t.

The first step is McMillian. He’s on the tender now, so they can either extend him now or during the season or risk him hitting the free agent market next spring.

It����ap a little early to say categorically that the Broncos have to choose between paying McMillian and Moss, but the way the roster is currently constructed and with a potential Bo Nix extension looming out there as early as the summer of 2027, it����ap reasonable to wonder if they can play with both corners, the nickel and at least one safety on big contracts long-term.

Nothing has to happen right away. They can keep everybody right where they are through this season if they want. But each move made in the secondary is going to have a ripple effect over the next few months.

A fascinating group to watch.

Sean Payton had told the locker room as much, as Denver sat on its laurels despite being connected to several receivers in potential trades.

“I just go off of Sean’s word,” Franklin told The Post then in November, at his locker. “He told us we got everything we need in this building, and pretty much all that, ‘the Broncos need other receivers,’ (is) outside speculation. So, it����ap really not coming from the building.”

Payton’s word, indeed, has held for three years in Denver, when it comes to his wideouts. In public. In private. The largest in-season trade or free-agent signing the Broncos have made at receiver since February 2023 is … Josh Reynolds, who Denver signed to a two-year deal in the offseason of 2024 and then cut after he played a total of five games. The Broncos have held onto Courtland Sutton as their WR1, invested heavily in youth at the position, and tacked on supplemental rotational names each season. The approach has never changed.

It certainly hasn’t changed, either, two days into 2026’s free agency. Payton said multiple times around the season’s end that Denver had too many drops in the passing game, but the Broncos haven’t shelled out in an inflated receiver market to fix that. They had some interest in former Giants star Wan’Dale Robinson, as a source said last week; Robinson on Monday for four years and $78 million. Denver reached out this week, too, on steady former Green Bay target Romeo Doubs; they never made him an offer, though, as Doubs .

Denver had some interest, too, in former Vikings wideout Jalen Nailor, but he signed for nearly $12 million a year with the Raiders. As of Tuesday, the Broncos hadn’t reached out to veteran free agents Keenan Allen, Sterling Shepard or Marques Valdez-Scantling, sources told The Post. Every puzzle piece across the past couple of days — and the whole last year, really — has pointed to the same reality: Payton likes the Broncos’ current receiver room as-is.

“The thing with the draft, we’ve invested,” Payton said at his end-of-year presser in late January. “We’ve got different — we’ve got speed, we’ve got size, we’ve got all the things I’m used to that you’d want to have in a good offense.”

In that moment, he launched into a strangely detailed explanation of how to catch a football.

“Most of the times, it����ap with your thumbs together, not the other way around,” Payton said then. “The other way around – I’m serious – only exists when the ball’s below your belly button. Even the deep balls should be caught with your thumbs together. So we gotta be better at that.”

Those single few sentences spelled out the end of receivers coach Keary Colbert’s three-year tenure in Denver, and Colbert’s firing was announced mere hours later. The Broncos replaced him with Ronald Curry, a longtime Payton coaching ally who interviewed for the Broncos’ offensive-coordinator job. That single change, it turns out, may be the most impactful move the Broncos make at receiver this offseason.

Denver wouldn’t shell out for a big-money wideout like Alec Pierce, who re-signed with the Colts on a four-year deal worth over $28 million annually, while it’s already paying Sutton $23 million a year on a back-loaded contract. Rising third-year receiver Franklin produced virtually the same numbers in 2025 as Doubs while being at least $15 million a year cheaper. Rising second-year receiver Pat Bryant, when healthy, produced like a bona fide WR3 down the stretch last season.

And Payton, too, continues to pound the drum for more touches for Marvin Mims Jr. (despite being the one who’s ultimately responsible for curtailing his touches).

“I would sometimes say look, the only one keeping him back sometimes would be just the rotation,” Payton said at the NFL Combine of Mims. “Troy has done well in his second year … we have to keep finding (Mims) those opportunities down the field. The right balance, of course.”

They form a clear quadrant that Denver hasn’t wanted or felt the need to break up since the start of the 2025 season. The Broncos, of course, still could and probably will pursue a supplemental piece in free agency or a young receiver in a deep draft. Jauan Jennings, a 6-foot-3 red-zone threat who’s a perfect Payton archetype, also still lingers on the market as of Tuesday night.

Overall, though, it’d be difficult to see the Broncos swinging a trade for a marquee name like the Eagles’ AJ Brown or the Dolphins’ Jaylen Waddle when both carry monster cap hits on their current contracts in upcoming seasons. Payton and Paton, both, have been indirectly saying as much for a calendar year.

“We got some young receivers like Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin, Mimsy,” Paton said in late January. “And I don’t think that����ap the reason we didn’t make the Super Bowl. I think those guys, they’re all right. They had good years.”

Jonathon Cooper, 10 days into a multi-national roadie and perched on the razor’s edge between a celebratory trans-Atlantic flight home and a silent one, was ready.

More than ready.

Whether you’re just down the block or more than 4,600 miles away, you can’t start making your way back until you take the first step.

Turns out, the Broncos’ outside linebacker has one of the fastest in football.

Denver’s headed back to the Front Range winners of three straight, atop the AFC West at 4-2, and survivors in a 13-11 win over the still-winless New York Jets because of it.

Cooper timed the count perfectly, roared off the ball and past helpless rookie tight end Mason Taylor before anybody else moved on the Jets’ final offensive snap of the day, and buried any chance of catastrophe by sacking Justin Fields with some help from his friends, the fiercest pass-rush in the NFL.

“I just relied on my team, relied on God and went out there and handled business,” Cooper said.

While the 61,155 in attendance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium saw one of the ugliest, sloppiest offensive games played on either side of the ocean this year, they also saw Vance Joseph’s defense dominate in a way few Denver defenses have in a game in franchise history.

The Broncos racked up nine sacks by eight different players.

They allowed 82 total yards.

They defended 29 Justin Fields dropbacks that turned into 7 total forward yards for New York — minus-10 net passing and 17 on three scrambles.

They allowed eight total first downs, two on 15 third-down tries, and did not defend a single snap from the red zone.

“That,” All-Pro right guard Quinn Meinerz said simply, “was a masterclass.”

It was also entirely necessary for the Broncos to sidestep what would have been an inexcusable defeat.

The Broncos spent the week insisting trap games don’t exist in the NFL.

That they’d come out humming against Aaron Glenn’s 0-5 side.

That the travel, the logistics, the buses to practice and all the rest wouldn’t distract them. Couldn’t distract them.

Broncos LG Ben Powers’ injury absence looms large as Matt Peart racks up three penalties in starting debut

Then the game started and two of Denver’s three units looked anything other than locked in.

The offense sputtered.

Special teams faltered.

If it had been for a quarter, the Broncos might have won by 30.

If it weren’t for Joseph’s defense, they’d have lost largely by their own hand.

This team, though, sports a defense that can drag even a jet-lagged afternoon over the finish line.

“It was a defensive team today, and I hope to consider it a defensive team all season,” head coach Sean Payton said. “I think that����ap extremely necessary in our league.

“They were something.”

They started in poor position and played from there most of a brilliant, sunny afternoon.

It didn’t matter.

Broncos-Jets report card: Sean Payton’s offensive slump, sloppy special-teams play nearly down Denver

In fact, it provided fuel.

“I’ll be honest with you, it actually feels good to be put in a bad situation,” Jones told The Denver Post after the game. “If they score, we were put in a bad situation. If you stop them…”

He smiled. The point came through clearly. If you stop them, you turn the tide.

Jones and his group did a lot of that Sunday.

A Troy Franklin fumble and a 72-yard Kene Nwangwu kick return set the Jets up in field goal range on their first two possessions.

They totaled 4 yards and settled for two field goals.

“We came prepared,” Jones said.

They destroyed Fields’ afternoon as a group, too.

Cooper had two sacks and inside linebacker Justin Strnad 1.5. Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto was in on two split sacks to increase his season total to eight. Defensive linemen Zach Allen, John Franklin-Myers and Eyioma Uwazurike had one each, as did safety Talanoa Hufanga. Brandon Jones got a half-sack on the final play along with Cooper.

“I think I was part of a nine-sack game in Arizona, but in that one, one guy had four or five,” Allen told The Post. “This one was really special because it was so spread out. When you play as a complete and total defense, it����ap a lot of fun, man.

“Everybody has their part in it and their ownership. It can only get better.”

Better than this day will be tough to accomplish.

New York didn’t generate a first down until just before the two-minute warning in the first half.

They didn’t generate an explosive play. Period. The team’s longest gain from scrimmage came in the third quarter when Fields hit Josh Reynolds for 11 yards on second-and-8.

The Broncos went dormant offensively. They even gave up two points when Meinerz was called for holding in the end zone for a safety and a 11-10 New York lead late in the third quarter. The special teams struggled outside of kicker Wil Lutz knocking home field goals from 57 and 27 yards.

They may have lost to almost any other team in the NFL on this particular day. But they did not lose to the Jets.

“As long as we go out there and take care of business, stick to VJ’s plan and make sure we’re taking care and executing and stuff like that, no team should be scoring points on us, honestly,” Cooper said. “We handle it. Stop the run, get after the passer the way we do, and I trust the guys on the back end -- they’re balling out.

“We all play together and we’re the best defense in the league.”

So now the Broncos return home 4-2 and will leave Denver only once before Thanksgiving. They’ll play four of their next five at Empower Field, beginning Sunday against the suddenly feisty New York Giants.

For Cooper, that could all wait at least a few hours.

“Oh man, the flight is going to be about what? 9-10 hours?” he said. “I’m going to get some sleep, man.”

Off to historic start

After registering nine sacks in Sunday's 13-11 win over the New York Jets, the Broncos defense has 30 total through six games. That breaks the previous franchise high-water mark through six games set by ... the 2015 Broncos with 26. While that team went on to win the Super Bowl, a Lombardi Trophy is far from guaranteed. This year's Broncos (4-2) are one of only nine teams in NFL history to reach 30 sacks so quickly. Of the previous eight, only one missed the playoffs, but none won the Super Bowl.

Source: .

With a minute left in the first half of Sunday’s game and momentum relaxing on Denver’s sideline, Glenn and the Jets dialed up a fake punt on 4th-and-1 from their 37-yard line. It wasn’t exactly subtle. Darren Rizzi, the Broncos’ special teams coordinator, sniffed it out. Sean Payton cracked postgame that his wife would’ve known it was a fake. Nonetheless, first-year Jets head coach Glenn pulled off an aggressive call and had some clock and two timeouts to put New York in the driver’s seat.

Then, after using his third timeout after a second-down sack of Jets quarterback Justin Fields and a 6-yard completion to Josh Reynolds on third down, Glenn let the clock tick on 4th-and-1.

And tick.

And tick.

And suddenly, Glenn and the Jets headed to halftime without running a play in the nearly 40 seconds at their disposal, a move that baffled both their loyalists in New Jersey and the Broncos’ sideline across the pond.

“We were waiting — either a Hail Mary, or something,” Payton said postgame. “And then the clock just ran out, so.

“That was a little surprising. That����ap unusual.”

back to the halftime locker room, as Glenn attempted to explain the rationale for not taking a strike on fourth-and-short.

“I just didn’t know exactly what the plan was,”  in a video captured by New York station SNY. “Once I figured it out, I was disappointed. I’ll just say that.”

Glenn explained postgame that he knew New York would get the ball at the start of the second half.

“Once it got to fourth down — guys, I’m not about to sit there and try to get a play off, they would get the ball back,” Glenn said. “And I think they had a timeout left, and give them a chance to kick a field goal, I don’t think that����ap the smartest thing to do. So let����ap just end the half. We get the ball back and see if we get a chance to score.”

They did, nailing a field goal on a drive at the start of the third quarter. But the Jets advanced the ball to that spot — their own 47-yard line — on just three trips for one field goal in the entirety of the second half. And the effort to keep the ball out of the Broncos’ hands wasn’t quite needed, as Denver mustered just one second-half field goal in a disjointed offensive performance.

That����ap the overall summation from Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph regarding his third-year corner.

Moss, though, has room to improve despite good numbers overall and the inevitable ups and downs that come with being among the most targeted players in football.

Moss acknowledged he made a mental mistake when he pressed Philadelphia’s DeVonta Smith on a third-and-17 and gave up a 52-yard completion. He also got flagged for pass interference and just generally did not have his sharpest game.

“Riley is so competitive; sometimes he doesn’t play to the plan early,” Joseph said Thursday. “That����ap my problem with Riley. But Riley competes against anyone we put him on. That����ap Riley’s best trait. He’s so strong and so mentally strong that he doesn’t flinch.”

Joseph said Moss loves playing one-on-one so much and wants every matchup that sometimes he doesn’t do a good enough job of putting himself in good positions and makes life harder on himself than it needs to be.

“He has to understand what����ap happening around him,” Joseph said. “Obviously, Pat����ap opposite of him, so he’s getting the most targets. It����ap my job to educate him more on certain calls to kind of hide him a little bit and not just go press or give up fades and challenge fades all day. That’s tough to do that in this league.

“As he grows as a player and I help him more with calls — he has to understand how to play the calls and how to work the game plan to his benefit, and that����ap an ongoing process. He’s getting better each week. Hopefully this week he can improve in that area.”

The Broncos have an interesting matchup this week at receiver. Pat Surtain II is likely to be matched with New York Jets star Garrett Wilson, but the receiver with the second-most targets for Aaron Glenn’s team is former Bronco Josh Reynolds, with just nine.

That could allow Denver to mix and match on third down, considering New York rookie tight end Mason Taylor is off to a strong start with 20 catches for 175 yards.

Joseph says Moss will be ready for whatever the staff asks him to do.

“(Moss) never backs down from anyone, and he wants the one-on-ones all the time, but it����ap not always smart to play that way,” Joseph said. “We’re growing together as coaches and players, and I’ll figure it out for him and he’ll figure it out for me.

“He’ll play good football for us.”

Familiar situation. A year ago, the Broncos logged an uplifting win on the road against an NFC team and then decamped to a remote location for a practice week to prepare for the New York Jets.

If that sounds familiar, there’s a reason.

Denver last year parlayed a win against Tampa Bay and a stay in West Virginia into a rain-soaked, 10-9 win against the Jets.

This year, they came from 14 down to polish off defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia, flew the same night to England, and now are preparing to take on the Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

A year ago, New York still had hope in Week 4 with Aaron Rodgers at the helm and a stout defense.

This year, Aaron Glenn’s first team is 0-5, the last remaining winless team in football.

“I think in the league, quite honestly, it����ap a little disrespectful to consider anybody a trap team,” quarterback Bo Nix said. “They’re an NFL team, and they’re going to have some really good players on their defense. It����ap not really a trap game.”

Elliss still out. The Broncos could be without second-year pass-rusher Jonah Elliss against the Jets on Sunday.

Elliss didn’t practice on Thursday, the second straight day he’s been out. Unlike Wednesday, when he did work on the side field, the 2024 third-round pick out of Utah was not spotted during the portion of practice open to reporters.

If Elliss is inactive on Sunday, it could mean the first game day activation for rookie outside linebacker Que Robinson.

“Que’s had great weeks of practice and he’s ready to go,” Joseph said. “We’ll see how the roster shapes up and if Jonah really is out. Que’s ready if he has to go in and play for us. He has the traits that we like, he’s had good weeks of practice, and he can also play teams.

The newly unsealed court filings explain why as many as a dozen conspirators worked together to surveil, pursue and shoot at Reynolds and his friends during a miles-long car chase through Denver on Oct. 18 that prosecutors previously called a “calculated and carefully coordinated assassination attempt.”

Reynolds, who now plays for the New York Jets, was shot in his left leg and the back of his head. One of his friends, at the time a Colorado professional rugby player, was shot in the back. A second friend was wounded by shattered glass but was not shot.

The suspects wrongly believed Reynolds and his friends ripped them off in the cocaine deal — but, in fact, the trio had nothing to do with the situation, police say.

The Denver Post obtained the previously sealed records after one of the participants in the shooting, Burr Charlesworth, 42, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison. Charlesworth drove one of the vehicles used in the shooting and was convicted of felony assault.

Charlesworth was the first of seven adult defendants arrested on attempted-murder charges in the attack to plead guilty and be sentenced. A juvenile was also charged in the shooting and an eighth adult suspect remains at large.

The defendants targeted Reynolds’ group after unidentified people used $250,000 in fake money to buy cocaine, according to the records.

One probable cause statement in the case describes a drug deal on Oct. 16 — two days before the shooting — in which several people met at a Best Western hotel in Denver’s River North neighborhood. The next day, cleaning staff found $37,000 in “movie currency” in the room, along with a money counter and “small amounts of white powder.”

It was not immediately clear Friday whether that drug deal was the cocaine deal gone wrong or a separate transaction.

But two days later, at least two people who attended the drug deal at the RiNo hotel joined with others in the attack on Reynolds, prosecutors allege. A witness said Charlesworth told him he’d “found the two males who provided the fake money,” according to an arrest affidavit. Charlesworth told police the plan was to find the people involved in a bad drug deal and “(expletive) them up.”

It was not clear from court records why the attackers mistook Reynolds and his friends for the scammers.

On the night of the shooting, the suspects sent two people inside Shotgun Willie’s, a strip club in Glendale, to watch Reynolds and his two friends as they spent time in the club. Reynolds and his friends left the club around 2:45 a.m., with Reynolds driving a Ford Bronco, court records show.

The suspects followed the trio in as many as four vehicles, then started shooting. The group chased Reynolds and his friends on Colorado Boulevard, Interstate 25, East Hampden Avenue and back onto I-25. Dozens of rounds were fired into the Ford Bronco, prosecutors have said.

Around 3:10 a.m. near I-25 and East Belleview Avenue, Reynolds and his companions abandoned the Ford Bronco — which was disabled by gunfire — on the side of the interstate and ran.

All three called 911 minutes later near South Quebec Street and Union Avenue, and were eventually met by police.

One of the suspects took a video of the shooting “and sent it to their ‘general’ to prove the incident had been carried out,” according to an arrest affidavit.

Charlesworth on Thursday said that he has no memory of half of the shooting and claimed he “came to” as he was driving on the highway, saying he likely blacked out from drug use and stress. He blamed addiction for his actions and said he never intended to carry out violence.

“I take responsibility for my actions that evening,” he said. “I am not a violent person. I have made some terrible mistakes, including that night.”

Hooks is a country man, through and through. Texas-born. Southern-made. And in all his 25 years of coaching, Mims stands alone. Different than anyone, Hooks marveled. The gait, all big feet and long legs, is lethally effortless.

Ever run behind a horse, Hooks asked? You can try. You can huff and puff until your lungs scream. Still, the horse will look like it’s trotting.

“Then you look,” Hooks described, “and it’s pulling away from you quickly. It’s like — ‘It’s just jogging, though!'”

“That’s Marvin.”

Eventually, Hooks realized he needed to just let the kid run “the Marvin way,” as he puts it. But at first, Hooks didn’t quite understand him. Many didn’t. Mims would house a bag of potato chips and a Gatorade and then turn on the burners. And Hooks would yell at him because he just made it look too easy.

Years later, Mims lounged on a bench bordering the Broncos’ practice facility in July. He chuckled when told of Hooks’ initial frustrations.

“It’s something that’s like — every coach, everybody says,” Mims said with a grin. “‘You don’t look like you’re moving.’

“Until you go out there and really see. And it’s like, ‘Marvin’s runnin.’ ”

In Year 3 in Denver, Marvin’s finally running. The former Oklahoma wideout has never quite needed a tap. He’s just needed his coaches to loosen the reins. He quickly dashed to All-Pro status as a returner in his first two years with the Broncos, but he was generally stuck with a handful of posts and go-balls in a limited route tree. Then, head coach Sean Payton came to him in November in Kansas City with an idea to stick him in the backfield, and Mims’ world opened up.

This year, his role as a receiver is more “well-rounded,” Mims described. It needs to be. At all of 23 years old, he’s suddenly the second-most experienced Bronco in a young wideout room.

Hooks, this offseason, has been trying to get Mims to understand: He’s the guy, now. The “last of the Mohicans,” as Hooks put it, in a room that’s seen a revolving door behind Courtland Sutton at WR2 from Jerry Jeudy to Josh Reynolds. Mims racked up 503 receiving yards and six touchdowns in his second year after a late-season surge. Hooks believes he’ll be a 1,000-yard receiver in 2025.

“He’s not even that type of person with numbers,” Hooks said. “He just wants more than what he’s had before. And I know right now, he wants a lot more than he had before.

“Not, like, OK, a little bit, percentage-wise. Like, ‘Nah. I’m ready to be the man now.’ So that����ap what he’s been preparing for, physically and mentally.”

He’s looked it during training camp. For two years in Denver, as Mims said, he didn’t run most of the routes he’s running now. Comebacks. Corners. Drags. End-arounds. Both a complete receiver and a gadget weapon, all in one.

It’s similar to how staff at Lone Star High used Mims back in high school, setting the single-season state record for receiving yards as a senior in Texas. Lone Star head coach Jeff Rayburn remembered, had a “Marvin Rule.” He’d run 17 yards on a route instead of 15, his feet moving too quickly for regular timing. So, the Rangers would add 2 yards to the depth of any route he ran.

“He just runs so effortlessly,” Rayburn said. “He just glides.”

Effortlessness, though, implies a lack of effort — a perception he’s fought against for years. At Oklahoma, Mims was the latest in a long lineage of Sooner wideouts who carried themselves like a dude, because they were. He came in a year after CeeDee Lamb left. Lamb followed in the footsteps of Marquise Brown before him. And Brown followed Dede Westbrook before him.

Five-star talent after five-star talent. Mims was expected to come with flash.

That just “wasn’t me,” Mims shrugged.

“I’m not like a hoo-rah guy,'” Mims smiled. “I’m not going to post a lot on social media, all that stuff. I’m just go to class, go to meetings, go to practice, do all you do.

“And I feel like at OU, that����ap when they got on me most about it. That����ap when it was more of, like, a weird thing.”

He racked up 1,083 yards as a junior at Oklahoma and was picked by the Broncos in the second round of the 2023 draft. Still, he came out of college with , a perception he’s been fighting ever since. He was asked to run slants and choice routes as a Sooner, Rayburn defends. He’s been asked to run deep in Denver or get his hands on returns.

Now, Mims has officially been starting at the Z, as Broncos wideouts coach Keary Colbert has told Hooks. And Hooks has been trying to instill a certain “swagger” in his pupil.

“It’s funny,” Mims said, “because he’s been trying to get that outta me since, like, college.”

It’s never quite taken, because Mims blows past defenders with the urgency of a turtle despite the speed of a hare. Mims, though, feels it coming. You could “see the confidence” when he started getting touches midseason in 2024, as general manager George Paton said a few months back.

When he first arrived in Denver, Mims recounted, Broncos safety and former OU teammate Delarrin Turner-Yell issued a warning to staff and DBs alike on the wideout’s cool gait. Don’t fall for that. That dude’s moving.

There is nothing to control, now. The limits on his game are gone. There is only the horse, trotting free.

“Once he catches the ball, I look at those first three steps,” Hooks said of offseason work with Mims. “When he gets upfield. I can see, sometimes receivers, they have a pep in their step.

“When you know you’re the man, you look different. That top horse moves different. Different than anybody.”

Receivers drafted under Sean Payton

A number of wide receivers popped in their second year under Broncos head coach Sean Payton, but it took Mims until the second half of his second season to truly break out. Will that burst carry over into Year 3? Mobile users, tap here to see the chart.

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.”

It����ap 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 what����ap been a strong August.

Payton, after the game, said categorically of Franklin’s rise, “It����ap 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 — Bryant����ap 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.”

The Los Angeles Chargers, playing without running back J.K. Dobbins for the fourth straight week due to a knee injury, went three-and-out to start the Thursday night game.

Denver coach Sean Payton responded with an opening script straight out of a Run The Ball Guy fever dream: Seven rushes for 43 yards. Four different players carried the ball out of the backfield. A play sheet that literally said “Run It!!!” A bruising opening touchdown drive.

The Broncos had 11 carries for 73 yards on their first two drives and bullied their way to a 21-10 lead in the second quarter. Mike McGlinchey pumped his fists and roared as Denver grabbed early control in exactly the manner an offensive lineman would want.

Then all that run game razzle-dazzle fizzled. Denver mustered just 37 yards on 10 carries over the final 42:17 of game time despite leading until early in the fourth quarter. L.A. stormed back and won.

For all the slick design deployed and mojo built in that opening blast, the sequence only temporarily masked what by that time was long clear in Denver: The Broncos had a bunch of guys at running back, but not the guy.

In the six months since, the Broncos let Javonte Williams walk and drafted RJ Harvey, but that job title remains open.

This week, Denver brought Dobbins in for a free-agent visit to see if he might be a good veteran option to add to the mix. He left without a contract and no signing imminent, a source told The Denver Post, though nothing is ruled out for the future.

After all, a resurgent Dobbins in 2024 ran 195 times for 905 yards and caught 32 passes for 153.

The total production from the Broncos’ four returning backs — Jaleel McLaughlin, Audric Estime, Tyler Badie and Blake Watson — last season: 204 carries for 902 yards, plus 33 catches for 114.

What����ap interesting about the specter of signing a veteran, however, is Payton and general manager George Paton have been down this road each of the past two offseasons and both times ended up better off letting young players play, learn and grow.

A year ago, they signed Josh Reynolds in the second wave of free agency — before they drafted Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele. Reynolds was the Broncos’ second-leading receiver when he broke his finger against Las Vegas in Week 5. His stint on injured reserve was complicated because he sustained minor injuries in a shooting, but by the time he was eligible to return, the Broncos had decided they wanted Vele and Franklin on the field. They kept Reynolds practicing on injured reserve for the maximum three weeks just to guard against an injury elsewhere at the position, then released him.

The more similar example, though, came two years ago. Outside linebacker Baron Browning was going to miss time with a knee injury and the Broncos didn’t know quite what they had in Nik Bonitto (entering his second season) and Jonathon Cooper (entering his third). So they signed veteran Frank Clark to a one-year deal in June to fortify their depth.

From the start of training camp, the fit felt forced. Had it not been for $5.5 million guaranteed, Clark might have been jettisoned at the roster cutdown. Instead, the Broncos found ways to offload both he and Randy Gregory by October and turn the keys over to Bonitto, Cooper and Browning.

That turned out awfully well, not just over the rest of the 2023 season but as a launching pad into 2024 when Bonitto racked up 13.5 sacks and defensive player of the year consideration and Cooper earned a four-year, $60 million extension.

No two situations are the same, of course. Dobbins might be a much better fit than Clark. It����ap also possible none of the backs on Denver’s roster turn into Cooper or Bonitto-level staples.

But Payton made a comment Thursday that perked up the ears when asked if he agreed with the sentiment that he had a more mature football team this year than last.

“Yes, and part of that is a byproduct of playing young players a year ago,” he said.

Dobbins was in Denver as he said it, preparing for a Thursday workout at the Broncos’ facility after having dinner with team officials Wednesday night.

Will Payton and company decide to bet on the same approach this time around?

Payton is clearly excited about Harvey. He said Estime is going to get a lot of work. He mentioned Thursday that Badie is “really good” in pass protection — Could that give him a leg up on McLaughlin on third down? — and he watched McLaughlin give Denver an element last year that nobody else on the roster possessed.

Does that tilt the decision-making toward following what’s worked the past two years at edge and receiver — letting young players play and betting that the answer is already in the building?

The subplot will be a fascinating one to watch for a team that needs a fast regular-season start and has real external expectations for the first time in quite a while.

Reynolds, who played for the Broncos at the time but is now with the , and one of his friends were shot in the Oct. 18 attack, which prosecutors in court filings called a “calculated and carefully coordinated assassination attempt on three unarmed and defenseless men.”

“This premeditated attack unfolded over the course of multiple hours, spanned nearly 10 miles and involved as many as a dozen synchronized conspirators, riding in four different vehicles and firing between five and eight guns in excess of 30 separate times,” prosecutors wrote in a March court filing.

Asked about prosecutors’ characterization, Matt Jablow, a spokesman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, said that despite the filing, the word “assassination” was not “an appropriate way to describe the shooting.” The attack was not politically motivated, and Reynolds was not targeted because of his “public persona or presence,” Jablow said.

The wide receiver was with two of his childhood friends at the time of the attack. One of those friends, a 26-year-old man from Texas, told The Denver Post on Tuesday that he doesn’t know why the trio was attacked. He thinks the suspects — who told investigators they had a prior conflict with the trio — mistook them for someone else.

“That was our first month living in Colorado and we got shot at by 15 different people, I don’t know how to even explain that,” the friend said, speaking on the condition of anonymity over concerns for his safety. “…I don’t think the cops know, I don’t think (the suspects) know, I don’t think we know why we got targeted. I think it was just, they got the wrong guys and they missed.”

The Oct. 18 incident started when Reynolds and his two childhood friends visited Shotgun Willie’s, a strip club in Glendale, just after midnight. Luis Mendoza, 42, arrived about 45 minutes later, entered the club and then watched Reynolds and his friends until the trio left the club around 2:45 a.m., police alleged in an arrest affidavit.

Mendoza then joined with other people in as many as four vehicles and followed Reynolds, who was in a Ford Bronco, court records show. The drivers chased Reynolds and his friends on Colorado Boulevard, Interstate 25, East Hampden Avenue and back onto I-25, where dozens of rounds were fired into the Ford Bronco, prosecutors have said.

“I don’t see why they would be wanting to shoot at us,” the friend said. “If they wanted to rob us, as deep as they were, they could have simply robbed us. …It was mistaken identity.”

Jablow did not answer questions about the motive for the attack.

Around 3:10 a.m. near I-25 and East Belleview Avenue, Reynolds and his companions abandoned the Ford Bronco — which was disabled by gunfire — on the side of the interstate and ran.

All three called 911 minutes later near South Quebec Street and Union Avenue, according to an arrest affidavit.

Reynolds was shot twice, in the left arm and the back of the head. One of his friends, at the time a Colorado pro-rugby player, was shot in the back. The second friend was wounded by shattered glass but was not shot.

The three friends don’t talk about the attack now and have tried to move on, the friend who spoke with The Post said.

“As much as everyone wants motives, we don’t know,” he said. “It’s just unfair. And now you’re questioning why this happened, and why I live a good life, but bad things still happen. I haven’t always been a great person, but I’ve always had a humble heart, lived right, lived by a code. And I definitely don’t think I deserved it. But I don’t care to question it. At this point, I’m alive, my friends are alive. I’m happy.”

At least five men have so far been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting. Shawn Kane, 26, Burr Charlesworth, 42, Dirk Lisica-Lange, 32, Daniel Olivarez, 31, and Mendoza are each charged with attempted murder, assault and related counts.

“Mr. Mendoza has pled not guilty and we look forward to challenging the state’s accusations against him,” attorney Jake Lilly said in a statement Tuesday.

Attorneys for the four other men either declined to comment or did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

In court filings this spring, Denver prosecutors sought to delay sharing discovery — that is, providing defense attorneys with the evidence in the case — because they said doing so might hinder the ongoing investigation and reveal to the defendants who among them was cooperating with prosecutors about the shooting.

Investigators had active arrest warrants for “several” other alleged participants at the time, the filing stated.

“Given the obvious coordination at play, and the overwhelming degree of lethal force employed, it is absolutely critical to community safety that the remaining coparticipants be identified and taken into custody as soon as possible,” prosecutors wrote in a March motion. “Should any of the currently charged defendants choose to cooperate with investigators, the immediate disclosure of such information would likely be leaked to the other yet at-large participants and serve to frustrate future efforts at apprehension.”