George Paton, the general manager who’d just traded for Waddle hours earlier, was there. So was running back J.K. Dobbins, whose ground game stood to benefit from Waddle’s field-stretching speed. So was newly-minted offensive coordinator Davis Webb, suddenly gifted a precise route-runner in his first year as a play-caller. And so was quarterback Bo Nix, of course, who Waddle got an instant picture of.

“He’s different, in a good way,” Waddle told The Post on Thursday, on his first sitdown with Nix. “He’s in tune. He’s a family man. He loves playing football.

“He loves just being around, and he’s got one of them personalities you just gravitate to.”

The last time the Broncos mortgaged this much of their future on a player also brought a celebratory dinner at a steakhouse. It was Elway’s, for quarterback Russell Wilson in 2022. That outcome ended in disaster. The Broncos no doubt hope Waddle’s outcome will be different, because the situation is. Wilson was tasked with the entire foundation in Denver; Waddle simply needs to be the organization’s final piece of the puzzle, slotting in next to Dobbins and Webb and Nix.

“There was a crystal-clear vision prior to the trade,” head coach Sean Payton reflected Thursday. “As to — ‘All right, this is what we see, this is where he plays, and these are the things we feel like he’s exceptional at, and then let’s apply them into what we’re doing.'”

Three months later, the integration process is coming along smoothly. Payton said Thursday the 27-year-old Waddle “picks things up quick,” and there is no supplement for accelerated learning like accelerated talent. Nix won’t actually throw to Waddle in live situations until later in June, as the quarterback is still rehabbing his broken ankle. He was on the field to watch Thursday, though, as Waddle veered all across formations in 11-on-11 periods, broke off lighting-quick cuts on out routes and torched cornerback Riley Moss so badly on one in-breaker that Moss simply resorted to grabbing him.

After the third day of OTAs wrapped up, safety Talanoa Hufanga gave his initial impressions of Waddle.

“Everything he’s expected to be,” Hufanga said.

Fast and smooth

On Thursday, Waddle smiled and shrugged off a reporter’s question about whether he viewed himself as a “hired gun.” And teammates have not described the sixth-year receiver as some sort of savior, because the Broncos do not need him to be. They need him, simply, to do what he’s good at to upgrade the Denver offense, a process that has already turned plenty of navy-blue helmets.

“He’s a special dude,” veteran receiver Courtland Sutton said Thursday. “There’s a lot of things that he has, his qualities, that are very unique to himself. And I say that in a very specific way, because he has some qualities that only he could do. And it����ap fun to be able to watch it up close and personal, and I think Coach Webb and Coach Payton have done a really good job of trying to figure out the things that he can do well.”

The things Waddle can do well, Sutton smiled, are obvious. At Episcopal High in Bellaire, Texas, former offensive coordinator Kary Kimble dubbed Waddle “Magic.” Defenders saw him, until they didn’t. He was named an All-American returner as a sophomore at Alabama 40-yard-dash, and led all qualified NFL receivers in yards-per-catch (18.1) in his second year with the Dolphins in 2022.

The niche Waddle fits in Denver, though, goes much deeper than surface-level speed. Payton places a premium on smooth deceleration in evaluating wideouts; after Troy Franklin’s shaky first season in Denver, for example, Payton told the young receiver he wanted him to learn how to start “stopping like a Tesla.” The brakes are already innate to Waddle, who Payton praised Thursday for his ability to stop fast.

That single trait adds a complete unpredictability to Waddle’s breaks. The receiver grinned when asked by reporters on that Thursday, joking he couldn’t “give away the sauce.”

Hufanga, though, defined it well enough.

“I think his ability to make every route look the same is pretty important,” Hufanga said. “As a defender, when you can make a 10-yard stop look like a go, a 10-yard dig (route) look like a go, a 10-yard out-route — it����ap just, everything looks the same. And it puts pressure on your backpedal, as a DB.”

The best version of Waddle to date came in 2022, immediately after the Dolphins’ trade for Tyreek Hill but before the eventual decline of the Mike McDaniel-Tua Tagovailoa era in Miami. Hufanga, who faced the Hill-Waddle tandem firsthand while playing for San Francisco back then, noted the duo’s ability to accelerate and decelerate to disguise in-breaking routes as deep routes and vice versa. In Denver, now, Waddle can play off another “elite playmaker” — as he termed it — in Sutton, as the two give Payton and Webb options to interchange through a variety of alignments and route concepts.

“You could start slot to outside, or outside to slot,” Payton said, describing the vision for Waddle. “Just pick.”

The 30-year-old Sutton, of course, is nowhere near as quick as Hill. Few are. Quietly, though, Sutton finished second in the NFL in 2024 and tied for 10th in 2025 in catches on balls thrown more than 20 yards in the air, according to Next Gen Stats. It’s an open secret that Sutton is usually Nix’s go-to look on third downs, which could conversely pen up one-on-one looks for Waddle in high-leverage spots.

On the flip side, opposing secondaries keyed in on Sutton in 2025, often putting a natural cap on Denver’s offense. If Sutton was bracketed, Nix often didn’t have a consistent deep threat last year, and finished 17th in the NFL in completion percentage of throws 20-plus yards downfield.

Enter Waddle.

“I think that he and I being able to manipulate the outside is going to help the run game,” Sutton said Thursday. “And then ultimately, whenever we do get a chance to get these one-on-one looks, I think it����ap going to be interesting to see where that safety does decide to shade.”

Low maintenance, high potential

The arrival of one star, of course, will naturally dim the light of those around him. On Thursday night, Sutton received the heartiest cheers and took the heartiest swings at UCHealth’s annual “Healthy Swings” home-run-derby at Coors Field; as he accepted a winner’s trophy, a fellow teammate off to the side cracked a joke labeling Sutton as “Mr. Bronco.” The eight-year veteran made a Pro Bowl in 2025 on the back of two straight 1,000-yard seasons, and Denver wouldn’t have made the Waddle trade if there was any risk that either receiver would lose sleep over lost targets.

Sutton, though, has established himself as one of the lowest-maintenance receivers in the NFL. Waddle, meanwhile, never publicly complained about diminished targets through two sub-1,000-yard seasons in Miami in 2024 and 2025.

“I think last year, we saw what it would take for a selfless offense to be able to get to where we want to get to,” Sutton said “It����ap not the — I don’t think we have any individual personalities that are saying, ‘Hey, I need this. I need that.’ I think we got a bunch of guys that are willing to put their pride aside and say, ‘Hey, look, what do I need to do for this team to be successful?’”

Payton often refers to locker-room favorites as “force multipliers.” Dobbins is one. So is boisterous defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, for instance. Waddle does not project in the same vein; former coaches describe him as quiet, and he doesn’t carry himself with any particular gravitas when speaking at a public podium.

That personality, though, is a fit in itself. And Waddle has already begun force-multiplying with his first routes down in Dove Valley.

“I just think he takes us — unlocks another dimension for us, especially with RPOs and stuff like that,” Roach told The Post Thursday night, at Coors. “I think the best is yet for him to come, and the best is yet for us to come.

“So I think it����ap going to be a good marriage.”

Only 11 quarterbacks have thrown for more touchdowns. Only 13 QBs have averaged a better yards per pass attempt in their careers. Only 14 other players have completed more passes. Only 15 other signal-callers have thrown for more yards.

He tossed 353 TDs over his career. His touchdown-to-pick ratio was 3.1-to-1. He averaged 29 passing scores, nine interceptions, and 10 wins per season. He’s the only QB in NFL annals to amass both 40,000 passing yards and 5,000 rushing yards in the same career. He was 121-80-1 as a starter. He won a Super Bowl and was a horrible goal-line call away from winning a second.

If you take the name off the back of the jersey, and just look at the stats, that’s a Hall-of-Fame career, isn’t it? Those are the kind of career numbers you’d hope Bo Nix would aspire to. 

Alas, that resume comes with a name. And a reputation. And a pile of pure cheeseball high enough to climb Mount Elbert.

The subject of Russell Wilson — his career, his legacy — is, no shock, a bit of a mixed bag within the Grading The Week offices. But when we were forced to reckon with No. 3 one more time after he announced a few days ago his was transitioning from the NFL to an analyst job at CBS Sports, the football wonks decided on the following:

Despite a miserable two seasons in Denver that were the beginning of the end of a good career, it was, on the whole, a very good career. A Hall-of-Fame career. The GTW crew is cool with Russ getting his ticket punched to Canton one day. Just don’t force us to have to listen to his induction speech. Please.

Russell Wilson in Canton — B

When the Broncos sold the farm to acquire Wilson from Seattle in 2022, the idea was that, at age 33, Big Russ had enough juice left from a pretty glorious Seahawks decade to author the kind of dreamy coda Peyton Manning authored at Dove Valley a decade earlier.

Instead, what unfolded was a chain of nightmares. Wilson was a step or two slower than the guy who won rings with the Legion of Boom, and that step or two proved immense for a guy who loved to hang onto the ball too long. With Wilson’s quick-twitch fading, the sack count piled up. He never saw a throw in the middle of the field he liked, largely because he never looked in the middle of the field to begin with. Pairing that with a first-time, pleasant, but in-over-his-head head coach in Nathaniel Hackett turned into dark comedy, with fans at Empower Field having to count the play clock down, out loud, back at Russ to get him to get the ball snapped in time.

The pre-snap operations were far cleaner with Sean Payton in charge, but Wilson’s decision-making and sack-taking drove his notoriously fickle coach up a wall. Payton and Wilson were too set in their ways to co-exist. The Broncos chose to eat $85 million in dead-cap penalties just to flush Wilson out of their system — but cold turkey, in hindsight, proved to be the perfect dish. Without Russ crashing so quickly, so spectacularly, the Broncos wouldn’t have had to turn to Nix, nor revamp the locker room with so many young players all at once.

Denver launched Wilson’s NFL death spiral, but don’t let that entirely discount the 10 seasons that preceded it — Seattle Russ was 104-53-1 as a starter in the Northwest, made it to nine Pro Bowls, and led the Seahawks on eight playoff runs. Only eight other QBs have ever led more game-winning drives over a career than Wilson’s 40, which is the same career comeback number as John Elway’s. The more you forget about what Russ did in orange and blue, the better. For everybody.

Russell Wilson on TV — D

That said, the GTW kids would be pleasantly surprised if the notoriously pleasant, bland, inoffensive Russ is anything but terrible television.

Oh, he’ll look good. Dang good. He’ll be cool as heck. But one of the central tenets of an analyst position is sharing an actual, from-the-heart opinion, the occasional hot take. For DangeRuss, that might be too hot to handle.

A team won’t hesitate to cut a player. Cold, calculated decisions are made on the daily.

NFL players, likewise, aren’t interested in charity when it comes to their employer.

Clubs try to pay players as little as they can. Players try to earn as much as possible.

That����ap the way the business works 99% of the time.

That����ap also what made the news earlier this month that the Broncos had given Pat Surtain II a $5 million raise — and added a 2027 escalator worth another $5 million if Surtain makes the Pro Bowl or an All-Pro team this fall — interesting.

It was a smart move by the Broncos, even if it wasn’t done out of pure grace.

Surtain knew he was underpaid after a boom in the cornerback market since he signed an extension in September 2024. So did Broncos officials. There was really no reason to play hardball with a guy the club is likely hoping plays another 7-10 years on the Front Range and retires a Bronco and a future Hall of Famer.

Surtain is 26 years old. He’s going to be due for a monster extension in the next 12-24 months anyway. Why risk souring the relationship now, just as the roster around Surtain has blossomed into a Super Bowl contender?

It looks from here like good employee management on the front office’s part to bump Surtain up this year — and likely next year, too, as long as he’s mostly healthy this fall. A four-year, $96 million extension signed in 2024 essentially becomes four years and $106 million, setting Surtain up to cash in again before too long.

There’s another key to the raise, though, and it����ap a very simple one.

The Broncos did it because they could. They started the week more than $25 million under the salary cap, and even after giving Surtain a raise, they can easily absorb another contract if they wanted to add a veteran this summer, add at the trade deadline this fall — or both.

“He’s obviously someone that we feel like is elite and at the top of his position,” head coach Sean Payton said Thursday, explaining why Surtain got a raise without a new deal. “Part of that is the salary cap and how that fluctuates and moves, especially in the last three years.”

As it pertains to Denver, specifically, the Broncos have worn $85 million in dead cap for Russell Wilson alone over the past two seasons. Now they head into 2026 with among the cleanest books in football. They have newfound flexibility and are putting it to use.

There is still plenty of roster maneuvering, cap management and future planning to do, however.

First, Denver will likely want to get back to rolling over a fair chunk of cap space year to year. They’d made a practice of it under George Paton until cutting Wilson. The past two years, they’ve rolled over less than $1 million. Before that, Paton was consistently rolling between $5-10 million over per year.

The Broncos’ use of option bonuses as a contract tool likely plays into their approach this offseason, too.

Option bonuses give a club flexibility on how it accounts for a player’s pay. Remember, base salary counts against the cap in the current year, whereas bonus money can be prorated over up to five seasons. Teams regularly convert base salary to bonus to lower a player’s current-year cap number and push cap charges down the road. Option bonuses basically let teams decide how to handle those decisions as they go.

Under Paton and vice president of player administration Rich Hurtado, the Broncos have used option bonuses with more frequency as they’ve locked up more than 10 core players on major extensions in the past two years.

Teams like option bonuses in part because, the way the CBA is written, the default assumption is that each option will be exercised and the money will be accounted for as a bonus. So teams get the flexibility of the proration built in until the option date, then can decide whether to actually use it.

That����ap a bit of a mouthful, so an example might be cleaner: Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton has a $12 million option bonus this year due Sept. 1. The money is guaranteed, so he’s getting paid no matter what Denver does.

Currently, that $12 million is accounted for as $2.4 million on the cap for this year and each of the next four. Add the $2.4 million to Sutton’s $4.735 million base salary, $6.075 million of prorated signing bonus and $765,000 in per-game roster bonuses, and you get his 2026 cap number of $13.975 million.

On Sept. 1, Denver can leave that just the way it is. But the team could also rescind the option bonus in total or in part. The Broncos’ options usually allow them to choose between prorating all, half or a smaller portion (around a third) of the bonus amount. So, if Denver rescinded the entire bonus, Sutton’s base salary would jump from $4.375 million to $16.375 million. His cap number would balloon from $13.975 to $23.575 million this year, but the Broncos wouldn’t have $9.6 million in future-year prorated bonus money on their books.

The Broncos did this in part with Garett Bolles last year, prorating out $6 million of his option bonus but rescinding some of it and bumping his base salary to $10.235 million and his cap number to $13 million.

Bolles, like Sutton, has an option bonus due Sept. 1 this fall. His is $16.935 million.

So, put it this way: Bolles and Sutton could eventually count a combined $22.43 million against Denver’s cap in 2026. But they could also count $45.58 million. Or somewhere in between.

It just depends on whether the Broncos want the cap room now or want to increase their flexibility in future years. Some teams, like Philadelphia, use option bonuses aggressively and basically always exercise them. Kick the money down the road. As long as the cap keeps going up each year, a dollar on the cap is cheaper in the future than it is this year. It����ap a bet that there’s not another surprise downturn like the COVID-impacted years coming around the corner.

There’s an argument to be made that if a team can choose between counting money on the cap this year or in the future, it should choose the future every time. The pandemic happened, though. It����ap not impossible for the cap to drop or stagnate. Payton in New Orleans was part of a group that spent years walking the tightrope and prorating aggressively. It mostly worked until the pandemic. Now it����ap taken years and years of roster slashing and money burning in a straitjacket to unwind the mess.

The Broncos are aggressive but have demonstrated a somewhat lower-than-maximum risk tolerance.

The older a player is, the more likely Denver will at least consider rescinding an option bonus and taking more of the money on the current year cap.

Sources also indicate that internally, the Broncos generally treat option bonuses as if they’re going to rescind them. So, they don’t necessarily look at Sutton as a player with a $13.975 cap hit this year. They look at him as a player with a $23.575 million cap hit that they can choose to lower by exercising the option on Sept. 1.

The CBA assumes the flexibility and the league credits Denver with around $21 million in cap space after Surtain’s raise. But the Broncos enter the summer likely working under their own internal assumption that they have less room than that.

Now that the team’s built a stable of players with option bonuses in their deals, it can treat them essentially like puzzle pieces. Exercise a couple here, rescind a portion there. Manipulate cap space and associated risk on a per-player, per-year, per-option basis.

It����ap complicated, it����ap interesting, and it����ap the way the front office has decided to attack a future that could, as soon as next summer, include a mega-contract for quarterback Bo Nix.

Every team’s calculus changes once it pays a quarterback. But from this far away, it����ap impossible to say exactly what that might look like, how fast the cap will grow, how players at other positions will age and what position might go from strength to weakness or vice versa.

As such, the Broncos are trying to set themselves up with as much flexibility as possible.

It means you can pay a star player what he’s worth in the present and maybe, just maybe, keep an extra quality player or two down the line.

Cooper, 28, was arrested by Parker police at 11:16 p.m. and booked into Douglas County jail at 2:38 a.m., according to jail records. Cooper’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, told The Denver Post that Cooper had obtained a personal recognizance bond, which enabled his release from custody without immediately paying bail.

Cooper appeared Friday morning in the 23rd Judicial District Court for a first appearance. He is due back in court Monday morning. Bail information for Cooper’s girlfriend — who The Post is declining to name — was not available.

“We are aware of the matter and are gathering more information,” the Broncos said in a statement provided to The Post.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told The Post in a statement that the league was “aware of the matter” and has been in contact with the Broncos.

Both Cooper and his girlfriend were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence, while Cooper also faces a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief from $300 to $999. His girlfriend faces an additional charge of petty criminal mischief less than $300.

According to Cooper’s arrest affidavit, a Parker police officer responded to a “domestic incident” between Cooper and his girlfriend in Parker at 8:42 p.m. Thursday. Cooper’s girlfriend confronted Cooper with allegations he was cheating on her, according to the affidavit. An altercation ensued, but Cooper and his girlfriend described it differently to police, as detailed in Cooper and his girlfriend’s separate affidavits.

“As of this report, there is no probable cause for harassment or assault charges given conflicting statements and lack of specific physical evidence,” the Parker officer wrote in Cooper’s affidavit.

Cooper’s girlfriend said she took his phone from him, threw it across the room, then went to pick it up and look through its contents. Cooper wanted his phone back and, according to his affidavit, Cooper told police he grabbed his girlfriend by her upper arms and was able to get the phone back.

When the woman again tried to take his phone, Cooper told police he “braced his neck against her neck” to prevent her from getting it, according to the affidavit. After eventually retrieving his phone, Cooper told his girlfriend that he would break her phone if she didn’t leave his apartment, he told police.

When Cooper’s girlfriend still did not leave, the Broncos player bit her phone, causing “disabling damage,” both affidavits said.

Cooper’s girlfriend, however, also told a separate officer that Cooper had “grabbed her by the neck” and held her up against the wall for approximately a minute, according to the affidavit for her arrest. Cooper’s girlfriend also said he picked her up and threw her back on the ground approximately three times, and punched the wall “next to her face.”

The officer noted in the affidavit that the marks she observed on the woman’s body were not consistent with such an assault.

“I observed a small mark on (the woman’s) neck, where she claimed Jonathan grabbed her,” the affidavit reads. “I also observed scratches on (her) arm and a small cut on her hand. These markings and scratches did not appear consistent with a larger male lifting (her) up into the air by her throat as well as repeatedly being thrown to the ground. The small mark on (the woman’s) neck did not appear to be consistent with the claim that (she) had been held up in the air by her throat by another individual.”

Cooper’s girlfriend remained in custody in the Douglas County Jail as of Friday afternoon.

Just hours before Cooper’s arrest, the five-year NFL veteran was in a helmet and gear for the Broncos’ third practice of OTAs Thursday, although he didn’t participate in any 11-on-11 team drills.

Cooper was drafted by the Broncos in the seventh round of the 2021 draft and has become one of the team’s core players. He signed a four-year contract extension worth $54 million in November 2024, recording a career-best 10.5 sacks that season and eight sacks in 2025.

“I’m still young in this league,” Cooper told reporters in late January, two days after the Broncos’ season ended with an AFC Championship loss to the Patriots. “And I still have a lot of opportunity to grow, and become an even better player. And that����ap the whole focus in the offseason.”

Cooper’s attorney, Steinberg, is well-known in Colorado for high-profile defense work, including representing former Broncos receiver Jerry Jeudy in a 2022 criminal case.

He tossed a ball lightly to receivers running routes.

He moved around the Broncos’ OTA practice Thursday engaged in what was happening around him.

He just wasn’t participating in the actual practice.

The Broncos third-year quarterback instead watched, talked with new quarterbacks coach Logan Kilgore, chatted with receivers about routes and plays they’d just run, pointed out where the ball was about to be delivered and did it all wearing white tennis shoes, a ball cap and hoodie.

Head coach Sean Payton says Nix will be swapping that apparel for a uniform and helmet soon.

“You don’t see pre-practice, but he’s been throwing,” Payton said. “I do think in our third week, (for minicamp), I think you’ll see more of a role.”

Denver wrapped up its first of two OTA weeks and had reporters in attendance for the first time. The club will have a second week of OTAs Tuesday through Thursday next week and then a three-day, mandatory minicamp June 16-18.

Somewhere in that final week Nix is expected to be back on the field in a more formal, practicing capacity. Whether he practices all three days or does every drill remains to be seen.

Still, Nix doesn’t like standing around doing nothing. Payton in January said he’d find Nix roaming the Broncos’ facility on a scooter after his first of two ankle surgeries.

“You have to know him,” Payton said. “He’s fidgety to begin with.”

Nix, then, will be happy to be back on the football field in a non-observing capacity in the coming weeks, even if it����ap only for a day or two before the team breaks for the summer. He got a taste through his initial rehab after a late-January surgery to repair a fractured ankle, but then had another operation in late April.

Now, he’s getting closer to being back on the field.

“Bo is definitely a competitor. He loves talking ball,” said wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, Nix’s new top target. “He loves just being around the guys. I think he’s going to be a great leader. I can see the traits from him, just day-to-day and everything. If he sees something, he’s going to tell me about it. We just kind of pick each other’s brains and get on the same page the best we can.”

There’s plenty to do for the Broncos, who came within a game of the Super Bowl last year — and may well have made it without Nix’s ankle breaking in overtime against Buffalo. On the list for Nix: Building a rapport with Waddle.

Waddle on Thursday said Nix had been instrumental in helping him feel comfortable in Denver right off the bat. He doesn’t think it’ll take long for the football part to click once Nix is back on the field.

“Bo’s a tremendous player; he’s a playmaker,” Waddle said. “He makes a lot of plays. When you’ve got a guy like that slinging the ball, I don’t think it����ap going to take that much time.”

The Broncos opted not to sign a quarterback for these OTA weeks despite Nix’s absence, so both Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger are getting a ton of work.

Stidham is going into his fourth season with Payton in Denver, while Ehlinger is trying to make a jump in his second year.

“I think considerably,” Payton said when asked about Ehlinger improving in his command of Denver’s offense. “Just today there were a handful of plays that, maybe a year ago at this time (he doesn’t make), just from a terminology standpoint or rhythm. You can see it. It����ap encouraging.”

Sean Payton wants no part of them this summer.

The Broncos head coach on Thursday said his team will not practice against any of its three preseason opponents in August.

Instead, the Broncos will travel to Atlanta and host Green Bay and Minnesota without seeing any additional work against those teams.

Payton said the decision to skip what����ap become a training camp staple around the NFL in recent years stems from Denver’s long postseason run in January.

The Broncos were the last team to start their voluntary offseason program by two weeks when they began lifting and running May 4. They cut out a week of OTAs, too.

All of that, Payton said, means Denver needs a relatively uninterrupted training camp.

“When you do have a joint practice, you miss maybe two days of installation,” he explained. “So this year we know we have the preseason games, but we’re not going to have a joint practice.”

Payton is among the coaches who still plays his starters in preseason games. Many around the league now prefer to let their top guys get work in the more controlled joint practice environment, then play only backups in preseason games.

Payton, though, said he doesn’t pay attention to other teams’ workloads or care when, for example, Green Bay played all of its starters during joint practice work but then held out its top players for a preseason game in Denver two summers ago.

“When we have a joint practice, we pay attention to the reps that we get and the reps they get in the game the next couple days,” he said. “We’ll do the same if we’re not. Obviously we haven’t had a joint practice every preseason week. So we’ll manage their snap counts.”

Doesn’t he think that joint practices are good for evaluating players?

“So are the games,” Payton said. “We play them in the games.”

Jonah Elliss is (mostly) an outside linebacker after all

The Jonah Elliss inside linebacker experiment did not go very far.

Or, at least, it hasn’t so far.

Elliss spent Thursday’s practice working with the Broncos outside linebackers and Payton indicated that����ap mostly where he’ll stay.

“That����ap where his home will be initially,” Payton said. “There may be some packages where he’s inside and we have some flex. But he’s doing too well outside.”

Payton earlier this year said Elliss would get time playing inside and teammates including Nik Bonitto and Alex Singleton talked about believing Elliss could make the transition smoothly.

Instead, he’ll mostly be an outside linebacker along with Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Dondrea Tillman, Que Robinson, Drew Sanders and others.

Broncos will attempt to ‘Go the Distance’

Safety Talanoa Hufanga stepped to the podium Thursday to speak with reporters after practice. He did so wearing a cutoff navy t-shirt that “G.T.D.” in white block lettering.

What does that mean?

“It����ap our strength staff, they come up with a slogan during the offseason,” Hufanga said. “This year it����ap ‘Go the Distance.’ Just being able to finish. We didn’t go the distance last year, so we’ve got to make sure we get that this time.”

Hufanga took his share of responsibility for Denver coming up short last year, saying he needed to do better taking the football away. The safety played high-level football in his first year for the Broncos, but he dropped several potential interceptions, too.

“I got back on the JUGS (machine),” Hufanga said. “The reason I couldn’t get on the JUGS last year — and this is an excuse, I’ll be honest — was I was coming off my wrist surgery. A lot of it was just coming off of wearing a club during the game. That was really uncomfortable and really hard to learn again. My hand-eye coordination was really not great. But that is an excuse. I own up to it and I have to be better.”

Hufanga said he had plenty of chances that were anything but difficult.

“I don’t know I dropped all of them because some of them were gimmes,” he said. “I’m being real with you, man, they dropped right in my lap and I didn’t come out with them.”

Wilson’s announcement came two days after news broke that he was finalizing a deal to become an analyst on CBS’ Sunday NFL pregame show.

“As I enter this next chapter with CBS Sports and ‘The NFL Today,’ I’m so blessed to continue doing what I love most — being around the greatest game in the world,” he said in the video.

Wilson played 14 seasons after being taken by Seattle in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft out of N.C. State. He spent his first 10 seasons with the Seahawks, leading them to their first Super Bowl championship in the 2013 season. He was traded to Denver after the 2021 season and spent two rocky years with the Broncos before playing one season in Pittsburgh and another for the New York Giants.

Wilson threw for 46,966 yards, with 353 touchdown passes and 114 interceptions.

He joins Peyton Manning and Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw at least 20 touchdown passes in each of their first three seasons and is one of seven quarterbacks to be selected to 10 Pro Bowls.

Wilson is the only player in NFL history with at least 30 touchdown passes and fewer than 15 interceptions in four straight seasons. He also had three seasons with at least 30 TD passes and 500 yards rushing, which is the most in NFL history.

In the video, which was about three minutes long, he thanked his teammates, friends and family and gave special thanks to former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

“Thanks for taking a chance on a young, 5-11 Black kid from Richmond, Virginia, that was told he was too small to ever make it in the NFL,” Wilson said.

Wilson is the shortest starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl.

Wilson will replace Matt Ryan, who joined the Atlanta Falcons as president of football after two seasons on “The NFL Today.” Wilson had considered returning for a 15th season, telling the New York Post last month that he was mulling an offer to join the New York Jets and back up Geno Smith.

His video featured highlights from his career and footage of him visiting patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It ended with him thanking his wife, Ciara, and the sport he dedicated his life to.

“I thank you, football. … I am forever grateful,” he said.
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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Denver started the first of two weeks of organized team activities on Tuesday. The team is on the field three days this week and three days next week for voluntary work, then has its mandatory minicamp slated for June 16-18.

The next three weeks, then, are the only time Sean Payton’s team will be on the grass in any formal capacity until training camp begins at the end of July.

It����ap football without pads. It����ap more than three full months before the regular season begins. There is a lot of time left in the offseason and the rush to blow small developments or highlights out of proportion this time of year runs rampant across the league.

Nonetheless, these three weeks do mark important waypoints on the Broncos’ path toward training camp and, ultimately, a “Monday Night Football” opener Sept. 14 at Kansas City.

So, here are four storylines that could realistically be moved forward over the coming weeks.

Is Bo Nix nearing the end of his rehabilitation?

It’s the story that will be a story until it����ap not. And even then, questions about the third-year quarterback’s ankle will linger until he puts another long stretch of healthy play together this fall.

Payton indicated last month that he expected Nix to be around for OTAs, but also that he was more confident Nix would be actually involved in some capacity later this month during the minicamp.

“If it were up to him, it’d be earlier,” Payton said May 9. “But we’re going to be smart.”

Nix fractured his ankle in January late in a postseason win against Buffalo and had surgery shortly after. Payton and others originally indicated that Nix would be full speed at the start of Denver’s offseason program, which started in early May, but a second procedure on the ankle in late April pushed that timeline back.

“You’ll see him (in June),” Payton said. “I’m sure you’ll see him in, probably minicamp maybe, but he’ll be full speed throwing everything in July before we even get back here (for training camp).”

The Broncos have expressed confidence in Nix’s rehab both after the initial surgery and after the second. The coming weeks will give a bit more clarity on where the 26-year-old is in that process.

Who will win playing time in the Broncos’ revamped wide receiver room?

Aside from Nix, the single biggest item of interest when reporters are allowed into OTA practice Thursday will be seeing Jaylen Waddle on the field for Denver for the first time.

The star wide receiver, acquired in March from Miami, will likely have to wait a bit longer to start building rapport with his starting quarterback, but his impact is sure to be felt right away in the receiver room.

Not only does he make a dynamic pairing atop the room with Courtland Sutton, but his arrival and sure-to-be-heavy workload have an impact on the rest of the room.

Exact roles and playing time will be up for grabs through the summer, but that competition is already on.

The list of contenders is long but starts with Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant and Marvin Mims Jr. The Broncos have used all three in different ways over the years and each has his strong suits. Franklin can fly and his production jumped last fall from 28 catches, 265 yards and a pair of touchdowns as a 2024 rookie to 65, 729 and six, respectively. Bryant is tough over the middle and in traffic, has run-after-catch ability and is the group’s best blocker. Mims is explosive and has shown he can play any of the spots or out of the backfield in addition to being a terrific returner.

Maybe by September it����ap as simple as rotating those three guys in with Waddle and Sutton depending on game situation. Maybe somebody grabs control of the No. 3 spot. It’ll be one of the best summer battles on the roster.

Can Jonah Elliss make the ILB transition stick?

There’s no substitute for actually playing full speed and, eventually, tackling, so this will be an ongoing process. The staff has confidence, though, that Elliss can play in the middle of the field and he can begin to show signs of that — or plant the seed for question marks — depending on how the next few weeks go.

One player who’s confident Elliss can make the move smoothly: Veteran inside linebacker Alex Singleton, who will be part of the group trying to help get the 2024 third-round pick up to speed.

“It����ap fun. Anytime a guy can learn more, all the better,” Singleton said Friday of welcoming Elliss into the inside linebacker room. “I actually played inside backer with his brother (Christian), too, so I know, kind of, the mindset he’s going to have about it.

Several players this offseason have noted Elliss’ overall talent and concluded that he needs to be on the field some way, somehow. If him moving inside helps create playing time for young edge rushers like Que Robinson, all the better.

The first steps: Learning the responsibilities and communications in the middle of the field. That’ll be Elliss’ challenge this summer before attempting to show he can play regularly inside during training camp.

Is Jahdae Barron headed for a similar role in Year 2?

The personnel in Denver’s loaded secondary has not changed. Pat Surtain II is the premier cornerback in football and has a new, $5 million raise, too. Riley Moss and nickel Ja’Quan McMillian are both valued players and are both entering contract years, too.

So, where does that leave Barron, Denver’s 2025 first-round pick? He played a modest 30% of defensive snaps as a rookie — and less than that outside of the stretch Surtain missed due to injury.

Will he again compete with McMillian for the nickel job in camp? Will he compete for a starting job outside against Moss and Kris Abrams-Draine? Is he perhaps the third option behind starters Talanoa Hufanga and Brandon Jones at safety after P.J. Locke’s departure this spring? All of the above?

Barron’s time is likely coming with McMillian and Moss both in line for big paydays after the 2026 season, but what does the shorter-term future have in store for him?

Hours after sources confirmed to The Denver Post that Pat Surtain II will get a $5 million raise this year the star cornerback stood in front of benefactors at Topgolf in Centennial for another event in support of his Patrick Surtain II Foundation. Across the last three years, the organization has expanded to siphon out donations for supplies to teachers and establish grants for “Inspiration Rooms” at schools across Colorado, as Surtain’s become a literal massive face in Denver alongside his Broncos ascent.

And the organization moved quickly, with Tuesday’s raise, to preserve Surtain as a pillar in Denver — or risk future discomfort around one of the most team-friendly long-term contracts in the NFL.

“I think it����ap a testament to ownership, and the Broncos as an organization,” Surtain told reporters Tuesday night, asked about the raise. “And, we talked about it, honestly. I want to be here, I want to be a Bronco. So they heavily invested into me, as well, as much as I invested into them.”

“So it’s an honor and a privilege,” he continued, “to be here still.”

That last word was key, and key to Denver’s rationale with the contract adjustment. The two-time, first-team All-Pro cornerback signed a four-year, $96 million extension ahead of the 2024 regular season that almost immediately made him a bargain. Since Surtain’s deal, several other cornerbacks have signed deals at higher per-year averages, including Sauce Gardner ($30.1 million), Derek Stingley Jr. ($30 million), Jaycee Horn ($25 million) and Jalen Ramsey ($24.1 million).

In March, finally, the Rams blew the top off the cornerback market by trading for Chiefs star Trent McDuffie and handing him a four-year deal worth $31 million yearly. That ensured Surtain, who won the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year trophy, sat as the sixth-highest paid cornerback in the league — and would further sink after an anticipated big-money extension for Patriots star cornerback Christian Gonzalez.

“Everybody needs corners,” one NFL agent told The Post in May, discussing the cornerback market. “It����ap going up like crazy. Why? Because wide-receiver values are going up.”

In that vein, then, the Broncos acted pre-emptively to align Surtain’s value closer to an inflated market. He’ll see his base salary increase by $5 million, putting his 2026 payout at $22.6 million from the original $17.6 million he was set to make, according to OvertheCap data.

Still, giving a player a merit raise while already on a long-term deal is a fairly unique move. On Tuesday, Surtain downplayed any notion that he would’ve been dissatisfied playing on his current deal — saying it didn’t cross his mind to hold out through the offseason program — but acknowledged he and the organization saw eye-to-eye on a raise.

“I think we mutually agreed on where things was headed,” Surtain said. “But also, everything was positive.”

If Surtain makes another Pro Bowl or All-Pro team in 2026, too, he’ll receive another bonus of $5 million for 2027, a source told The Post. Nothing is sure in football, but if Surtain is healthy, he is likely to make either an All-Pro team, the Pro Bowl or both. He’s been named to the Pro Bowl four straight seasons and has been named first-team All-Pro twice (2022 and 2024) and second-team once (2025) in that same span.

A straight addition of $5 million in base salary for 2026 would bump Surtain’s cap number this year to $21.832 million, second-highest on the Broncos behind only RT Mike McGlinchey ($23.775 million). Denver has plenty of cap space to absorb the adjustment, having entered June with $25.665 million in room, according to OvertheCap.

That gives the Broncos space to add another free-agent piece before the start of training camp if they so choose, after an offseason of quiet only broken by a splash trade for Dolphins star Jaylen Waddle. But Surtain expressed significant confidence in the roster, as presently constructed.

“I think we’ve got a great team all around,” Surtain smiled, asked on the Waddle addition. “So it����ap more than enough, honestly.”

Ten-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson is finalizing a deal with CBS Sports to become an analyst on the network’s Sunday NFL pregame show, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because the contract hasn’t been completed.

Wilson would replace Matt Ryan, who went to the Atlanta Falcons as the president of football operations. Ryan was on “The NFL Today” in 2024 and ’25. Wilson told the New York Post last month that he was mulling an offer to join the New York Jets and back up Geno Smith.

Wilson has played 14 seasons. He spent his first 10 years with the Seattle Seahawks and led the franchise to its first Super Bowl title during the 2013 season. He was traded to Denver in 2022 where he spent two seasons. He was with Pittsburgh in 2024 and the New York Giants last season.

Wilson has passed for 46,966 yards, 353 touchdowns and 114 interceptions during his career.

James Brown, Bill Cowher and Nate Burleson are expected to return to “The NFL Today” desk.