“Hustle back!” Julian Lewis barked. “Hustle back now!”

The grade schoolers running wild crayon patterns in the end zone perked up their ears. Within seconds, Lewis’ clowder of cats was successfully herded and lined up near the 15-yard line, a row of forward leans waiting for the CU Buffs’ young quarterback to fire.

One kid ran a stumbling skinny post. Another staggered into a fly pattern. flicked his wrist, hitting the latter with the high arc of a paper wad finding an office trash can, leaving tiny strides unbroken. The second youngster clambered to a makeshift goal line and giggled past it.

“My man,” Lewis cried, “that’s a touchdown!”

“One minute until the next drill!” a voice over the public-address system bellowed.

“Everybody bring it in,” Lewis shouted. “Bring it in!”

For a man carrying the weight of an offense on a lean, 190-pound frame, the weight of Buffs football on 18-year-old shoulders, JuJu sure looked like one awful happy dude Saturday. And for a so-called “quiet” guy, Lewis, who turns 19 late next month, could often be heard chirping over stadium loudspeakers playing for the 253,000th time.

“It’s definitely going to be good for my spirit, trying to clear my mind,”

“But, I mean, everything that’s been needed to be done to get prepared for (CU) camp, and stuff like that, has already been done. It’s all just going to work now.”

The work started, curiously enough, on a Sunday in Colorado Springs, a blank canvas two hours and change south of Folsom Field. Deion Sanders’ fourth CU preseason camp opens with practices at Fountain-Fort Carson High School for a week before moving back to campus again.

“I took some pictures (with fans) at the airport, stuff like that,” Lewis said of a Front Range arrival slowed by . “But I think that all just comes with it, right?”

That and expectations. spent the last week of July, his last week of summer vacation, training in Atlanta. Agility. Strength. Fine-tuning.

“Just kind of putting the finishing touches on it,” Lewis’ father, T.C., explained. “It’s almost kind of an annual thing for us, always has been, to kind of check these last boxes for him and just be, ‘All right.’ Talked to his trainer the other day, and everybody’s like, ‘No, he’s ready.'”

JuJu was born ready, 18 going on 40, a child prodigy with eyes forever downfield, ahead of the curve. He was a 7-year-old who could throw a football 25 yards; a 14-year-old who took over a high-school offense in Georgia and piled up more than 4,000 passing yards as a freshman; a 17-year-old who enrolled at CU early so he could spend a spring with Big 12 defenders breathing down his neck.

In what should’ve been his senior season of prep ball, Lewis flashed sporadic but tangible on-field progress from August to November 2025 with the Buffs. The more JuJu played, the less awed — physically, mentally — he appeared. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of CU’s offense, so Sanders wound up overhauling that side of the ball from the top down — replacing longtime NFL play-caller Pat Shurmur with

If you’re curious how one of the most prodigious pro-style passers in prep football history transitions to a scheme that features join the club.

“I think the illusion is that Coach Marion is going to run what he’s always run, right?” T.C. said. “(And) that he has to.

“I mean, it’s not that (Julian) can’t move. (Julian) can obviously move. But it’s just (that) Coach Marion’s going to use him how he sees fit. And that’s what makes the most sense, I think. When you look at CU and what CU is and what CU has, I think everybody’s going to be excited by the team this year.”

“I think the Go-Go is a pretty well-balanced offense in terms of run, pass, RPOs, things like that,” JuJu added. “Every offense is different. But in terms of this correlation, of just diversity (in an) offense, I don’t think it gets more diverse than the Go-Go. So, I mean, I’ve done everything.”

Business deals with Taco Bell. And Starbucks. On3.com ; The NIL Standard website lists it

“I mean, right now … no NIL,” T.C. said. “The goal? No NIL (talk). No nothing. It’s all ball now. The main thing’s the main thing. Period. Point-blank.”

The main thing is locking down the Buffs’ QB1 spot and building on the four collegiate games last autumn, a taster in which Lewis posted a 122.0 passer rating and a 4-0 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

As harbingers go, you could do a lot worse than USC QB Jayden Maiava’s freshman season with UNLV in 2023, where Marion was the Rebels’ offensive coordinator. Maiava completed 63.5% of his throws with 17 touchdowns and 10 picks. The teen’s 8.7 yards per attempt and 147.1 passer rating both led the Mountain West three years ago.

Maiava offers prototypical NFL size (6-foot-4, 230 pounds), mind you, whereas Lewis is closer to the Drew Brees package. The former clocked a 4.75 40-yard-dash time in high school; JuJu’s game runs parallel a younger Shedeur when he’s right — using his legs to create time in the pocket.  Can Lewis withstand a season’s worth of defensive abuse? If the plot thickens, it’s because JuJu’s main competitor, transfer Isaac Wilson, little brother of former Broncos QB Zach Wilson, was a dual-threat weapon at Corner Canyon High School in Utah.

“Coach Marion’s a phenomenal dude,” the elder Lewis said. “It’s not even about Go-Go, right? It’s football. And it’s just, you’ve got somebody who understands it. Who understands how to get his athletes the ball (and) has a passion for the position and the position that he’s in. There’s a difference.

“I mean, our trust is there with (Marion) 100%. And I spoke to him back when the portal opened, when he first got the job. And we believed in them collectively as a team.”

Dad doesn’t miss the small stuff. Or skimp on the homework. When Marion was hired, T.C. conferred with , who played under the CU coordinator in Vegas and had trained with Julian as kids.

“I’ve never considered myself to be the smartest dude in the room, but at the same time, I’ve got access to anybody I need in football,” the elder Lewis said. “We collectively sat down (and) we’re, like, ‘No, we’re in a good situation. We’re going to stick this out.'”

Through Manhattan snow and Lakewood heat. Turnout at Saturday’s camp defied 93-ish-degree temps and a Broncos fan event a few miles down the road. At least two Nebraskans turned up to work with Lewis, too. How’s that for a twist in the tale?

“To get an opportunity to give back to the youth is a blessing,” Lewis reflected. “As a kid, if I had an opportunity to go to college camps, I would have took advantage of that and have gone to Derrick Henry camps and random stuff like that — I couldn’t imagine stuff like that. So it’s just an opportunity to give them that chance.”

The kids dug it. Officials said more than 250 campers pre-registered, and the Lewises hope, with the help of partners such as and , to make it an annual event along the Front Range.

This wasn’t Lewis’ first outreach to Denver hearts. Last year, the CU quarterback to launch the nonprofit . “Coco” is named for Coco, Lewis’ beloved miniature dachshund. Not long after JuJu moved to Boulder in 2025, Coco suffered severe dehydration, digestive complications and blood loss. The Lewises wound up spending more than $10,000 in vet bills to get Coco — JuJu’s rock, his light, his muse — right again. She’s 16 now. The best girl.

“People were always, ‘He’s not that vocal,’ right?” T.C. said. “But he hasn’t had to be. He’s always proved it with how he plays and how he responds to the moment. And that’s what kind of galvanizes everyone around him. It’s like this silent work ethic that (his high-school coach was) like, ‘He’s just going to be the most consistent dude every day, at the end of the day.'”

Although the loudest voice out on the field on Saturday afternoon, truth be told, wasn’t JuJu’s at all. The big pipes belonged to a young man trying feverishly to grab the signal-caller’s attention.

“JUJU!”

“HEYYYYYYYY! JUJU!”

The voice happened to be waiting in line to run a specific drill: Catch the ball and keep hanging onto the rock while two other defenders whack you like a pinata with these giant blue pads. Lewis had just spent a few reps holding one of the pads.

“JUU-JUUUUU!”

Lewis nodded.

“I got it, I got it,” the Buffs quarterback said. “That was a TD. My bad.”

With that, the kid grinned. A blank canvas needs its sunrise, and Lewis is ready to Go-Go.

BEREA, Ohio — Shedeur Sanders asked his father, Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, not to come to his first training camp with the last year.

With his son vying for the Browns’ starting quarterback job this season, the welcome mat was out for Coach Prime.

Deion Sanders watched Thursday from the top row of the bleachers as the Browns conducted their second practice.

The elder Sanders met with coach Todd Monken and general manager Andrew Berry between the morning walkthrough and the afternoon practice.

“That was Deion Sanders, are you kidding me? Forget that it is Shedeur’s (Sanders) dad,” Monken said. “First of all, he did an unbelievable job with Shedeur — great kid, obviously an elite football player, hell, baseball player. And then as a coach, I mean, wow, everything he’s achieved, that was awesome.”

Monken said most of the conversation with Hall of Famer focused on his coaching experiences at Jackson State and Colorado and the challenges around Name, Image and Likeness in college. He also told Deion how Shedeur almost got selected by the Baltimore Ravens.

“It was part coach, part father, which is what it should be,” Monken said.

Deion Sanders visited Shilo Sanders at Tampa Bay’s training camp before his release. Last year during camp, Shedeur said he asked his father to stay away because of the lack of snaps and the attention it would bring.

Shedeur Sanders referred to it at the time as “a gift and a curse at the same time.”

Deion picked a good day to come to practice since Shedeur was taking snaps with the first team on Thursday. Sanders and Deshaun Watson are alternating snaps with the first team as they compete to be the starter for the Sept. 13 opener at Jacksonville.

“You have to make a decision when you two spot — someone’s got to go with the twos, however you do it, to get the same amount of reps. So, we basically divide up the groups,” Monken said. “The reason we also like, if we’re going to rotate the quarterbacks and rotate the left tackle, it makes sense to me with the receivers to stay, so every other day they get work with the other quarterback. If we moved them together, in my mind, that doesn’t give us the ability to really see what we want to see in terms of development.”

Deion and Shedeur talked while walking around the field after practice. Most of the exchange was filmed by Deion Sanders Jr.

Deion Sanders is going into his fourth season at Colorado. The Buffaloes, who are looking to bounce back after a 3-9 campaign, open fall camp on Sunday before their season opener at Georgia Tech on Sept. 3.

____

AP NFL:

Nobody wears a $10-million hat the way Deion Sanders wears a $10-million hat. But 2026 is the year his Buffs must show, to borrow a beloved Texas idiom, that they’ve got the cattle, too.

“No one knows football is a results-based business more than a man that played cornerback in the NFL at the level that Deion did,” told me by phone Friday. “And so that’s the reality of the situation. This is a pivotal year to continue to show proof-of-concept, and that they have gotten the right people in place now, and they are going to get back to building towards the heights that felt more attainable at the beginning of Deion Sanders tenure.”

Coach Prime knows how to blow it up. This season — and, perhaps, ultimately, his era in Boulder — will be judged by how well he puts things back together again this fall.

The Buffs are the Big 12’s biggest mystery again. New coordinators. New “Go-Go” offensive system. New go-to wideouts. New defense, pretty much. New athletic director. Last fall’s 3-9 mark has ticket sales flagging and fans flustered.

Another losing season stacked up next to the last one will raise more of the types of questions Sanders doesn’t especially like to hear. Three losing campaigns out of four while practicing a win-now roster-building philosophy is a tough sell to CU athletic director Fernando Lovo. It’s a harder sell to alumni who are wondering, aloud, if the Prime Effect was the Travis and Shedeur Effect all along.

“Whether it’s knowing someone’s salary as a player, or (when) know salaries of those of us in the media, anytime people know the number, and it’s big, they’re going to expect a certain level of output because of that,” Golic continued. “It comes with the territory. And again, going back to his playing days. I’m sure there’s no one better suited for that kind of external pressure than Deion Sanders.”

How much pressure depends on your pocketbook. Sanders has four years remaining on a contract that pays him $10 million this fall and $11 million in ’27 and ’28. CU would owe the coach at least $33 million if the school tried to buy out his contract in 2026. That number falls to $25.5 million in 2027; $17.25 million in 2028; and $9 million in ’29.

On one hand, Coach Prime costs too much to be on the hot seat. On the other, he costs too much not to be.

“We better win. That’s going to be the surprise,” Sanders told reporters at Big 12 Media Day earlier this month. “That’s the surprise. We better win. We’re going to win.”

With a new and widely-respected offensive coordinator joining the staff in Brennan Marion, and a slew of impact portal gets such as wide receivers Danny Scudero and DeAndre Moore, plus linebacker Gideon ESPN Lampron and defensive back Boo Carter, the Buffs are going back to the well of what worked in 2024: Surround a returning QB (Shedeur Sanders then, Julian Lewis now) with older, proven impact players — proven at the Group of 5 level, at least — at high-skill positions who’ve won at smaller schools. CU’s record will probably depend, mind you, on how well the Buffs’ offensive and defensive lines gel, same as it ever was.

Yet the world remains, to put it kindly, unconvinced. A preseason writers’ poll during Big 12 Media Days slotted CU to finish 15th among 16 Big 12 programs. Even if the seat under Sanders isn’t especially warm now, it would be if the Buffs posted a mark of 4-8 or 3-9 again.

, Sanders scored a 3.1 on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being hottest. That 3.1 score was up a whopping 2.77 points from the preseason “hot” number of 0.33 at this time a summer ago.

In fact, Sanders’ bump of +2.77 points was the third-largest of any Power 4 coach, trailing only Shame Beamer of South Carolina (+3.2) and Dave Aranda of Baylor (+2.8), with old friends Bill Belichick at North Carolina (+2.0) and Steve Sarkisian of Texas (+2.2) not far behind.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that Prime’s CU teams have been their best with their collective backs against the wall — Buffs versus The World, with Vegas favoring The World by 6.5. They made keyboard warriors eat their dust at the start of ’23 and in ’24. But what happened in ’25, particularly with absolute decimations at the hands of Utah and Arizona, embarrassed alums and frustrated administrators who were getting Karl Dorrell flashbacks from a $10-million coach.

Hiring Sanders flipped Ralphie’s tent from proud, provincial and irrelevant to big, national and an ESPN/Disney darling. But when things veer off the rails, divides within that mighty tent have flared up — particularly on social media, between lifetime Buffs and Prime fans who are here to run with the coach, not Ralphie. Whenever the former blames Sanders, the latter blames the university and says Boulder should consider itself lucky he showed up. It’s an arranged marriage in which some of the in-laws don’t hide their trust issues during a crisis.

“It’s just such a strange, strange time,” former Buffs great Chad Brown told me once.

Lovo, meanwhile, has to keep everybody rowing in the same direction instead of pointing fingers or raging with their thumbs on Xwitter. Wish him luck. For the first time since Sanders’ hiring, CU season ticket renewals are actually down — and not insignificantly.

After a 98% renewal rate prior to 2023, 2024 and 2025, Buffs officials told The Post that 78.4% of available season tickets had been re-upped as of this past Thursday afternoon. CU reported 20,411 season tickets renewed, a dip from 23,987 at about this time in 2025.

Now that figure also comes with some context: The Buffs made 3,000 more season tickets available in 2025 to meet demand from the massive spike in interest from 2022 to ’23 (14,915 under Dorrell to 20,606 in Sanders’ first year) and ’24 (21,128).

CU is going to sell 20K in season tickets for four straight years after going a decade (2013-2022) without ever hitting that mark. And yet, a drop of 20% is a drop of 20%, and one of the first tangible repercussions of last fall’s struggles.

It’s also a sensitive topic for an athletic department that was reportedly on track to close the books on the ’25-26 fiscal year with a $27-million deficit. While CU expects sales to pick up again early next month, a dip of 3,500 season tickets hits Lovo where it hurts most — in the wallet.

While season-ticket prices vary, if you’re losing a customer paying, let’s say, an estimated $750 per season and multiply that times 3,500, that’s a potential ticket-revenue loss of some $2.625 million just from that pool. CU’s season-ticket parking prices vary, but assuming $300 per parking pass and 2.5 customers per pass purchased, if you’re short 3,500 paid customers per season, that’s another $420,000 out of the Buffs’ coffers.

Which means, all told, if that 3,500-ish gap continues, it’s fair to assume CU could be short somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million in revenue just from season-ticket drop-offs alone, potentially. The Buffs reported $24.03 million in football ticketing revenue during the ’24-25 fiscal year, the most recent NCAA report made public.

“I think that’s kind of the natural process of how things go,” Golic mused. “You’re coming off a down season. And so now for Deion Sanders in this program, they get to go back out there and have the great challenge of, ‘All right, let’s give them something to get excited about. Let’s give people a reason to get out here.'”

Another bowl-less campaign would only sap the local juice and accelerate the bleeding. If that’s not incentive enough for Sanders to get this ship turned around, it soon will be.

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Four is healthy progress for CSU football, isn’t it? Six or more is superlative, given the moving parts.

My Rams pals aren’t just psyched for The Jim Mora Era to get underway in five weeks. They’re jacked the way

Some have even tried to convince me that anything short of a bowl this fall, right out of the chute, is a failure. To them, Mora was CSU athletic director John Weber doing his best Chris MacFarland, pushing any and all chips to the middle of the table, rocking the right-now,

After all, they say, Mora is the highest-paid football coach in the new-fangled Pac-12 ($2.4 million), which is more than Boise State’s Spencer Danielson ($2.1 million), who’s 24-8 over his first 32 games in charge. And more than Utah State’s Bronco Mendenhall ($2.06 million), the man who’s coaching the CU Buffs right now in several of the alternate-universe timelines that aren’t this one.

“I think it would be unfair to make an assessment after one year,” Weber told me last month when I asked about where to set the bar for Mora’s first season. “When I made that decision last fall, I made the decision knowing the type of person that I needed to go get, and the type of person that this university needed.”

On one level, it’s perfectly OK for expectations to match the investment. Besides, Mora’s track record says he’s probably good for it. The man’s first UConn team in 2022 went 6-7 and bowled after he’d inherited a 1-11 mess from the previous regime, which ain’t a bad parallel for the present.

His first UCLA team finished 9-5 and first in the old Pac-12 South in 2012. Heck, his initial Atlanta Falcons squad went 11-5 back in 2004, although that lone Seattle Seahawks season five years later came and went with a 5-11 whimper.

But before you take the nearest claw hammer to grandma’s piggy bank and start penciling in bowl plans, we’re begging you to keep a couple things in mind.

The first is CSU’s recent history. Since Leon Fuller, God rest his soul, grabbed the reins in 1982, only two Rams football coaches in the 44 years since have won six or more contests in their debut season: Steve Fairchild in 2008 and Mike Bobo in 2015, both with matching 7-6 marks.

Earle Bruce was close, at 5-5-1 in 1989. The legendary Sonny Lubick went 5-6 in ’93 to kick off the greatest era in modern Rams football lore. Heck, Jim McElwain was 4-8 in Year 1. Over the last five decades, first-year CSU coaches have posted an aggregate record of 36-50-1, or won about 42% of the time. Stretch that out over a 12-game slate, and precedent likes Mora to go 5-7.  So do I.

The second is the fight card. Look closely. You can find four wins on the season fairly reasonably, including Wyoming in the opener. A 2-0 start after home victories against the Pokes and Southern Utah definitely could be in the cards. But I defy you, with a straight face, to come up with four more locks after that.

Oregon State at home on Oct. 3? That’s one. But most of the remaining toss-ups — at Texas State, at Utah State, at Fresno State — are on the road, which puts more of a squeeze on nabbing a home upset against either San Diego State (Oct. 24) or Boise (Nov. 7).

“It is no secret that we have had sporadic success, and I sought an individual that could come here and help us truly assess what it takes as a university to be successful in the football program,” Weber continued.

“You see nice shiny objects like that beautiful stadium, and you see a head coach salary, and that sets a level of expectation for people, and I get it. What we haven’t done enough of is all the other foundational aspects that it takes to build a perennially successful program. And that is what we’ve been focusing a lot on over the last couple years. And you know that it takes a different level of commitment to make things like that happen.

“And back to Coach Mora … we were already well down that path, and felt like we understood what we needed to do. And he’s come in and certainly validated a lot of what we needed to do. And has helped continue to push us in that right direction.”

Mora — who steered UConn, of all places, to three bowl bids in four years at a hoops school — became the best FBS college football coach in the Front Range the minute he walked into Canvas Stadium with a green tie and Wyoming on the brain. CU’s Deion Sanders still has to prove there’s steak left in BoCo after Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders took their sizzle to the pros. Air Force’s Troy Calhoun is coming off two seasons with a combined record of 9-15 and the Zoomies’ first back-to-back campaigns with seven or more defeats since 2017-18. The harder the offense in Laramie is to watch under Cowboys coach Jay Sawvel (7-17 since 2024), the hotter it gets under his seat.

On paper, Mora feels like the right man at the right time, a step up for a program that’s aching to do the same, a presence that immediately ticks off a ton of boxes. Pac-12 roots? Check. California pipelines? Check. Colorado-friendly? Check. Proven winner at a coaching graveyard? Check. NFL bona fides? Check.

Although, when you think about it, a lot of the same bullet points also applied to Jay Norvell’s resume when he arrived from Nevada four-and-a-half years earlier. If you don’t get QB and the offensive line right, and Mora should, FoCo can become an awfully slippery slope. Despite the best of intentions.

As projections go, Kenneth Massey’s like 3.4 wins in ’26. DraftKings.com sets the over-under at 3.5 wins, which looks like easy money on the former.

But any higher than 4.0? With that schedule? Brother, it’s your wallet.

“(He’s) got 68 new players this fall,” Weber said, “and that staff will be doing everything they can to bring that group of young men together as a team. That’s a lot of new people to bring together, right?”

Sure is. The Mora Miracle is well underway. Cam’s walking a lot prouder these days. It’s a big ask to walk on water overnight.

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CU Buffs quarterback Julian Lewis didn’t exactly mean what you thought he did. But two things can also be true at the same time.

1.) Putting Pat Shurmur in charge of JuJu and the Buffs offense last fall was a terrible idea then and one that looks even worse now.

2.) It’ll get better in 2026. As to how much better — well, that’s the $27-million question, isn’t it?

“I’m actually looking at the defenses now,” Lewis told ESPNU at Big 12 Media Days earlier this week. “Last year, (I) wasn’t really looking at defenses as much. Just kind of high-school, free-balling, just out there playing football.”

That Lewis could somehow complete 55.3% of his throws during a lost, 3-9 season with four scores, zero picks and a 122.0 passer rating over four appearances last fall — as a teenager — while just … his words … “free-balling?”

In hindsight, it says something about the young man’s tools, his makeup and his skill set. I mean, imagine if somebody actually coached him up.

On the other hand, why wasn’t anybody actually coaching him up?

Which brings us to the 2026 Buffs, the Big 12’s most confounding riddle tucked inside the conference’s biggest enigma. Liona Lefau? Baller. Gideon Lampron? Baller. Boo Carter? Baller. The portal additions alone say CU has the juice to rack up seven or eight victories. The fight card and the computers say they win four or five.

Coaching, and coaching in close games, will ultimately swing the pendulum, as it has for each of the first three seasons of the Deion Sanders Era. Fall 2023: 3-5 in games decided by eight points or fewer. 2024: 2-1. 2025: 1-3.

Hindsight makes geniuses of us all, but pairing Shurmur as play-caller last fall with Lewis, a high-schooler who’d enrolled early, was like bringing gasoline to a dumpster fire. Pencil Pat hadn’t coached in college since 1998 before Sanders brought the former Broncos play-caller aboard in 2023. Having a lifetime NFL guy try to explain pro concepts to a 17-year-old seems like a swell idea — at least until that teen’s

Shurmur and Shedeur Sanders, you got. NFL play-caller working with an NFL arm, an NFL head with NFL mentors. Alas, when the Browns drafted No. 2, they took CU’s true offensive coordinator in 2024 with them. More’s the pity.

“But (my understanding is) a lot bigger than that now,” Lewis continued to ESPNU. “So, it should be fine.”

Some context matters here. First, Lewis’ sound bite was intended primarily as a compliment to new Buffs OC Brennan Marion, although the framing misfired slightly.

Lewis’ father, T.C., , typing that, “It’s wild that people twist anything. Kid is excited about how much ball he’s learning from Coach Marion. Seeing it differently and understanding it differently.”

Which, again, is progress. Lewis entered CU early in 2025 and was a high school senior by calendar age. Instead of tux shopping for the homecoming dance in Georgia last fall, he was tasked with learning the Shurmur offense on the fly.

They want to grow up fast. You want them to grow up fast. Coaches want them to grow up fast. But even the most advanced football minds, as 12th graders, can take only so much info-dumping. You don’t jump straight into calculus without a little algebra and trigonometry first.

That said, what the devil was Shurmur doing in 2025, other than eating $850,000 in salary? Ralphie’s Money Pit never closes.

The Buffs went from the No. 4 scoring offense in the Big 12 (32.9 points per game) to No. 15 last fall (20.9). CU dipped from the No. 1 passing offense in a passing league (318.0 yards per game) to 13th (202.8).

While Shurmur ran the “Oh-No!” offense, Marion is importing his “Go-Go” system — a no-huddle, quick-tempo, spread look that kept opposing defenses on their heels during the coach’s most recent stops at Sacramento State (2025) and at UNLV (2023 and ’24).

While Marion’s system features some complicated wrinkles, the premise for Lewis and his play-caller going forward is comparatively simple: Score 30 points or more as often as you can. The Buffs under Sanders are 13-3 when hitting that mark on the scoreboard; CU is 3-18 since ’23 when putting up 29 points or fewer.

On paper, at least, Sanders and Marion have dudes who fit the system, just as they did two years ago. Danny Scudero? Baller. Kam Perry? Baller.

CU had four players from the ’24 team drafted the following spring, the most in program history since 2017 (which came on the heels of a 10-4 season the previous fall). Yet the more some Buffs fans I talk to look back on the group two years ago, the more they think about games that got away against Kansas State and home and Kansas, about how a team with 10-win or 11-win talent lost four games and got blown up by BYU in its bowl game before a national audience of 8 million viewers.

The ratio of talent — think Hunter, think Shedeur — to coaching will have the last word. Because last year showed everybody what it looks like when the former can’t carry the latter over the line. And Lewis just admitted it.

.

“I don’t know if I reached out to him (first), or he reached out to me,” the legendary former CU Buffs quarterback recalled to me by phone a few days ago. “I know (when) I reached out to him, he asked me if was in town. I said, ‘Yes, I’ll come up there.'”

This was late March or early April. The new Buffs athletic director and CU icon spoke for about 45 minutes on campus. Lovo laid out his vision for CU. They talked about Hagan’s legacy in Boulder, on and off the field.

“It went well,” Hagan said. “It was an opportunity to go up there and meet the new guy. He was awesome. It was good.”

It was cathartic, too, at least on Hagan’s end. At 56, still takes on life with a forward lean, still loves kids, still loves teaching. Darian’s heading into his third season as running backs coach at San Diego State, where former CU offensive coordinator Sean Lewis went 9-4 last fall with the Aztecs.

But for a couple years now, Hagan hasn’t exactly been sure where he stood with his alma mater. After two decades with CU football, the Buffs’ great wasn’t retained on the staff by new coach Deion Sanders. The university transitioned him to a non-coaching role when Coach Prime was hired in December 2022. Hagan had felt a little shut out when Sanders’ inner circle took charge and left CU to join Lewis’ staff in December 2023.

When the Buffs retired quarterback Shedeur Sanders’ No. 2 jersey in the spring of 2025, an honor that had bypassed great CU signal-callers such as Hagan and Kordell Stewart, it opened up old wounds again. So Lovo welcoming Hagan back to campus, a year later, Hagan felt, was a refreshing gesture.

“He’s a great dude,” the ex-Buffs QB said of the new Buffs administrator. “He made me feel good about CU.”

And when it comes to mending fences, that’s as good a start as any.

‘There shouldn’t be this contentious relationship between Buffs fans’

As Coach Prime heads into his fourth season in Boulder, CU football alumni remain divided. Not in their love for the Buffs. Not in their appreciation for what Sanders has done to elevate a program into the national conversation after Pac-12 irrelevance for more than a decade threatened to bury it.

It’s a perception thing. With the exception of a statue unveiling for former Buffs football coach Bill McCartney last year, a ceremony that wasn’t open to the public, many Buffs football alums feel as if CU athletics’ official position is that football at Folsom Field didn’t exist prior to Coach Prime. Which is funny, given that the Buffs won eight or more games 13 times from 1985-2005, a feat the current coaching staff has accomplished to date just once.

“Some of these new Buffs fans act as if CU didn’t play football before Coach Prime showed up,” said Brown, who was a second-team All-American linebacker at CU in 1992, when the Buffs went 9-2-1.

“And (yes), maybe CU wasn’t on the radar. But obviously, we’ve won national championships. We were among the top 15 (programs) in wins, all-time … and unfortunately, and with social media, as is often the case, things often turn ugly. So I’d love to see (Lovo) find a way to bring everybody together.

“Because we’re all Buffs fans. There shouldn’t be this contentious relationship between Buffs fans. And if I’ve got criticisms of Coach Prime’s program now, not only am I told I’m a terrible Buffs fan … but also, I’m asked, ‘What did I do for the program for the last 20 years?’ And I’m like, ‘Wow. Let me see. I’ve funded a scholarship. I’ve gone and I’ve talked to the team. I’ve done private coaching with players.’ The list is long. So the massive disconnect (on social media), I think, is unfortunately turning a lot of older fans off and away from the program. And that’s the exact opposite of what we need.”

The decision to retire 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter’s jersey before he had graduated, or even begun his NFL career, raised the eyebrows for several ex-CU football players from the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s. The jersey retirement for the program’s first Heisman winner, Rashaan Salaam, had taken years to come to fruition before its unveiling in 2017, not long after Salaam took his own life.

“It certainly didn’t help it at all,” Brown said. “Not only from an alumni standpoint, but (with) people within the building. If you can’t get a consensus within the building, that lets you know that it’s not being handled right. I don’t think anybody had any issue with a Heisman winner (Hunter) getting his number retired. But again, how it was handled, the timing of it, the pushing of it out there, even within (CU circles) over there, was not unanimous.”

Hagan, who was 28-5-2 as a Buffs starter and quarterbacked CU to a national runner-up spot in ’89 and to the program’s last national title in ’90, admitted to feeling hurt last year with the Hunter/Shedeur number retirements.

“Am I bitter or (anything) that my jersey’s not been retired?” Hagan reflected. “No. I’m not bitter at all. It would have been a nice gesture, but that doesn’t define who I am as a person. But, definitely, it would be awesome to walk in that stadium and see my name on a wall with other retired numbers.”

How can Lovo repair Buffs bridges that were recently burned? Former CU wide receiver and offensive coordinator says the Buffs A.D. would be wise to include more ’80s and ’90s football alumni in decisions such as retiring numbers going forward. And to more legacy tributes beyond a statue that’s tucked into one quiet corner of a practice field.

“I would tell (Lovo), it’s not about damage control at this point,” said Chiaverini, . “It’s about doing right by the guys who’ve earned the right to be up there.

“To me, there are deserving players like (Eric) Bieniemy and (Alfred) Williams and Hagan — the list goes on and on. Countless All-Americans that were on 10-win and 11-win teams that, as an alum of CU, they need to (do it) the right way. Alums should be involved in this conversation. They should be included in this conversation. Nothing against Travis or Shedeur. They’re both great players in CU history. I’m a fan of them both. And I’m actually a fan of Deion. My thing is … I think there’s got to be some transparency in the voting process.”

‘You can’t erase that history’

Hagan said he was told that former Buffs greats had to be All-Americans or national award winners.  That they had to wait a decade to be recognized.

He’s still waiting.

“What makes me feel good is, a lot of people say, ‘Man, I wish they would do the right thing and retire my number,'” Hagan laughed. “People tell me that all the time, but I’m not bringing up the subject.

“But I’m definitely for a committee to get these things right. (And) not just for myself — for Eric Bieniemy, Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee, Kordell Stewart. Somehow, they’ve got to get it right. And do it the right way. I think that would appease a lot of people.”

Former Buffs want more outreach, not less. Hagan walked away from his meeting with Lovo feeling that the new caretaker of CU athletics gets it, at least. And that meant a lot, given the previous 20 months.

“I can’t speak for everyone. I can speak for myself,” Hagan said. “I’m a little biased. But at the same time, that’s my alma mater, I love my alma mater, I want to see them do well.

“But I think what (Lovo) needs to do is galvanize some things to make the guys (who played at CU) feel special. Make them feel like what we did is still relevant. We accomplished some great things there, that I think, at some point, need to be recognized and (revisited) again. Because the things that we accomplished, you can’t erase that history.”

CU hosts Texas Tech on October 3. Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby has no business inside Folsom Field, unless he’s bought a ticket. Presumably with blood money from a three-team parlay that hit a few days earlier.

Sorsby is 22. He’s young. We’ve all done dumb stuff when we’re invincible during those young, dumb isolated moments. Sorsby, though? He’s a repeat offender, dodging accountability as if it were a blitzing linebacker.

According to court documents, the Texas native placed at least 40 wagers on Indiana football while he was a member of the Hoosiers. He reportedly used others’ online sportsbook accounts to place bets totaling roughly $90,000 over four years. He gambled in Bloomington. He gambled as a member of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Basically, Brendan is the Art Schlichter of Generation Z. Remember Art? One of the great wasted careers in NFL history. Ohio State star. Drafted No. 4 overall by the Colts in 1982. Got the gambling bug as a teenager in small-town Ohio, an addiction that would ruin his life at almost every stop.

If only he had Sorsby’s lawyers. Or some friendly Texas judges.

On Monday, one of those justices, a man named Ken Curry, ruled that the NCAA would be causing “probable, imminent and irreparable injury” to Sorsby if it prevents him from playing this fall. Curry granted the young man a preliminary injunction that prevents NCAA brass from punishing Sorsby for violating — again, repeatedly — its rules on sports betting.

Now let’s get this out in the open first: The NCAA is a rotten, wage-fixing cartel that’s deserved, for years, to feel the wedgies that it’s been getting lately from the courts.

Just not this one. The NCAA was wrong to create the idea of a “student-athlete” as an indentured servant who would have to work sports as a full-time job while never being technically paid for that time and commitment.

Yet it was right to take a hard line on sports wagering, given the audience and devotion to its entertainment product. Much of the NCAA’s enforcement has been selective, arbitrary and occasionally silly. But if you don’t enforce competitive integrity, you might as well give up the ghost.

Now Texas Tech is haunting CU and the rest of the Buffs’ Big 12 peers. Oh, sure, Red Raiders officials will say they’re backing Sorsby to bring awareness and outreach to the cause of mental health, and how dare you shame an addict. Horse hockey. The Red Raiders are digging in their heels because said addict is a 6-foot-3 gunslinger who tossed 27 touchdowns at Cincy last year against just five interceptions while sporting a 140.8 lifetime passer rating as a collegian. If Brendan didn’t have NFL arm, Bubba Bootstraps would shrug and look the other way. Only now that it’s running with the blue bloods, Texas Tech wants back in the College Football Playoff again — and Sorsby is one of those keys that unlocks the penthouse.

“The injunction issued (Monday) regarding Brendan Sorsby is troubling,” new CU athletic director Fernando Lovo said in a prepared statement released earlier this week, “as his admitted actions are a clear violation of long-held standards of integrity in college athletics … this injunction is a clear affront to the competitive principles that have been the foundation of college sports for more than a century. We will continue to engage with the Big 12 Conference and our peers on this issue.”

Why? Tech didn’t consult with any of you when it came to picking up Sorsby, skeletons and all. Last July, the Red Raiders signed a five-star lineman, Felix Ojo, for what was reportedly a three-year, fully-guaranteed $5.1-million contract. Context: The No. 11 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft is slotted to make $5.26 million this fall.

If I’m Lovo, I don’t wait around for Big 12 commissioner Brent Yormark to grow a spine. I cancel anything I’ve got scheduled with Texas Tech, in all sports, until Sorsby is off the roster.

Then I call CSU athletic director John Weber.

How’s this for a twist in the tale? Instead of playing a dirty, tainted Red Raiders squad on Oct. 3, the Buffs should host rival CSU on Oct. 10. Bring back the Rocky Mountain Showdown three years early.

CU keeps that home game — now with potentially a bigger home gate, to boot. New CSU coach Jim Mora gets to tangle with his old pal Deion Sanders and gets a chance to shock the world, and put his stamp on the Front Range, in Year 1.

Before you laugh, look at the calendar. CU and CSU both have concurrent bye weeks on Oct. 10. The Buffs host Utah on Oct. 17. CSU visits Texas State on Oct. 15.

Now, granted, that’s a lousy turnaround for the Rams, given a Thursday nighter on the road. Ah, but lookie here: The Bobcats don’t play a game between Oct. 16 and Oct. 24. As recently as March, Texas State athletics presented the CSU tilt as a flexible date, Surely, CBS Sports Network can find something else to fill that prime-time Thursday night window.

Why not here? Why not now? The Buffs and Rams wrapped up a home-and-home, two-year mini-series in ’23 and ’24 that made Colorado the center of the college football universe. Studio shows from ESPN and FOX were tripping all over themselves for Front Range real estate. The games themselves featured biting coach-on-coach smack talk, sellout crowds and epic performances (Shedeur Sanders in ’23; Travis Hunter in ’24).

Which is why it’s a shame that there isn’t another CU-CSU football game on the docket until September 15, 2029, in Fort Collins. That’s a five-year gap — which would be the longest in the history of the rivalry since it was renewed in 1983. The Buffs and Rams have tussled 34 times in the last 43 years, with CU winning 26 of the matchups.

It’s too good, too juicy, to keep mothballed in the attic for this long. If activist judges are going to burn college football to the ground, you might as well dance in the ashes with the time it’s got left.

CU coach Deion Sanders loves his son and means well. But continued involvement in his career remains a problem.

Deion said Shedeur “went through hell” during his pre-draft process and rookie season in Cleveland, alleging that untruthful reporting contributed to the adversity and drama.

Shedeur, a record-setting quarterback in his two seasons in Boulder, fell to the fifth round after many mock drafts pegged him as a top 25 pick. Reporting citing NFL sources claimed that Shedeur bombed his combine interviews, causing the slide.

As a dad, Deion had every reason to be furious with these stories. Destroying a prospect’s character behind the veil of anonymity is bush league. But teams operate in vacuums. For Shedeur to drop to the 144th pick, something gave NFL teams pause, whether it was his skillset, traits or an aversion to distraction.

The Browns, looking for their quarterback of the future since Bernie Kosar, took him because they felt the reward outweighed the risk, that throwing another dart even after drafting Dillon Gabriel in the third round could pay off more than a backup at another position.

Following injuries and ineffectiveness from others, Shedeur got his shot, completing 56.6 % of his passes for 1,400 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions in eight games.

He is now in a quarterback competition with Deshaun Watson, given a fresh start by new coach Todd Monken.

By all accounts, Shedeur learned from his experience and is ready to compete for the starting job.

That is good news. The bad? Deion plans to travel to Cleveland to talk with Monken.

He says it would be under the guise of Shedeur’s former coach, not his father. But the optics are terrible. Shedeur is 24. A college graduate. This is his fight to fight.

“I can tell him a few things about (Shedeur), how to get him going,” Deion said. “That wasn’t asked of me a year ago. I don’t understand it. Even a guy like Travis Hunter being drafted to Jacksonville and I’ve had him for the last three (years), don’t you think you would want to talk to me to ask me what gets him going and what backs him off? You would want to know that. So, I anticipate, and I can’t wait to have that conversation with Coach Monken.”

Deion coached his son from Pop Warner through college. He prepared him. Now, he has to accept that he has been handed off to someone else.

You think Ty Simpson’s dad, Jason, the long-time coach at Tennessee Martin, wouldn’t want to sidle up to Rams boss Sean McVay during OTAs? Or that legendary high school coach Patrick Nix wouldn’t welcome standing next to Sean Payton at Broncos practice?

Those conversations are for fathers and sons after practice. Away from the field. No one is saying Deion should not communicate with Monken as the CU coach. Send him a text. Or an email. Anything else comes across as helicopter parenting, no matter how Prime frames the discussion.

Shedeur has talent. Let him prove it.

Punishment issued: Always intentional. It sure looks like the NFL punished Sean Payton. The Broncos’ opening six games are as tough as anyone can remember. Fortunately for Denver, the league did the Chargers and Chiefs no favors either. The Chargers must navigate a brutal seven-game stretch, starting in Week 3. But they got two gimmes at home to start the season with the Cardinals and Raiders and their aforementioned gauntlet includes a bye week. And the Chiefs’ final seven games feature three straight on the road at the Bills, Rams and Bengals.

Seven Degrees of Separation: Brett Kulak made history on Wednesday and remains part of it. The Avs veteran has a chance to become the latest teammate of Jaromir Jagr to appear in the Stanley Cup final, which has become a four-decade-plus tradition in the NHL. Kulak played with Jagr in Calgary during the 2017-18 season.

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.”

Mike Evans? Good luck!

Romeo Doubs? See ya!

Wan’Dale Robinson? Au revoir!

Christian Kirk? Adios!

The Broncos coach has what’s left of his heart in the right place. But he might want to get his eyes checked. Better yet, Payton might want to have the receivers they’re running it back with have their peepers looked at.

Only the Titans (who featured a rookie QB) and Browns (bad QBs, then Shedeur Sanders) elected to punt more times during the 2025 regular season than the Broncos did (75).

And only Jacksonville (8.0%) had a higher team drop rate than the Broncos’ 7.0%.

Don’t know about you, but if I’m sitting on a franchise quarterback on a rookie contract, I’d be sorely tempted to overpay in the short term now for a more sure-handed WR 2 or borderline WR 1. Alas.

“My brother’s the worst at this,” Payton had told reporters just before the 2024 trade deadline. “He’s the worst at free agency, and he’s the worst at the trade deadline. He just wants to see action. Then right after the action takes place, he never goes back and reflects and says, ‘Well, that was a bad signing,’ or, ‘That was a bad trade.’

“I say that, I kid him, but I think that there’s so much more that goes into it relative to whether you’re trading a player (or) acquiring a player. Contracts go into it, vision goes into it, and locker room goes into it. There are a lot of details that go into that.”

True. Fit matters, especially in a place as cold and cynical as an NFL locker room.

But culture can’t catch touchdown passes. Chemistry alone won’t move the chains.

And young, top-shelf quarterbacks on cost-friendly deals don’t last forever.

From 2020-2023, during Joe Burrows’ initial contract in Cincinnati, the Bengals reportedly spent $287 million on free-agent deals — an average of $71.78 million per year.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Chiefs in 2018, the second season of Patrick Mahomes’ rookie contract, spent $57.3 million on 26 players from outside their roster.

After the second year of Bo Nix’s current deal, the Broncos had, as of Monday afternoon, spent zippo on nada.

“Hope what we’ve got will get better” is a strategy, granted, although former Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt has seen how well that one usually works out. Payton’s putting a lot of faith in a good group of coaches to squeeze more out of the status quo. It’s putting a lot of faith in new offensive coordinator Davis Webb. It’s also putting a lot of faith in another first-year wideout, which is a risk in and of itself.

The Broncos have picks No. 30 (first round), No. 62 (second round) and No. 94 (third round) to lead off their 2026 NFL Draft haul. Seven wideouts were taken among picks 25-75 last spring, including Pat Bryant III to Denver at No. 74.

Their average stat line in 2025: 28 catches, 364 receiving yards, three touchdowns, two drops. Bryant has all kinds of size (6-foot-2, 204 pounds), catch radius, and upside, but his production last year (31 catches, 378 receiving yards, one receiving touchdown, three drops), along with all the ups and downs that came along with it, proved fairly typical of rookies drafted around his salary slot.

You may not get more cap value in 2026 from, say, a Doubs, who grabbed 75 balls and six scores last fall and just inked a four-year, $68-millon deal with the Patriots. But you’ll almost certainly get more production, historically, when compared to a low-first-round-to-early-third-round rookie wideout.

“When you have a dominant O-line and a dominant defensive line, people want to come here,” left tackle Garett Bolles told us in January.

“We’ve got a great running back room, we’ve got great receivers. Obviously, we need some key players to come in and do what they need to do by getting points on the scoreboard. We got a phenomenal defense. We have everything we need. We just need a couple more playmakers, and sky’s the limit for this team.”

The sky here, sadly, remains only so high, so long as the Broncos value continuity over, well, math. Take Adam Trautman. Super dude. He was tied for 46th among NFL tight ends last season in receiving first downs with 11. Old friends Greg Dulchich and Noah Fant collected 14 and 13, respectively.

According to Spotrac.com, after his latest Broncos extension, That trio averaged 28.3 catches and 2.3 receiving scores last fall, if you’re curious. Trautman collected 20 and (checks notes) one, respectively.

A Payton quote from last August has been doing the rounds lately. Remember when the Broncos coach likened free agency to garage sale finds? In hindsight, it was a harbinger.

“My parents loved garage sale-ing,” Payton told reporters that day. “That was their deal, one thing they enjoyed together. And I think I had 10 couches growing up …

“So, they come home with a new couch, and you’d remove the old one. And you were so excited — it was a sectional — until you sat in the left corner, and it wiggled. And then you realized why it was a free agent.”

Tell that to Talanoa Hufanga. Fit may catch on. Culture may catch on. But if nobody can catch the darn football, what’s the point?