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?

They have very few starting spots up for grabs, at least on paper.

They have, relatively speaking, very few question marks.

And yet, Sean Payton’s fourth team will have plenty of competition throughout the early portions of the summer and into training camp.

There are, by The Post����ap count, somewhere in the neighborhood of seven to nine spots up for grabs on the 53-man roster at the moment and a pool of perhaps 18-20 players vying for them. Those counts come before any of the inevitable injuries that will crop up between now and the end of August.

This early projection comes before any potential substantial roster move, of which Denver has typically made at least one between OTAs and the start of the regular season. A year ago, for example, the Broncos signed running back J.K. Dobbins in June and then traded receiver Devaughn Vele in August.

It also comes before any big training camp surprise, a young player who makes a strong push or a veteran who suddenly appears out of gas.

Before Payton’s team starts OTAs on Tuesday, here’s an early attempt at a 53-man roster projection. The point of this exercise at this calendar waypoint is merely to mark a starting point and to attempt to determine where the most uncertainty — and opportunity — lies on the Broncos’ current 91-man roster.

Finding 53 among this group requires tough decisions even before any actual football activity has started. There are players that were difficult to leave off the roster and some groups — offensive and defensive lines, in particular — that are deep enough to impact other spots. Payton and general manager George Paton have shown time and time again they value quality players in the trenches.

There are a handful of veterans who could theoretically be considered cut candidates because of a combination of depth and salary, like tight end Evan Engram ($14.14 million cap hit) and left guard Ben Powers ($18.16 million). Denver could trade a veteran or quality player from a position of strength to help fortify elsewhere or accumulate future draft capital.

Among the players who look from this distance likely to exist somewhere around the bubble, however, none has a bigger cap number than offensive lineman Matt Peart����ap $2.39 million or more guaranteed money than quarterback Sam Ehlinger’s $1 million.

So, away we go. Players in the bubble conversation, both above and below the roster cut in this exercise, are in italics.

OFFENSE (25)

Quarterback (3)

Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger

The question, really, with Denver’s quarterbacks is this: two or three? Denver started last year with two when Ehlinger agreed to start the season on the practice squad. If a similar scenario plays out — he’s got $1 million guaranteed — then the Broncos could well take two. Denver values Ehlinger, though, and he’s going to get a bunch of work in OTAs and likely minicamp after Bo Nix had a second ankle procedure last month. This makes for tougher calls at other spots on a deep roster, but let����ap not mess around with the quarterback position when you’ve got players you like. If nothing else, using three as the starting point in this exercise ups the difficulty level the rest of the way.

Running back (4)

J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey, Jonah Coleman and Adam Prentice (FB) 

Also: Jaleel McLaughlin, Tyler Badie and Cody Schrader

Coleman’s selection in the fourth round changes the complexion here by quite a bit. He’s a potential third-down back right away and the Broncos are high on him if he’s needed beyond that early on. With a cleaner-fitting trio of backs, McLaughlin and Badie both have a tough road to the roster. If Denver wanted four plus Prentice, McLaughlin probably heads into the summer with the lead.

Tight end (4)

Adam Trautman, Evan Engram, Justin Joly and Caleb Lohner 

Also: Dallen Bentley, Nate Adkins and Lucas Krull

One of the toughest projections. Lohner gets the nod for the moment after Payton raved about him earlier in May, especially because Payton was particularly impressed with Lohner’s physicality and blocking. This, like many bubble decisions, could come down to who Denver thinks it can get to the practice squad between Lohner and Bentley, the No. 256 overall pick in April. With a bounce-back summer, Adkins could re-establish himself as a key role player. He could end up competing for a spot with Prentice, though, as much as it seems he could play some fullback; the Broncos just haven’t asked him to do it much so far in his career.

Wide receiver (5)

Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims Jr.

Also: Michael Bandy, Lil’Jordan Humphrey, Michael Woods, Cam Ross, Kolbie Katsis, Joseph Manjack and Dane Key

Assuming no trades, it����ap hard to see how anybody besides the top five makes the initial 53-man roster. Waddle was the Broncos’ big offseason splash and, though he will impact playing time for the rest of the room, Denver’s brass has been consistent in saying they’re not looking to move on from any of the regulars. Bandy and Humphrey are no strangers to starting the season on a practice squad and eventually seeing time on the 53-man roster. It’ll be interesting to see if an undrafted rookie like Ross can make the Broncos think twice about going status quo, but that����ap a tall task.

Offensive line (9)

Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz, Mike McGlinchey, Alex Palczewski, Frank Crum, Kage Casey and Alex Forsyth 

Also: Matt Peart, Nick Gargiulo, Calvin Throckmorton, Tyler Miller, Gavin Ortega, Michael Dieter and Nash Jones

The Broncos have enviable depth on their offensive line, but, like with wide receiver, the roles are defined enough that it����ap difficult to imagine a ton of wiggle room. Palczewski and Crum are valued depth and development pieces and Casey, a fourth-round pick, joins them in a similar mold. Forsyth has been the clear No. 2 center for two seasons behind Wattenberg. That����ap nine. Peart and Throckmorton are veterans who have stepped in and played, while Gargiulo showed some promise before a bad preseason knee injury last summer. Miller and Ortega are interesting undrafted rookies but, outside a rash of injuries or major training camp push, it����ap reasonable to think they’re ticketed for the practice squad.

DEFENSE (25)

Defensive line (7)

Zach Allen, DJ Jones, Malcolm Roach, Eyioma Uwauzurike, Tyler Onyedim, Sai’Vion Jones and Jordan Jackson

Also: Matt Henningsen, Jordan Miller and Kristian Williams

A key part of the rationale for going heavy here again: Each of the past two years the roster cutdown has passed and Payton and Paton have made it clear that Jackson made the 53-man roster easily. We’ll bet for now that the same ends up happening this summer. They might decide they just have to have a player at another position. Maybe somebody else is a surprise cut, though among this group 2025 third-rounder Sai’Vion Jones is the only real candidate and that would be a major surprise given they traded up for him and also liked his development last season. So, Payton and Paton instead stick to their principles and go heavy up front once again.

Outside linebacker (4)

Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Que Robinson and Dondrea Tillman

Also: Drew Sanders, Johnny Walker and Dasan McCullough

The first three are absolute locks and there’s not much doubt about Tillman, either. The going gets tough from there. Health has been a major obstacle for Sanders, but if he plays all summer, he’ll probably be productive enough to make the roster. The numbers just get tight elsewhere in a hurry. Keeping four here is really 4.5 in a way because Jonah Elliss can play on the edge if needed, plus a deep defensive line group can help take some work off the edge guys against heavier teams. Sanders is a training camp wild card, though.

Inside linebacker (4)

Alex Singleton, Justin Strnad, Jonah Elliss and Red Murdock 

Also: Jordan Turner, Karene Reid, Levelle Bailey, Taurean York

Once again, this is about roster management and who makes it to the practice squad after the top three. Murdock was Mr. Irrelevant in the draft at No. 257, but forced 17 fumbles in his college career at Buffalo. Turner’s got real promise, so it was not an easy call to leave him off. Reid was a special teams regular after making the initial roster as an undrafted rookie last year, but this is maybe a tougher roster to make despite the release of Dre Greenlaw earlier this spring.

Cornerback (5)

Pat Surtain II, Riley Moss, Ja’Quan McMillian, Jahdae Barron and Kris Abrams-Draine

Also: Reese Taylor, Jaden Robinson, Brent Austin, Ahmari Harvey and Paul Manning

Pretty straightforward here. The major storyline is more about beyond 2026, as McMillian and Moss are both entering contract years. For now, though, this is one of the deepest and most talented cornerback groups in football. Taylor has been a regular on the practice squad and was promoted to the active roster from mid-November on last year. The only question is if new secondary coaches Rob Livingston and Doug Belk see any of the personnel differently than Jim Leonhard and Addison Lynch previously.

Safety (5)

Talanoa Hufanga, Brandon Jones, Devon Key, Miles Scott and JL Skinner

Also: Tycen Anderson and Parker Robertson

There will be competition across multiple position groups based on special teams output. You can put Skinner, Anderson, Scott, Taylor, Turner, Reid, Sanders and more all into that group. The Broncos gave Anderson $650,000 guaranteed in part to be a key special teams player, so he might well make it. But over who? That signing was before Denver drafted Scott. Skinner is entering the final year of his rookie deal and is at a critical point in his career. The way coaches have talked about Key this offseason, he feels like the early favorite to replace P.J. Locke as the No. 3 safety. Denver signed Sam Franklin and gave him $1.34 million in guarantees last year, then cut him in August.

SPECIALIST (3)

PK Wil Lutz, P Jeremy Crawshaw and LS Mitch Fraboni

Also: LS Luke Basso

Not much mystery here. The Broncos signed the rookie Basso as summer competition, but Fraboni’s been solid and is under contract through 2027.

“I was like,” Palczewski told The Post in January, “‘F—in’ Pat Bryant.'”

There are many ways to describe Bryant. Most who try, though, end up offering this simple structure, often involving an expletive and an inflection that nearly crosses the vocal threshold from overwhelming admiration into admonition. The 23-year-old Bryant is not scared of much, and plays like it. He blocks and cuts over the middle with little abandon, the same qualities that Palczewski saw when he was a teenager at Illinois, the same qualities that made Bryant into one of Bo Nix’s favorite scramble targets down the stretch of 2025.

Those same qualities, however, also expose his 204-pound frame to hits that ended his rookie year before it could truly flourish.

“I mean, it����ap a part of the game,” Bryant reflected in early May, at a charity event at Kaiser Elementary School. “I ain’t really dwell that much on it.

“But my main focus this offseason was just, at the end of the day — becoming bulletproof, so I don’t have to deal with any of that.”

The bullets hit hard in 2025. First came a tweaked hamstring, which sidelined Bryant for Week 15’s game against the Packers. Then came Week 16’s brutal late-game concussion against Jacksonville, with Bryant immobilized out of precaution and carted off in the scariest sight of the year at Empower Field. Then came a second, minor concussion in the Broncos’ wild-card matchup against the Bills, with Bryant trudging to the locker room in frustration after a monster opening quarter.

“I was pretty hot,” Bryant recalled, of being ruled out for the rest of the game. “I mean, I was pretty hot. But, that����ap how the game go, I guess. Whoever upstairs … whatever they saw.”

Then, finally, came the cherry on top: another hamstring aggravation and an exit in the AFC Championship Game, in a Patriots matchup where Bryant was already playing in a Guardian cap.

The string of flare-ups completely bucked the momentum of the 2025 third-round pick’s rookie season, as Bryant was establishing himself as a near-irreplaceable piece in Denver’s offense. In his last five active games of the regular season, he racked up 21 combined catches for 229 yards and was consistently playing the most game-to-game snaps of any receiver behind Courtland Sutton. Even as the Broncos’ receiver group has become cluttered with the trade for Jaylen Waddle — who Bryant called a “great add” — no member of the room directly overlaps with Bryant’s mix of tools.

“We got a very diverse room,” Bryant said this month. “Everybody got their different skillset. But at the end of the day, we’re just weapons for Bo.”

Bryant is a unique one. He emerged, as just a rookie, as Sean Payton’s most trusted blocking WR not named Lil’Jordan Humphrey. He proved fully capable of playing at X or at Z receiver. And despite finishing fourth in targets, Bryant had the most yards-after-catch over expected (+29) of any Broncos wide receiver in 2025, according to Next Gen Stats.

Payton’s offense, even with new coordinator Davis Webb at the helm, is still highly likely to hinge on frequent personnel mixing. But if Bryant can bring last year’s late-season impact into this year’s training camp, there’s a clear path to him sticking in three-receiver sets with Sutton and Waddle in 2026.

�ճ����if,��ultimately, hinges on Bryant’s health.

“Sean Payton’s camps are hard,” veteran receiver Trent Sherfield, a Bryant mentor and former Broncos WR, told The Post in February. “Like,��everybody knows that. Going six days in a row. He’s a rookie, right? So trying to get your body back from training camp, and then you go into the regular season — Sean’s regular-season schedule is not a piece of cake, either.

“And so, it����ap gonna take time.”

Bryant told reporters in May that he’s spent most of the offseason at the Broncos’ facility rehabbing his hamstring, rather than returning home to Florida. At Sherfield’s advice, he’s installed a hot tub and a hyperbaric chamber at his home in Denver. Bryant said, too, that he’s “throwing on a couple pounds” this offseason.

“I ain’t really get to build how I want to build (last year),” Bryant said, referencing his strength. “So this offseason, that����ap kinda what I focused on.”

After the Broncos’ first game of 2025 — just two months before Bryant wound up taking his job — Sherfield sat at his locker and marveled at the young receiver’s fearlessness through camp. Bryant’s hands-on routes across the middle, Sherfield told The Post in September, were “rare.” And the veteran then noted the concept of the second-year leap for receivers.

“I think he’s going to make plays this year, too,” Sherfield said then. “But I think next year, the sky’s the limit for him.”

As long, after all, as Bryant’s body isn’t the limit.

They covered everything in Barron’s first NFL offseason. But in particular, Blake recounted in October that the recent Broncos first-round draftee wanted to polish his technique at inside cornerback — where Denver ended up sticking him in a training camp competition.

“I think he saw,” Blake said last fall, “that they saw him in that exact light.”

The way the Broncos see Barron in his second NFL offseason, now, has greater ramifications than his own individual future. Despite a shaky rookie year, the 2024 Texas All-American carries too much natural talent in both his limbs and his mind to stay off the field. And Barron’s development through OTAs, minicamp and later training camp will shape one of the organization’s key short-term questions: should the Broncos pay CB2 Riley Moss or nickel Ja’Quan McMillian?

Both are entering contract years, with 2023 third-round pick Moss on the final year of his rookie deal and former undrafted grinder McMillian playing 2026 on a one-year tender. Denver, of course, already has former Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II on a long-term deal that’s set to see its cap hit increase each year through 2029. And with Barron waiting in the wings, the Broncos are approaching an unmistakable reality in their cornerback room come training camp.

“At some point, they’re gonna be like, ‘Look, we can’t pay three of ‘em,'” one NFL agent told The Denver Post.

This is not an actual issue. More of a decision. The Broncos drafted Barron in the first round in 2025 because he was the best player left on their board —  a “luxury” pick, as former defensive-passing game coordinator Jim Leonhard told The Post earlier this spring. At every turn, through a rookie season in which Barron played just 30% of Denver’s regular-season defensive snaps, the Broncos have justified that pick by pointing to the importance of depth at cornerback.

“When you’re looking at today’s NFL with the DBs and corners especially, they’re tough to find in the offseason without, like, large compensation,” head coach Sean Payton said in early May, asked on future plans for the cornerback room. “So, all of that will kinda work its way — sort itself out.”

It’s a great problem to have, as Broncos general manager George Paton said at this year’s NFL Combine. A “champagne problem,” as an agent told The Denver Post. And Barron gives Denver considerable negotiating leverage to offer team-friendly deals to McMillian and Moss, with the threat that the rising second-year cornerback could simply take one of their starting jobs in training camp, thereby decreasing their market heading into next year’s free agency.

“They’ll use their champagne problem of depth,” the agent told The Post, anticipating the Broncos’ potential negotiating strategy, “to scare everybody involved.”

Paton said at February’s combine that the Broncos still believe Barron can play both inside and outside. And after McMillian had a fringe All-Pro-level season at nickel last year, it’d make sense for Denver’s staff to see if Barron can compete through the offseason and training camp with Moss for the Broncos’ CB2 job opposite Surtain. A source with direct knowledge of the Broncos’ thinking told The Post earlier this spring that Payton, indeed, will likely “push” for Barron to compete with Moss there.

That move would make sense, too, in terms of league valuation. The market for nickel cornerbacks, while steadily increasing with inflation, isn’t close to the demand for proven outside cornerbacks. In 2025, the Bears made Kyler Gordon . Given his production, McMillian could reasonably angle for $15 to $17 million annually from Denver — but may not have much leverage with the open market. Multiple league sources who spoke to The Post pointed out that nickel cornerbacks only carry high value for teams that use them often in their schemes.

“If you’re a Cover 2 team that����ap just playing a lot of three linebackers, two outside corners, two safeties, and you only bring in the nickel very rarely, then that guy’s not very valuable,” one agent told The Post.

By contrast, league demand for proven outside corners is skyrocketing. In early March, the Rams traded for Chiefs All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie and promptly blew the ceiling off the market with a four-year extension worth $31 million annually. A rising tide will lift all boats, and the Titans handed 27-year-old former Saints corner Alontae Taylor — who produced similarly to Moss in 2025 — a three-year deal at an average base value of $19.3 million.

If the Broncos think Barron can beat out Moss in camp, they could look to trade Moss in August for draft value (similar to rookie receiver Pat Bryant pushing Devaughn Vele in last year’s training camp) or simply roll into the year with him as a high-end backup. If Moss were to start again in 2026 and put together a strong year opposite Surtain, though, he could angle for much more on the open market in 2027 than the Broncos would be willing to pay him (similar to John Franklin-Myers’ departure this offseason).

Of course, both paths turn in the Broncos’ short-term favor, as they’ve set themselves up with a litany of options at one of the NFL’s most important positions heading into a year with Super Bowl expectations. Reasonably, they could also elect to simply not pay or move either McMillian or Moss and simply let the string play out in case of injury — which materialized last year, as the Broncos quickly stabilized when Surtain was hurt for three games midseason.

“When you lose a guy like Pat, and you draft to your strengths, that’s one of the reasons you do that,” Payton said last winter.

Drafting to strengths also creates surplus, though. And if the Broncos simply sit on their stash, it could cost them soon enough.

A young Miles Scott, as St. Thomas More football coach Ernest Anderson tells it, was a breath of fresh air in this cloud of hormones.

One night in the 2020 season, Anderson was walking around the halls for bed-checks, knocking on doors for lights-out. Kids, as usual, were fiddling with controllers. Playing “NBA 2K.” Playing “Madden.” Then Anderson cracked open the door to Davis’s room, a transfer who’d come from Illinois for his senior season of high school ball.

Scott was lying in bed, listening to Marvin Gaye to wind down.

“That’s when I knew he was an old soul,” Anderson, formerly Scott’s defensive coordinator, recalled. “And it was really that he was here for one reason.”

Scott, an Illinois receiver-turned-safety drafted in the seventh round this April by the Denver Broncos, has never in his football life been particularly fast. He is well-built. He is strong. He is smart enough that Yale once offered him a scholarship. But his best trait, as former Illinois teammate Kenenna Odeluga said: Scott takes a “pursuit of learning, in everything that interests him, to the highest level.”

He is a talented singer and plays the piano. He is remarkably good with geography. He became fluent in Spanish in college, for reasons unknown. And every game week in his final couple of seasons at Illinois, Scott tracked down Fighting Illini defensive analyst Myers Hendrickson for one-on-one film sessions to study the upcoming opposing quarterback’s tendencies.

Those traits first endeared Scott to Illinois as an unknown walk-on receiver out of St. Thomas More, in 2021. That trait first endeared Scott to the Broncos as an unheralded safety in 2025. Scott is a kid, Odeluga said, who “would give you the skin off his back if he could.” Illinois and Denver both keyed in on him for that same reason.

That is not a coincidence.

“A lot of scouts, all of them ask a lot of the same questions,” said Illinois receivers coach Justin Stepp, describing NFL scouts’ pre-draft process. “And I know, as far as Denver, they ask a lot of the same questions that we ask when we’re out recruiting kids.”

There is a pipeline building from shared philosophy, out a couple of states east. Blue-and-orange to blue-and-orange. Scott is the third Fighting Illini in the past four years, after Alex Palczewski in 2023 and Pat Bryant in 2025, that the Broncos have targeted straight out of Illinois. All are completely different football players. All are the same �쾱�Ի���of football player.

“They might not have been the five-star guys,” Odeluga, who played with all three at Illinois, told The Post. “They’re not the guys that you’ll see … all the hoopla around them. But these are guys that bring their lunch pail to work every day, do what the coaches tell them, do it to the best of their ability, and then are there when the team needs them the most. And those are just — lunch-pail guys.”

Tough, smart, dependable

In five seasons under head coach Bret Bielema, Illinois has advanced from perennial Big Ten loser to Big Ten contender, despite landing just . In Champaign, Bielema hires, recruits, and begins and ends team meetings with the same three-word motto: tough, smart, dependable. These are not exactly novel foundational values. But they happen to be nearly identical to the same principles that Sean Payton brought as New Orleans’ first-year head coach in 2006, and brought to rebuild Denver in 2023, and the same principles that Payton’s mentor, Bill Parcells, operated by

“Bill really helped and still helps Sean with personnel, as far as knowing what he needs at O-line, D-line, different positions around the team as a head coach,” former Saints linebacker Scott Shanle told The Post last year. “There’s no doubt about it — Bill Parcells, you would never be in the Bill Parcells doghouse if you knew what you were doing, you executed, you played hard, and you didn’t get hurt.

“Bill hated hurt players. Sean hates players who are hurt.”

Intangible values have become tangible roots, intertwining across the 1,000 miles from the Rockies to the American Midwest. Palczewski, the first Bielema-era product to land with Payton’s Broncos, is a 6-foot-6 Polish offensive lineman who looks more like a freight handler than a football player at first glance. But he authored the , and became a roster lock in the 2023 preseason after going undrafted.

“Tough, smart,” Payton said of Palczewski, then. “He’s played a lot of football. It����ap not always pretty, but there is this quality of — he gets the job done.”

As the 26-year-old Palczewski has become an indispensable part of Denver’s offensive line and earned himself a two-year extension this offseason, Bielema . Every single time Illinois hosts a potential offensive-line recruit on campus, Bielema pulls up that tweet and shows them Payton’s words about Palczewski.

“Tough, smart, dependable has nothing to do with your ability — it has to do with the way you think and act, right,” Bielema said. “And here’s Sean Payton saying two words that we preach every day.”

Since Palczewski’s arrival, Denver has created a new, direct tie to Illinois with each passing year. In 2024, the Broncos hired Jim Leonhard — who’d been a senior football analyst at Illinois — as their defensive passing-game coordinator. In Denver, Leonhard fed Payton and the Broncos’ offensive staff information on Bryant, an ascending 6-foot-2 receiver and a hand-in-glove fit for Payton’s utilization of wide receivers. Payton eventually credited Leonhard for his insight into Bryant’s makeup, a clutch target and avid blocker who Stepp said would often beat Bielema to Illinois’ building in the mornings.

Roughly a month before the 2025 NFL Draft, members of the Broncos’ staff called Illinois with specific requests of film on Bryant. One, Bielema said, was a cut-up of one-on-one practice reps of Bryant working against current Seahawks All-Pro corner Devon Witherspoon, a former Illinois All-American in 2022. Such tape, Bielema said, showed Bryant was “very successful” against Witherspoon.

The Broncos had another specific request for Illinois with those tapes, Stepp recounted: do �Դdz���tell another team they’d requested that film, for fear of tipping their interest in Bryant.

“I would tell you the Denver Broncos — in my opinion, they know who they are and they know who they want to be,” Bielema told The Denver Post. “And they target players, and do an unbelievable amount of recon to try and make sure that what they’re looking at is the reality of what they’re going to get.”

On Denver’s radar

Enter Scott, the latest Illinois-to-Denver tie — and one that’s quietly been brewing for a while. In 2025, shortly before the Broncos drafted Bryant, the Fighting Illini hired Mike Neu as an offensive assistant. Neu is a longtime Payton associate, having served as a scout for New Orleans in 2006 and later the Saints’ quarterbacks coach from 2014 to 2015. And shortly into Neu’s time in Illinois, he reached out to Payton and asked if he and members of the Fighting Illini’s staff could shadow in Denver’s building during offseason activities.

Payton acquiesced. Bielema, Stepp, Neu, offensive coordinator Barry Lunney Jr. and former defensive coordinator Aaron Henry (now at Notre Dame) spent three days in the 2025 offseason with the Broncos, observing in meeting rooms and watching practices. Stepp was struck, he told The Post, by how similarly Denver structured practice to Illinois. Neu sat in on quarterback meetings, and wound up taking some bunch-formation concepts back to Illinois for quarterback Luke Altmyer’s senior season. Henry spent time picking the brain of Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and implemented concepts from Denver’s schemes against 12-personnel (two-tight-end) formations into Illinois’ system.

And on that excursion — nearly a year before their seventh-round selection rolled around this draft — Broncos staffers asked Bielema about Scott.

“I knew this was a guy,” Bielema said, “that had been on their radar for a while.”

True to Denver’s attempts to camouflage their interest, Scott told The Post at rookie minicamp that he “didn’t have a clue” the Broncos were interested in him pre-draft until they reached out to host him on a top-30 visit. And in many ways, this journey to Denver is unlikely. Scott walked on at Illinois in 2021 after receiving exactly two collegiate offers at St. Thomas More, and spent two years as a backup receiver. After his second season, Bielema told Scott he’d put him on scholarship if he moved to defensive back.

Scott looked at Bielema like he’d grown three heads. But a scholarship was a scholarship.

Across the next three seasons, Scott started 37 of a possible 38 games at safety for Illinois, intercepted seven passes, and was named captain twice. His journey embodied Bielema’s foundational ideals. So did his personality, a quiet and multitalented individual who captured pin-dropping silence when he spoke.

“If there’s a guy that I would say that I could lean on to give me the pulse of the locker room — offense, defense, or special teams — it was definitely Miles Scott,” Bielema said.

In a true rarity, former Illinois defensive coordinator Henry entrusted Scott as Illinois’s green-dot play-caller from his free-safety slot. And Scott’s on-field transition should be easier, Henry anticipates, because of similarities in Illinois and Denver’s defensive schemes. Both the Broncos and Fighting Illini, Henry explained, run a lot of “bare” formations — a five-man rush with three defenders deep.

“Miles was the catalyst of that,” Henry said. “He was very, very, very intelligent, and knew exactly what I wanted to get done.”

He’s a player, then, that Denver sees fitting its system, and is the latest Fighting Illini who could fit neatly into the Broncos’ locker room, too. Palczewski has become a beloved figure on the offensive line for his versatility (and remarkably colorful mouth). Bryant has become a beloved figure in his receiver room for his fearlessness (and remarkably colorful mouth). The 24-year-old Scott, now, will find his own corner.

“That night on draft day that Denver selected him,” Neu recounted, “I kinda got chills. Just because I know he’ll be such a great fit.”

After a pro tryout from Friday through Sunday, Denver is signing 26-year-old receiver Michael Woods II, multiple sources confirmed to The Denver Post. It’s a standard one-year, veteran-minimum deal for Woods II, who spent last year on the Packers’ practice squad.

The Broncos weren’t done there, either, also adding undrafted-rookie cornerback Paul Manning on a standard rookie deal, sources confirmed. It’s a win for the Division II-to-NFL pipeline, as the 6-foot-1 Manning hails from Henderson State and tried out along with dozens of Division I rookies at the Broncos’ minicamp this weekend.

The moves would bring the Broncos to 93 on their offseason roster (92 countable players with punter Jeremy Crawshaw’s international roster exemption), meaning corresponding cuts are coming to ensure the club stays at the NFL’s offseason limit of 90.

A product of Arkansas and Oklahoma, the 6-foot-1 Woods II was a sixth-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2022. He caught 12 passes for 110 yards over parts of three seasons with the Browns, and his name may carry some familiarity in Denver: he had a career-best three catches for 43 yards in 2024’s 41-32 Denver shootout win over Cleveland.

The Broncos now have a considerable amount of clutter in their receiver room, beyond the already-set fivesome of Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Troy Franklin, Marvin Mims Jr. and Pat Bryant. Woods II will now compete with veterans Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Michael Bandy — and four undrafted rookies in Dane Key, Cam Ross, Joseph Manjack IV and Kolbe Katsis — for a 53-man or practice-squad slot.

The Manning addition, too, also ensures Denver is carrying 11 cornerbacks on their offseason roster. Expect those WR and CB rooms to be thinned out in coming weeks and months, as the Broncos march on towards training camp.

This story will be updated.

Every new face who shows up to the Broncos’ rookie minicamp has their own approach to pre-draft conditioning, leaving them in various stages of physical readiness for a three-day intensive weekend of football. Some, as Payton said, are in great shape. Some are so-so. And some, well — some need a Peloton.

Jonah Coleman does not need a Peloton.

The Broncos’ much-bandied fourth-round running back out of Washington, Coleman has looked “really good” at Denver’s rookie camp this weekend, Payton told reporters Saturday. In the locker room later, Coleman revealed the reason why: a combination of boxing, treadmill cardio, and running on the street in a sauna suit to decrease breathability. The 220-pound running back, after all, will have to adjust to the altitude in Denver.

Not terribly hard, as he’s shown before.

“I’ve been through anything and everything,” Coleman told reporters. “The last time I played here in Boulder — 11 carries, 180 (yards).”

It was actually 179, back when Coleman and Arizona came to Boulder in November 2023. The point stuck. That game, a 34-31 Wildcats win in the first year of the Shedeur Sanders era, was the first impression Coleman left on the state of Colorado before the Broncos landed on him two years later. He was a home-run hitter on that Saturday afternoon: runs of 21, 24, 49 and 54 yards.

The Broncos, though, drafted Coleman more for his ability to hit singles and doubles in an NFL offense. And his supplementary and third-down skills have stood out, two days into his time in Denver’s building.

“Most of the time, when you’re drafting or signing a college running back, there’s going to be a learning curve with protections,” Payton said Saturday. “Certainly the complexity, sometimes what they see. But that was his strong suit, when you were looking at his tape. Like, it����ap different than the rest of the class.”

In addition to the pass-protection hype, Coleman’s pass-catching skills were on full display on the second day of rookie minicamp. He dropped just one pass against 88 career collegiate catches, according to Pro Football Focus, and caught several in a variety of team situations Saturday. Coleman turned up the right sideline nicely on one flare screen in a seven-on-seven period, and ran so furiously on a screen in a later 11-on-11 period that he literally ran over one of his own offensive linemen.

Beyond Coleman, a number of drafted and undrafted rookies have made strong first impressions at the Broncos’ rookie minicamp. Here are four more things The Post learned about this incoming Denver class from observing Saturday’s session.

1. The Broncos like their rookies on the offensive front.

One massive takeaway: undrafted tackle Tyler Miller is a ����������������human being. The Iowa State product looks every bit of a near 6-foot-9 measurement, and started at right tackle for rookie units in 11-on-11 team periods. The Broncos and offensive-line coach Zach Strief found a winner in 2024 with 6-foot-7 tackle Frank Crum, who surprisingly cracked Denver’s roster as an undrafted rookie out of Wyoming in 2024; Miller could be next in the mold of large, under-the-radar but high-upside Broncos tackles.

Payton said Saturday that Denver was able to sign some undrafted offensive linemen that they had “draftable grades on.” That likely includes Miller. That could also include Weber State’s Gavin Ortega, a versatile 6-foot-5 piece who sports golden-blonde locks flowing from the back of his helmet. Throw that together with the Broncos’ fourth-round draftee Kage Casey, and there’s potential here.

“It’s an impressive-looking group,” Payton said.

Casey, notably, was playing left guard during team periods Saturday. That’s where he could fit in Denver long-term, as veteran LG Ben Powers is on the final year of his deal.

2. Cam Ross and Dane Key are the early WR favorites to stick past August. 

The two undrafted free agents authored two of the standout plays of minicamp. Ross, a well-traveled collegiate receiver who graduated from Virginia, showed off 4.42-second speed on a blazing deep ball — from veteran Nathan Peterman, no less. Key, the brother of Broncos safety Devon Key, fought off good coverage from UDFA cornerback Brent Austin to make a fantastic back-shoulder grab down the left sideline in a later 11-on-11 period.

It’ll be exceedingly difficult for either to make the initial 53-man roster, with the Broncos’ top five WRs set (Courtland Sutton, Jaylen Waddle, Troy Franklin Pat Bryant, Marvin Mims Jr.) and veterans Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Michael Bandy hanging around. The 6-foot-2 Key, though, could offer an upside practice-squad body. And Ross, in particular, caught coaches eyeballs’ Saturday. He’s much thicker than his 5-foot-9 frame suggests on paper.

“Speed and IQ,” Ross told The Post, asked what he feels he’s shown coaches. “Most important, I just want to show them I know where to line up and I know what I’m doing. For me, I take pride in that.”

3. Justin Joly is a younger Evan Engram, in style.

The Broncos moved up in the fifth round of the 2026 draft to pick the 6-foot-3 Joly as a classic F-type tight end, a receiver who can thrive with pre-snap movement and winning in open space. That’s the same reason they signed veteran Evan Engram in last year’s free agency. At first glance, Joly profiles quite similarly to the 31-year-old Engram, who faded in and out of offensive plans in a 50-catch 2025 season.

In team periods Saturday, Joly motioned around the slot and outside, similar to how Engram lined up throughout practices last year. And Joly’s ability to stick in Denver and compete with Engram in camp will ultimately come down to Payton’s trust in Joly as a blocker, as Engram was on the field in a blocking role for just 18% of his snaps in 2025.

Another potential differentiator: Joly’s ability as a vertical threat in the red zone. The NC State product had seven touchdowns on 49 catches last year, and authored a quiet highlight early in a receiving drill when he somehow leapt to tip a pass well behind him — and somehow snagged it while falling to the turf.

“If you want to put me in the backfield, if you want to put me anywhere on the field, I’ll do it,” Joly said, asked on his role. “Even if they want me to play defense. Just let me know, and I got you guys.”

4. Kurt Warner’s son may find his way back this summer.

After Bo Nix’s follow-up ankle procedure caused quite the stir in recent weeks, Payton said Nix could still end up throwing in minicamp later in June. He all but ruled Nix out for OTAs at the beginning of the month, though. It’s possible that the Broncos could just roll with the backup tandem of Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger, for however many periods Nix is sidelined.

In the meantime, though, Denver could take a long look back at a notable name at rookie minicamp Saturday: quarterback EJ Warner, the son of Hall of Famer Kurt Warner. The Fresno State product didn’t exactly wow with size — a visible tick shy of a 5-foot-11 pre-draft measurement — but displayed solid timing and kept the rhythm humming on Saturday.

“This Warner looks, reminds me a lot of Chase Daniel,” Payton said, referring to a former New Orleans backup in Daniel. “If you see his height, weight, size and speed, they’re very similar. He’s done a nice job. He’s done a very nice job.”

He has become a constant, the second-longest-tenured receiver on the Broncos’ roster, yet his role has constantly been in flux.

He mans a unique spectrum of positions, but has never settled into consistent usage at any of them outside of returning punts and kickoffs.

He is the Broncos’ first draft pick of the Sean Payton era, but has not become the kind of staple player so many others have over the past three seasons.

He is headed into a crossroads season in 2026, the final of his rookie contract, despite having just turned 24 years old.

Now he’s back in Denver for the club’s offseason program, the next step in what has already been a period of change all around one of the Broncos’ steadiest players.

“It����ap going to be different. It����ap going to be real different,” Mims said of the upcoming season on Friday after he and fellow receiver Pat Bryant dished out more than 200 pairs of sneakers to kids at Kaiser Elementary School. “I’m looking forward to it. Year 4, I’m getting old real fast. But I’m looking forward to it.”

Mims is hardly getting old, but he’s right about the rest of it.

After the season ended, Payton fired receivers coach Keary Colbert and coordinator Joe Lombardi and told reporters — not for the first time — that one of the takeaways from his initial staff debrief was the need to use Mims more.

That, of course, was before Payton promoted Davis Webb to offensive coordinator and handed him play-calling duties. Before Payton hired Ronald Curry as his new receivers coach, Willie Snead IV as a quality control coach and John Morton as passing game coordinator. Before Denver swung a blockbuster trade for star receiver Jaylen Waddle.

If Mims started the offseason thinking he was in for a bigger role going into Year 4, does he have any idea what it will look like after all that upheaval?

“We’ll see,” he said. “Things are going to change offensively, for sure, with Davis Webb being there. Me, for the past three years, I’ve done a little bit of everything. We’ll see what they come up with this offseason. Luckily, I’m able to do stuff on special teams as well.

“One thing I’ve taken pride in the past three years is just making an impact on the team however I can. Different moments of the game, wherever we need. I just try my best to try to get the job done, try to do my best.”

Waddle is the type of player who won’t just have an impact on Mims’ playing time. He will change the orbit of Denver’s offense entirely.

He’s going to be on the field a ton, along with Courtland Sutton. The Broncos’ third receiver could at any given time be Mims, Bryant, Troy Franklin or somebody else.

Waddle is going to command defensive attention and command targets, too.

“Every time I hear about Jaylen Waddle, I just immediately think back to his days at Alabama,” said Mims, speaking to reporters for the first time since the March trade. “A guy who is gritty, did a lot, explosive, fast, tough player. I don’t remember what he hurt, but I just remember him trying to play in the national championship game with something broken. That just tells you who he is as a person.

“He’s had a heck of a career in Miami, and I think we’re lucky to be with him.”

Mims called it “weird” to be going into a contract year and said he hasn’t had any conversations with the Broncos about a potential extension, though he said it was possible his agent had.

He and the Broncos know each other well at this point. He’s one of the best return men in the game, and whenever Denver has needed him to step up, he has.

He caught fire down the stretch of the 2024 season. When injuries hit in the postseason earlier this year, Mims caught all eight targets for 93 yards and a last-minute, go-ahead touchdown in a divisional-round win over Buffalo.

He doesn’t know how much run he’ll get this fall, let alone if he’ll be in line to surpass the 45 targets he’s averaged over his first three seasons.

He thinks things will be different, though, and that, even with Waddle’s arrival, might be a good thing.

“For me, it����ap just answering the door when the bell is rung,” he said. “I feel like I’ve done that pretty well the past three years, but when I get my opportunities, make the most of it. Be a good teammate and assist the team in however many ways they want. This year, the team we have, the roster we have, how far we went last year, we’re all expecting a Super Bowl this year. …

“We all want to take that next step this year and we need people that are willing to be selfless and put their best foot forward, no matter what it looks like and try to get us back to that next level.”

— Fred Waiss, Prairie du Chien, Wis.

Hey Fred, thanks for reading, as always, and thanks getting us going from the confluence of the Mississippi and the Wisconsin.

It����ap a fascinating question and the true answer is that there’s no clear answer yet, but city officials — particularly Mayor Mike Johnston — are really excited about the possibilities. In fact, when I talked to Johnston back in September as the Broncos finalized Burnham Yard as their preferred site for a new stadium, the mayor was equally excited to talk about the future of the current Empower Field site. He called it, “a once-in-a-century opportunity.”

“When will you ever get 80 acres of central Denver back, that the city owns, to be able to completely redevelop with community voice?” Johnston said then. “That����ap unheard of. It����ap just such a critical place where it����ap deeply engaged in Sun Valley and the identity of West Denver. It����ap also the connection to downtown. You can imagine how you could live right there on the old Mile High site and you could walk right under the bridge and you’re at the Auroria campus or you’re at Ball Arena or downtown.

“It����ap going to be an incredible opportunity for the West side of Denver.”

It, of course, will not be an incredible opportunity any time in the very near future. In fact, the city website says the planning process to develop a vision for what happens at the old Mile High site is set to kick off in “late 2027.” Then, if everything proceeds on time at Burnham Yard and the project moves forward, the Broncos wouldn’t start playing there until the 2031 season. Once the lease runs out after the 2030 season, then the city would take over control of Empower Field.

In general, though, there is a wide range of possibilities for what happens to the land, and part of what makes it unique is that the city owns it. There will almost undoubtedly be some community uses, such as parks, open space, and public facilities. But, in Johnston’s telling, the city’s stewardship of the land also means the potential for more affordable housing or creative development projects.

“If it����ap all owned by a private developer, we’re begging them to do a little more affordability here and a little more affordability there,” Johnston said back in September. “When we own the land, the people get to set all the terms for what happens there. That����ap unheard of. There’s not a place where we could afford to acquire that much land to be competing with private developers who would jack up the prices.

“This is a real game-changer for West Denver to have these two neighborhoods that will be places that are both incredibly exciting and attractive and can stay affordable. That����ap the big win for the city.”

There could also be some Denver Water presence in the area, given that the utility submitted a concept plan that includes using the current Lot M at Empower Field as part of its partial relocation from the Burnham Yard area.

So, the short answer to your question, Fred, is that there aren’t concrete answers or fleshed-out ideas yet. But it����ap something the mayor and city officials are already excited about the possibility of.

How does this current Broncos roster compare to last year’s team at this same point of the offseason? Better? Worse? Same?

— Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y.

Hey Ed, thanks for writing in.

With the caveat that we haven’t seen this group on the field and won’t in any meaningful way for a while, it looks like a better roster to me. There are certainly positions where you’re not quite sure exactly who fills a spot — John Franklin-Myers’ on the defensive line and P.J. Locke as a third safety, for example — but there are also upgrades and development to take into consideration.

At this stage of the offseason last year, J.K. Dobbins hadn’t yet signed. We didn’t know if Troy Franklin would take a Year 2 leap or what contributions Denver’s offense would get from rookies like Pat Bryant and RJ Harvey.

This spring, you retain the vast majority of contributors from last year’s team and add a fresh draft class to the mix. Oh, right, and also the mega spring trade for receiver Jaylen Waddle.

There are always twists and turns through training camp, and injuries always crop up, but this is going to be a really tough 53-man roster to make. Start with the quarterback and a crop of All-Pros and work your way through the depth chart. As a first-blush starting point, it����ap difficult to find more than maybe 8-10 spots up for grabs.

Hey Parker, my big question for you is: Have the Broncos done enough this offseason to win the AFC West again? While we were the best team last year, we had a lot of close calls. I love that we traded for Jaylen Waddle because he’s going to open up our offense, but we still need a strong No. 1 tight end. We need an answer at ILB to counter opposing tight ends. We need a better running game (J.K. Dobbins is good, but he’s fragile).

Tell me why this team will do well next year.

— Mike, Denver

Hey Mike, thanks for writing in and good question. The Broncos won the AFC West by three games a year ago and head into training camp feeling like they’ve got a roster that’s deeper and more talented than last year’s. Not a complete list, obviously, but you can look at the starting group and say they essentially lost John Franklin-Myers and gained Jaylen Waddle. They added a draft class that may not be asked to produce a ton right away, but running back Jonah Coleman and tight end Justin Joly have a chance to help solidify the depth chart right away and maybe push for time depending on how veterans who have dealt with injuries in their careers — J.K. Dobbins and Evan Engram, respectively — hold up through the fall.

The Broncos are widely considered to have few major areas of concern, assuming quarterback Bo Nix is fully healthy when training camp begins. They’re peppered near the top of outlets’ post-draft NFL power rankings (No. 3 on ESPN and The Athletic, as a couple of examples). However, the betting odds tell a little bit of a different story at this point. DraftKings, for example, has a tight AFC West race brewing but puts Kansas City (+160) and the Los Angeles Chargers (+190) ahead of Denver (+220) to win the division. BetMGM pegs the Chiefs’ and Chargers’ win totals at 10.5 and the Broncos’ at 9.5.

Part of that is Denver’s schedule being far more challenging than it has been in recent years. They’ve got 10 games against 2025 playoff teams and that, of course, does not include a pair against division-rival Kansas City. The Chiefs’ prospects in 2026 look a lot different, of course, if QB Patrick Mahomes (ACL), is on the field from Week 1 rather than missing the first few weeks. The Chargers won 11 games last year despite a slew of injuries, including to their terrific pair of starting tackles. Losing defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is a big blow, but gaining Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator is big, too.

The regular season always takes its toll, but sign me up for a stretch run where all three teams are right in it. That sounds like fun.

I feel like if Bo Nix didn’t break his ankle after the Bills game, we would’ve beaten the Pats and gone to the Super Bowl. Do you think the Broncos would’ve been able to beat Seattle? I think we’d put up a better fight than the Pats did.

— Tim, Golden

Hey Tim, thanks for writing. One of the most popular questions of the offseason and my answer is, I think, similar to what a lot of others would say. I do think the Broncos would have beaten New England and played in the Super Bowl. I don’t think anybody was beating Seattle. Would it have been more competitive than the game we all saw? Yeah, probably.

Alas, we’ll never know for sure.

Hey Parker, do you think Bo Nix will use his legs earlier in the season as he did in his rookie year, or will they try to make him more of a pocket passer in Year 3?

— David M., Denver

Hey David, thanks for writing in and good question.

The Broncos coaches and Bo Nix all believe that he can play and win from the pocket, but it����ap also clear when you watch him play that his legs are a big part of what makes him special. I’d be really surprised if Nix used the fractured ankle and two subsequent operations as a reason for being less aggressive running. If he were limited in some way, that’d be another story, but at this point, there’s no indication that would be the case by the time September rolls around.

More than the ankle, some of how Nix plays and the kind of running situations he’s put in will depend on whether we see any substantial change in offensive approach with offensive coordinator Davis Webb taking over as Denver’s primary play-caller. Will he be interested in dialing up the usage of the designed quarterback run game? Will he want Nix in the pocket more frequently? Obviously, head coach Sean Payton is still going to have a heavy influence on game plan design, but if Webb is calling all or most of the plays, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Nix’s usage — and the roles of other offensive skill players — change at least a little bit.

Yes — the Broncos’ head coach is quick to admit he covets larger receivers.

“It’s not that I don’t like smaller receivers,” Payton said last June, on third-round pick Pat Bryant. “I do. But the bigger receivers that can block and are physical at the line of scrimmage … he showed those traits.”

These Broncos already had so many in their room — Courtland Sutton, Bryant, Troy Franklin — that they traded 6-foot-5 wideout Devaughn Vele to the New Orleans Saints before the start of the 2025 season for draft capital. A year later, though, they’ve brought another batch of undrafted rookies into the fray to compete for a roster spot.

Nebraska’s Dane Key stands 6-foot-2 and a half. TCU’s Joseph Manjack IV is 6-foot-2. Charlotte’s Sean Brown, a complete unknown in the draft process who currently has less than 300 followers on Twitter, measures 6-foot-3. Along with speed receivers Kolbe Katsis and Cam Ross, all will vie for a roster spot in training camp on undrafted free-agent contracts with the Broncos — even as Denver has a wealth of resources in the room following its March trade for Dolphins Pro Bowl receiver Jaylen Waddle.

Regardless of any pre-existing surplus, the Broncos are known among agents across the NFL as a premier destination for undrafted clients. Payton, for a brief time early in his tenure with the New Orleans Saints, would offer scouts cash out of his own pocket for hitting on an undrafted rookie who eventually made the roster. And the organization will take an intriguing crop of 14 undrafted prospects into this weekend’s rookie minicamp, the first time draft picks and tryout players alike will put on pads in Denver.

The Broncos are currently sitting at 93 countable players on the offseason roster, over the offseason limit of 90. They’ll need to cut three names by the start of Friday’s rookie minicamp to meet NFL compliance, and those names could come from this list. For now, here’s a hype meter on each of Denver’s post-draft free-agent rookie class.

The blue-chipper

ILB Taurean York, Texas A&M: The single most productive player Denver signed who didn’t get drafted, York started 39 straight games for the Aggies since his true freshman season and will become the youngest player (at 20 years old) on the Broncos’ current roster. He didn’t get drafted for one key reason: he stands 5-foot-10, and his athleticism — despite running the 40-yard-dash in a solid 4.59 seconds — isn’t explosive enough to overcome size concerns. All that said, though, he has the kind of grit and IQ that Payton and Denver’s entire building loves.

“He doesn’t run a 4.3 … but mentally, that kid plays at a 3.9,” said Scott Stewart, York’s former Temple High coach. “I mean, there is not a scheme out there that he doesn’t understand or won’t understand.”

Two undrafted inside linebackers, Karene Reid and Jordan Turner, became 53-man roster stalwarts by the end of 2025. Don’t be surprised if York’s next.

Athletic upside swings

OT Tyler Miller, Iowa State: The rationale here is pretty simple — tackles with this kind of size don’t just sprout from collegiate fields. Miller stands 6-foot-8-plus, weighs 324, and has above-average arm length at 34.1 inches. Add in a decent 40-yard dash (5.21 seconds) and an explosive broad jump (9 feet, 9 inches) in pre-draft testing, and Miller could easily be the next developmental offensive lineman in the pipeline for coach Zach Strief. He took major strides as a pass-protector in his final season at Iowa State, too

LB/S Dasan McCullough, Nebraska: No clue where he fits on an NFL field, but it could be fun to figure out. In his second season at Oklahoma in 2023, the 6-foot-5 hybrid defender played what the Sooners dubbed the “Cheetah” position — a hybrid linebacker-safety-nickel role tasked with a variety of different assignments against the run and pass. He never quite found a consistent position in college, but showed flashes of potential as both a pass-rusher and dropping back into coverage. Have fun, Vance Joseph.

OL Gavin Ortega, Weber State: Ortega primarily played tackle his last three years at Weber State, and was largely excellent, but will likely shift inside in the NFL due to his height (6-foot-5). His pre-draft testing , and he should have versatility across a variety of different spots on the offensive line, a quality the Broncos love.

WR Cam Ross, Virginia: One of the weirder collegiate careers you’ll see. Ross had 723 yards as a freshman at UConn in 2019, played just five games combined over the next three seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic and injuries, and has played for three schools in the last three years. He caught 53 passes in his final stop at Virginia in 2025, and his speed — a 4.42-second 40-yard dash — made him a return threat on both punts and kicks. The Broncos want another credible returner next to Marvin Mims Jr., so there’s opportunity there.

The Payton-types

WR Dane Key, Nebraska: In what’ll become a notable under-the-radar storyline in training camp, Key is the younger brother of Broncos safety and All-Pro safety Devon Key. He’s got game in his own right, too, with 2,322 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns across four collegiate seasons. Key showcased strong skills as a blocker and decent hands in college, but will need to carve out a role as a trusty possession receiver and special-teamer to have any shot at cracking Denver’s initial 53-man roster.

WR Joseph Manjack IV, TCU: Look at Manjack’s tape back at Houston in 2023, and there’s something here. He racked up 577 yards and six touchdowns in just 10 games as a sophomore, before his production fell off as a junior and he transferred to TCU for a final season. Manjack’s vertical, speed and agility testing are all solid at his 6-foot-2 height, and he’s got the frame and athleticism to earn a long glance in training camp.

WR Sean Brown, Charlotte: Where’d Brown come from? After two quiet seasons at under-the-radar Charlotte, he racked up 35 and 36 catches in each of his last two seasons, respectively. The size is the draw here, but Brown never had much red-zone production in college.

College production is there, but is the upside?

CB Brent Austin, Cal: Finding a roster spot as a cornerback, with the Broncos’ current roster makeup, is probably the toughest task possible for any undrafted newcomer in training camp. Austin, though, surrendered just a 46% catch rate in 2025 at Cal (according to Pro Football Focus) and has at least 10 passes defensed in each of his last two seasons. He’ll likely project as more of an inside corner at 6-foot-11.

CB Ahmari Harvey, Georgia Tech: Harvey actually profiles quite similarly to Austin, allowing a 44% catch rate in his snaps in 2025 and also standing 5-foot-11. His 1.52-second 10-yard split in pre-draft testing, though, suggests better foot speed. Harvey actually also played with Bo Nix at Auburn as a true freshman in 2021, before transferring to Georgia Tech.

The special-team standouts

WR Kolbe Katsis, Northern Arizona: An FCS product, Katsis has top-of-the-line speed, with a 4.43-second 40-yard-dash and 1.52-second 10-yard-split. He was dominant at NAU in 2025, with 1,016 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns, and ran back a kickoff for a touchdown. That last point is important, as he’ll likely profile more as a returner. Again, there’s an opportunity to impress special-teams coordinator Darren Rizzi there.

S Parker Robertson, Oklahoma State: Robertson worked his way from a reserve role to a starter across five seasons at Oklahoma State, and his program loyalty and steady improvement would likely endear him to Denver’s staff. He had 8.5 tackles for loss and a couple of picks in 2025, and played consistent special-teams snaps the last three seasons. If he shows more upside on kickoff units than secondary depth options like JL Skinner or Reese Taylor, Robertson could grind his way to a roster spot.

CB William Wright, Tennessee: Similar to Robertson, Wright grinded out five seasons at Tennessee — but never actually graduated to a starting role in the secondary. He had more snaps on special teams, in fact, than on defense across his collegiate career. That’s great versatility, but Wright will need to prove he can cover at an NFL level to have any chance at making his mark in training cmap.

LS Luke Basso, Oregon: Yes — a long-snapper deal. The Broncos currently have veteran Mitchell Fraboni under contract, but here’s some competition. Basso played with Nix at Oregon for two years, and was named second-team All-Big Ten by coaches in 2024 and 2025.