Darnold, of course, was picked No. 3 overall in the 2018 draft by the New York Jets. He flamed out there, then started a journey that featured stops and starts, more downs than ups and, eventually, a fast rise at Minnesota, a $100 million deal in Seattle and, in his first year starting for the Seahawks, a world championship.

Darnold is one of several quarterbacks in the NFL who has had to take the long route to being a coveted starter. Baker Mayfield went through the same thing. Jared Goff nearly won a Super Bowl in Los Angeles only to be dumped by the Rams to Detroit. Daniel Jones was putting together a great year last year — his first in seven seasons — before an injury cut his Indianapolis debut short.

Overall, though, winning a Super Bowl in the past decade-plus in the NFL has been the province of surefire Hall of Famers. Before the Seahawks, nine of the previous 11 Super Bowls had been won by Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Matthew Stafford. The other two belong to the Eagles: The Nick Foles miracle run in 2017 and Jalen Hurts in 2024.

Of course, any team would take a future Hall of Famer at quarterback, but one interesting element here: For as much as the prevailing wisdom is that quarterbacks on a cheap, rookie contract are the key to building a championship-caliber team, the only quarterbacks since 2013 to win a Super Bowl while actually playing on their rookie deal are Russell Wilson (2013 for Seattle) and Mahomes in 2019.

Mahomes’ and Brady’s dominance have a lot to do with that stat, but perhaps it����ap telling nonetheless.

While they haven’t won many titles, rookie-contract quarterbacks still have appeared in the Super Bowl frequently. Wilson made it back in 2014. Since 2018, the losing Super Bowl quarterback has been on his rookie deal six of eight years, with Mahomes holding the two exceptions in 2020 and 2024. Otherwise, the list goes Goff (2018), Jimmy Garoppolo (2019), Joe Burrow (2021), Hurts (2022), Brock Purdy (2023) and Drake Maye last year.

Of the 26 quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl in the past 13 years, 12 have accounted for 5.2% of his team’s cap that year or less. That includes the past two winners in Darnold and Hurts.

Could a quarterback on a rookie deal break through this year and win a Super Bowl? The 2024 draft class, which becomes extension-eligible after this season, looks like a decent bet. After all, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Maye and Denver’s Bo Nix have already won division titles in their first two seasons. Maye’s played in a Super Bowl, while Daniels and Nix have come within a game.

The list of quarterbacks good enough to take up double-digit percentage of a team’s salary cap has been short over the past decade-plus. Mahomes winning two in Kansas City while taking up 17% of the Chiefs’ cap space stands as a substantial outlier.

Of course, teams are adept at suppressing the cap hit for a player long after he signs an extension, but the bill comes due at some point. So, the most efficient way is to strike while the iron is hot and the signal-caller is cheap.

QBs in the Super Bowl since 2013

* Cap data via OvertheCap

The 2024 QB class through two years

On the 23rd day since leaving the Lakers — let’s be honest, they pushed him out the door — James made The Decision, Part 3.

He is signing a two-year, $8 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. Thank goodness. Our long national nightmare is over. NBA commissioner Adam Silver can finally finish up the league schedule. Get ready for ESPN to treat the Sixers like the Yankees as they seek their first championship in 43 years.

James had the right to handle this with patience, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t driving us nuts.

The hope is that James jumping to his fourth team will unclog the offseason traffic jam. Will the 41-year-old finding a new home finally create some positive momentum for one of the most depressing Nuggets’ offseasons ever?

The Nuggets were long ago removed from consideration for James.

So why bring it up and drizzle Sea Breeze in an open wound?

James held up other NBA moves. There is no way around it. Please, let this be the push that allows the other dominoes to fall.

James’ slow play connects to Nuggets’ restricted free agent Peyton Watson. The other teams chasing James — Cavs, Heat, Warriors — have not been linked to Watson.

But as the losers of the derby might they join the Bucks and Clippers as interested in the forward?

Klutch Sports, which represents James and Watson, had no problem with the turtle pace. Agent Rich Paul wants a big offer sheet for Watson, and that is more likely if his market expands.

The Nuggets have engaged in a stare down. It was a wise decision. They could end the madness by signing Watson to a contract of more than $25 million per season — it has to be more than Christian Braun — but why would they bid against themselves?

But the time for patience is over. The Nuggets need to apply the screws, to move with pace. Yes, it is complicated.

To sign Watson and stay under the apron, the Nuggets must trade Cam Johnson. The problem? The entire league knows this. So while there have been suitors, the offers obviously have not moved the needle. That should change as market clarity forms for Watson and Jalen Duren.

And it is needed to goose Klutch Sports. The agency has drawn out talks with restricted free agents before like Tristan Thompson, Nerlens Noel and Eric Bledsoe, with varying degrees of success. This becomes a moot point if Watson gets an offer sheet. It will force an outcome.

That is ideal. The last thing the Nuggets need is for Watson to hold out. And it cannot be ruled out since it is his greatest leverage to take the negotiations into October and see who blinks.

The Nuggets could pull the ripcord, and move on from Watson with a sign-and-trade.

That would be a mistake. It is one thing to lose out for James. It is another to let his free agent approach contribute to the Nuggets losing Watson.

He is everything this roster needs going forward: young, athletic, defensively-skilled and capable of creating his own shot.

James not making Denver a finalist was a gut punch. It is time for the Nuggets to crawl off the mat and make sure they get Watson back.

Arch of Texas: No college quarterback is under more pressure than Arch Manning. After an uneven first season as a starter, he has taken a leadership role and been surrounded with offensive weapons, namely receiver Cam Coleman, that screams championship or bust. Manning played loose and effective down the stretch last season. Now, he must show he can read defenses without losing his mechanics. The early prediction is that the Browns draft him next season.

Jake of All Trades: Jake Paul turned from an influencer into a boxer. Can we just stop there? Paul believes he could play in the NFL. I would love to see him at camp so a linebacker could light him up like the Vegas strip. The only thing stupider than Paul playing in the NFL is Tom Brady engaging in a cringey, scripted feud with the faux Hulk. Tom, please. You are a sports legend. This stuff should be beneath you.

Rox progress: The Rockies’ record stinks. But they are making progress in a number of areas. Multiple agents this week left impressed after talking with the Rockies before and after the draft. It was a new experience that Colorado nailed their valuations of players. Now, the onus is on the front office to be similarly shrewd with trades. The difference? There is a growing belief that they can pull off a productive deadline, a sentence rarely uttered over the last decade in Colorado.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Or else why would the NFL bank on its most bankable quarterback, who tore his ACL last December, being ready for one of its most bankable windows (“Monday Night Football”) on one of its most bankable weeks (Week 1) and in one of its most bankable matchups (Broncos-Chiefs)?

Let’s get this out of the way first: The Grading The Week staff thinks the NFL is a giant, soulless, monolithic, cash-grabbing kaiju. But dang it, NFL officials sure know how to market and brand the living heck out of the most inane stuff. And at the most inane times of the year.

Fans can watch rookies run drills and pump iron at the scouting combine at Indy in February. The draft now looks (and sounds) like a football version of Lollapalooza. And the schedule release has somehow turned into one of the showcase events of the spring, elbowing its way onto the stage in the middle of the NBA and NHL’s postseasons with a mix of everything to

Speaking of fun, how about Rehab Bowl I? Between the Broncos and Chiefs, the best sports science staff wins. It’ll be like the pit crew competition during Indianapolis 500 weekend — only the wheels in this case are Bo Nix’s surgically-repaired right ankle and Mahomes’ new left knee.

Broncos getting Patrick Mahomes in Week 1 — B

Yes, the Broncos’ 2026 schedule is about 17 levels of pure brutality, especially before Halloween. So is it better for the Broncos to get the Chiefs out of the way early? And get Mahomes on the road out of the way early?

Well, historically, that glass is either half full or half empty, depending on which precedent you want to cherry-pick.

Good: Denver is 5-2 against the Chiefs in September since 2000. Less good: The Broncos went 1-1 when those matchups were played in KC.

Good: Mahomes has dropped two of his last three Week 1 contests. Less good: He’s 6-2 lifetime in openers as the Chiefs’ QB1, and 3-1 at home.

Good: Deshaun Watson and Robert Griffin III lost their debuts in the season immediately after they’d undergone major knee surgery. Less good: Tom Brady, Kyler Murray and Joe Burrow all won their “comeback” appearances.

Burrow’s 2020 season ended with damage to his ACL, MCL and PCL. In his first start of 2021, Cincy Joe completed 20 of 27 throws for two scores in an overtime win over Minnesota.

Murray blew out his knee in Week 14 of the ’22 season. During his ’23 debut, Murray beat Atlanta at home.

Brady tore his ACL early in 2008. In his 2009 lid-lifter, he rallied the Pats to a 25-24 win over Buffalo on “Monday Night football,” throwing for two scores over the game’s final 2:10.

OK, so that last one wouldn’t be a particularly good omen.

Although this nugget is: Before 2026, the last time the Broncos had to travel to Kansas City for a road opener was … 2015. Just sayin’.

Antonio Senzatela’s rebound  — A-minus

The Rockies wrapped up their Keystone State road trip with a 2-4 record. Chase Dollander hurt his arm just as he was turning a corner. Michael Lorenzen and Coors Field look like a match made in Hades.

But, in the spirit of the Avs channeling all those 2022 vibes again, the baseball guys on the GTW crew are trying to keep it light and sunny when it comes to the news at 20th & Bleak.

After all, when wins are scarce, you celebrate the small ones, right? Mickey Moniak’s making a whale of an All-Star case, although catcher Hunter Goodman may pip him for that token Colorado spot. Starter Tomoyuki Sugano is keeping his walks down and some hopes high. And yet one of the most pleasant surprises of early May is how a guy the GTW kids had given up on — Antonio Senzatela — suddenly looks like the Rox’s most interesting potential deadline asset.

Colorado’s once-struggling righty is turning heads as a lockdown bullpen option. Heading into this weekend’s homestand, the 31-year-old had posted a 2,38 ERA over 11 1/3 innings at home this season, which is strong. He’d put up a 0.56 ERA in 16 innings on the road, which is even stronger. And, more to the point of a rebuild, tradeable.

A grade-schooler stormed the field just after Messi, the Argentinian midfielder with the magic left foot, had fled the Colorado Rapids’ 3-2 loss. Then another. And another.

A young man in an FC Barcelona shirt made it the longest, twisting and shouting past security for about 50 seconds, breaking at least four ankles inside the 18-yard box before being hauled down to the turf. We counted at least five field-stormers in all, scamps to the last.

“I work at a school, and I see kids with Messi’s shirt in every classroom,” Claudia Hendricks said. “And I told them, ‘I’m from the same town,’ and people say, ‘Really?’ And they want to touch me. It’s weird.”

Hendricks has called Boulder home for decades. But Claudia, you see, actually hails from Messi’s hometown of Rosario, Argentina. Her sister still lives 2 miles from the legend’s house in Funes Hills, known locally as “The Fortress.” It’s a 10-minute drive down the road. They see it, from afar, every Christmas. Small world.

“We drive by it every day (during the holidays) to see if we can see him,” Hendricks told me outside Empower on Saturday, just before the Rapids hosted Messi’s current club, Inter Miami, for their 30th anniversary match and Messi’s Colorado debut.

“Sometimes, they say, ‘Oh, he’s getting ice cream in this place,’ so we all go over there.”

“Is he ever there?” I wondered.

A grin.

“No, but he owns a bar in Rosario, so we go there sometimes with the hope of seeing him.”

“So is he ever there?” I asked.

Another grin.

“No. I haven’t met him … but I was thinking, if I scream, ‘Messi,’ and I name his neighborhood, that he will look at me anyway.”

To most Americans, No. 10 is the guy who pops up on your television during World Cup years to hawk potato chips or Pepsi products. To Hendricks and her fellow Argentinians, he’s Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Tom Brady, and LeBron James, all rolled into one. The GOAT’S GOAT.

Since 1956, a footballer has been presented with the Ballon d’Or, the Heisman Trophy of world soccer. Messi, now 38, has won it on eight different occasions — including four in a row from 2009-2012. No one else has received it more than five times.

“I don’t think that Michael or LeBron move 70,000 people into a single stadium for a single game,” Sergio Martinez of Lakewood, a Buenos Aires native, opined before the match.

“Messi is … a feeling,” Silvina Irimia, another Buenos Aires native, now of Aurora, continued. “He’s like (Diego) Maradona … there’s nothing like him.

“Argentina is a feeling. That’s what we say. Argentina no lo entenderias.”

Translation: “Argentina, you wouldn’t understand it.”

Then again, when 75,824 people show up for a soccer match during a Nuggets playoff game and a Rockies-Dodgers weekend, you start to understand plenty.

Messi turns 39 in June. It’s presumed that this summer will be his final run with the Argentinian national team in the World Cup. His Inter Miami contract runs through 2028. In a sport with no scoreboard clock, Messi’s clock is ticking.

There were more No. 10 jerseys at Empower Saturday than in half of the Broncos’ home games last fall. Claudia’s son, Elias, owns at least four Messi shirts, at last count. He wore his Argentina replica look on Saturday. He cried when the Argentines lost to Germany in the ’06 World Cup. He still rates Argentina’s 2022 World Cup win as sweeter than the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 victory and the Avalanche and Nuggets’ titles in ’22 and ’23, respectively. And he loves his Broncos, Avs and Nuggets.

“(Denver is) a bit of a humble city, I’d say,” Elias noted. “So it’s really cool to have all that greatness in here.”

And talk about greatness. Messi on Stadium Circle. Shohei Ohtani on Blake. Nikola Jokic on Speer. Do you realize that for one Saturday in the Front Range, Denver hosted the best soccer player in the world, the best basketball player in the world, and the best baseball player on the planet — all shining within four hours and 3 miles of one another?

Yet Messi outdrew them all. Half an hour into the first half, the upper deck resembled something of an Easter quilt, seats alternating between Argentina blue and Miami hot pink. Only a few empty seats lingered in Empower’s nooks and crannies. An announced crowd of 75,000 more than passed the eye test.

Elias’ eyes were a bit tired after trying to track down Messi downtown on Friday. He drove slowly past Denver’s finest hotels, thinking he might catch a glimpse of all that, ya know, greatness.

“He doesn’t come out very much in Argentina. He gets swarmed,” the younger Hendricks said. “I thought I might have a better chance out here.”

Nada. Braved the snow, though.

“I’m sure (Messi) landed and went, ‘What is this?’ ” Elias laughed. “(I’d tell him), ‘No, no, in two hours, it’ll all be gone.’ But just to have him in the city of Denver is so exciting. I’ve loved him for so long. And I’m in Rosario all the time. Just to think, does he know that somebody from Colorado is in the same town as him (in Argentina) every year?”

He does now. And while the Rapids were celebrating their 30th birthday, it didn’t take long for Messi to ruin the party.

Some 19 minutes into the match, the Rapids’ Josh Atencio was whistled for a tripping call in the Miami box that was so soft, a toddler could’ve slept on it.

Even after a video review, the ref pointed to the spot anyway. Messi, the master, strode to center stage, as if on cue. Colorado keeper Zack Steffen waved, stretched both arms high, feinted right and dove hard to his left. No. 10 rolled it coolly across the grass Steffen had just vacated. All the goalie could do was watch, prone, as Inter Miami took a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 2-0 at the halftime break, the birthday boys fought back to make it 2-2 midway through the second stanza. But in the 80th minute, Messi struck again.

The main attraction supported an Inter Miami break along the right wing, eventually isolating Rapids defender Lucas Herrington, 1-on-1, in the back of the box. Messi stutter-stepped without ever losing stride or pace, set himself and fired with that laser left foot into the top left corner of the net. His line drive hissed past a leaping Steffen for a 3-2 Miami lead.

“His grandma is still in the same house,” Claudia laughed. “Same humble house where she lived all her life.”

Same humble legend. No lo entenderias. Messi celebrated the winning goal in the arms of his teammates, another stadium conquered, with a smile anyone could understand.

Call it a fall from grace. Call it a climb back toward himself, as a quarterback.

Early on a Thursday morning in late March, inside Apex, before many of his teammates took off their helmets and headed off to their primary jobs, Lynch yanked a throw too far for a receiver at Spartans practice. He pivoted, disgusted. He redid his motion in thin air. He slapped himself on the helmet several times in rapid succession.

“Hey, you getting hyped for this (expletive), man,” a teammate grinned at Lynch later, off to the side.

“I’m gonna play ’till I’m 45,” the 32-year-old Lynch beamed back. “Like I’m Tom Brady.”

For two and a half games in the National Arena League this spring, the Spartans let Lynch — the Broncos’ 2016 first-round pick that fizzled out after two years in Denver — dream again. No organization at any level called for a year and a half, until Spartans owner Tony Thompson wandered up at Lynch’s son’s Park Hill Pirates youth-ball practice in 2025. They could pay all of $600 a game. Lynch, a religious man, turned up his nose at first. But this was God’s way, he said, of telling him he should play again.

Two and a half games later, playing in Salina, Kansas, Lynch planted his right leg as a defender crunched him from the left side. His right knee buckled. Tests revealed Lynch tore his LCL, ending his comeback attempt before he could even play in the Spartans’ home debut on April 11.

“I was pissed off,” Lynch told The Denver Post. “And it sucks. I didn’t want it to be like this.”

But he did not ask himself why, or why him, or why he couldn’t catch a break, or any of the possible whys that come when hope is killed. He couldn’t go there, Lynch said. Not anymore. He did not join the Spartans for a whiff of former glory. This was an exercise, really, in football therapy.

At some point, bouncing around cities and leagues, Paxton Lynch the man and Paxton Lynch the football player diverged. The man knew himself. The football player, though, lost all confidence. Lynch joined the Spartans to reconcile the two and find part of himself in Denver again. The experiment lasted just a few weeks.

Still, if you ask him, it was successful.

“I was like, ‘OK, if I play this year in arena football,'” Lynch said, “‘I’m going to play as Paxton Lynch. I’m going to have full confidence in myself. I don’t really care.’ And that����ap what I did.

“It felt good to do that again.”

The road back

Looking back, the breaking point was 2017.

Lynch was the Broncos’ first draft pick after Super Bowl 50. The first pick after Manning’s retirement. The first pick of the last year of the Kubiak Era. Lynch rolled into Denver, used to being “the guy,” as he put it, from three years starting in Memphis; he started two games in his rookie year in 2016 behind Trevor Siemian, and lost the job again in his second year.

In 2018, the Broncos signed veteran Case Keenum as their starter, and Lynch lost direction.

“I just remember that whole entire preseason, it was like — I wasn’t Paxton Lynch,” Lynch said. “I was just, like, Paxton Lynch without the confidence.”

The Broncos cut him that September, after two years and just four total starts. Lynch told himself he had to fight to change his mindset. He mostly lost. He lasted less than a year in Seattle. He lasted a year in Pittsburgh. He went to the CFL, the USFL, and the XFL and searched for nearly a decade to recapture the feeling he’d first brought to Denver as a young 22-year-old man before the doubt crept in.

“I knew who I was,” Lynch said. “I had a strong relationship with God. I have a strong foundation in my faith. So I always knew who I was off the field. But when it became Paxton Lynch the football player, and all these people had these different opinions about me – that����ap when it was hard for me.

“I was like … ‘You believe that you’re good. But you’re not playing good. And then all these people are saying you’re not good,'” he continued. “So it’s like, ‘Are these people seeing something I’m not seeing?’ It was the constant battle in that.”

By 2024, the line had gone cold, and Lynch accepted a new stage of his life. Mostly. He was and had an eye on coaching collegiate football. Then Thompson sold him on arena football at a Los Dos Potrillos. Lynch told himself and family, after all, that he would play the sport as long as he possibly could.

That applied in this case, he figured, even if he was playing indoor games up at the Denver Coliseum rather than a few miles south at a rocking Empower Field.

Lynch hoped, of course, that something — another call, anything — would’ve come out of this Spartans journey. But he felt no pressure to be perfect or prove he was good enough. By that late-March practice, Lynch was slinging with little abandon, and cackling in glee at two teammates arguing about their defensive assignments, and waving his hand over his nether regions in a belt-to-behind celebration after one touchdown pass.

“Two years off of playing football, that����ap when I was like, ‘OK, if I get the opportunity, then I’m just going to completely be myself again,'” Lynch said.

Lessons to his kids

Lynch joined the Spartans to rehabilitate his own image as a football player, yes. Also, to better himself as a father, as his 10-year-old son Asa is a burgeoning quarterback in his own right in Denver youth ball.

“I was doing things where I was like – I didn’t even, like, give myself a chance, in a way,” Lynch recalled of his career. “I tell my son that all the time, too. When he goes out there and is afraid to throw an incompletion, or afraid of this, I’m like, ‘You’re messing up, and you’re not even feeling good about messing up. Because you’re not even doing it, like, 100%.’”

Lynch had visions of leading the Spartans to a championship in the Denver Coliseum, with his kids cheering from the stands. Thousands more cheering, too. Thompson’s franchise has heavily marketed Lynch since he signed last fall. W, a chatbot pops up with the same message: “We just signed Paxton Lynch to the Colorado Spartans, and season tickets are live now.”

Spartans head coach Fred Shaw called Lynch a “true leader” and said his 6-foot-7 frame was built for the arena game, which features walls around the playing field that players crash into as a live boundary. The Spartans averaged over 40 points a game in the two games Lynch started, Shaw said.

“I’ve been in this Arena League for over 20 years now,” Shaw said. “And his play alone — I felt like he was going to become one of the best quarterbacks that ever played arena football.”

Even with his season over, Lynch plans to attend as many home games as possible. He’ll start with Saturday, April 11, at the Coliseum if he’s able, coming off surgery this week.

“I know there was a lot of people who wanted to come watch me play again,” Lynch said. “So, my goal is to go there and give them the experience, and at least — if they want a picture, they want an autograph, they want to meet me, whatever — my goal is to be there to give them the opportunity, even if I’m not playing.”

His goal, too, was to give his son a firsthand look at the preparation it took to be a professional quarterback, at any level. And to work for his dreams. And to show him how to handle failure. It’s taken Lynch a long time to learn that, himself.

He doesn’t know, yet, if he’ll play again in 2027. If this was the true end of Lynch’s playing career, though, he’ll walk out happy.

“I do feel like that����ap what I came out here and did — I was, like, authentically myself,” Lynch said.

Broncos draft previews
Offense: Quarterbacks | Running backs | Wide receivers | Tight ends | Offensive line
Defense: Defensive line | Outside linebackers | Inside linebackers | Cornerbacks | Safeties

Broncos’ in-house offseason moves: Re-signed Sam Ehlinger to a one-year, $2 million deal

Under contract: Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham, Ehlinger

Need scale (1-10): 2. Easily could have been a 1 on the scale, except teams are always in the market for quarterbacks. If you don’t have one, you must find one. If you do have one, as the Broncos do in Nix, then you’re in the business of developing your room and generating as many options as you can. Head coach Sean Payton always says he tells quarterbacks his job is to make them a lot of money. Plus, if a development model works, it can result in excess draft capital. So, even with Nix expected to be healthy and on the field for OTAs in early June, Denver will want a quarterback for its rookie minicamp and perhaps as a practice squad type through training camp and the regular season.

Top Five

Fernando Mendoza, Indiana

Mendoza is about as surefire a No. 1 overall pick as they come. Any moment Denver spent working on him in recent months might as well be chalked up to advance scouting work, since he’s going to be playing in the division with the Las Vegas Raiders. He’s big, strong, competitive and smart. And set to learn in a Vegas ecosystem that includes new head coach Klint Kubiak, veteran Kirk Cousins and, of course, limited shareholder Tom Brady.

Ty Simpson, Alabama

When Simpson was good at Alabama, he was really good. The issue: He started just one year, was up-and-down a bit for the Crimson Tide in that season and overall has just 523 collegiate passes to his name. Bo Nix, by comparison, had 1,936. Simpson’s a risk, but someone might be willing to roll the dice in the back half of the first round.

Garrett Nussmeier, LSU

Nothing against Nussmeier, but this is a good draft year to not need a quarterback. Even teams that do besides the Raiders must be at least quietly considering punting until what looks to be a loaded 2027 class. Nussmeier’s best year was 2024 and he was limited to nine games last fall by injury.

Carson Beck, Miami

Beck decided to play in college in 2025 after a 2024 elbow injury and he turned in an admirable lone season with the Hurricanes, leading them to the national title game and throwing 30 TDs vs. 12 INTs. In five years at Georgia and one at Miami, Beck completed 69.5% of his passes.

Drew Allar, Penn State

Allar has prototypical size, tantalizing arm strength and… well, hit-and-miss production. His best collegiate year was 2024 and, had he parlayed that into a major jump forward, might have rocketed up boards. Instead, Allar played in just six games and has a 63.2% career completion rate. A project, though one with considerable tools.

Broncos options

Cole Payton, North Dakota State

Payton, like Simpson, is a long-time collegiate quarterback who started just one year. Earlier in his career with the Bison, Payton was used extensively as a runner. In his lone year as a starter, he averaged just 17 attempts per game. But, to use what is perhaps already an overworked comparison, he’s got some Taysom Hill to his game. And, well, that makes a Sean Payton-coached team an intriguing option.

Luke Altmyer, Illinois

Altmyer’s experienced and productive, having started three years at Illinois after transferring from Ole Miss. He’s got experience with Denver WR Pat Bryant and helped guide the Illini from 5-7 his first year to 10-3 in 2024 and 9-4 last year. One issue: Sean Payton believes a QB who gets sacked a lot in college is likely to get sacked a lot in the pros, and Altmyer took 30-plus three straight years. Still, an interesting developmental player.

Athan Kaliakmanis, Rutgers

The Broncos had Kaliakmanis on a Zoom call during the pre-draft process, so there’s some connection here. Good size at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, but never completed better than 62.2% fora season between Minnesota (2022-23) and Rutgers (2024-25). His last year was his best, though he was sacked 36 times.

Jack Strand, MSU Moorehead

Another player Denver has talked with via Zoom in the predraft process. Strand was not invited to the NFL Combine but worked out with Cole Payton at NDSU’s pro day. Started four years for the D-II Dragons and threw for 13,161 yards, 126 TDs and 50 INTs in his career.

Taylen Green, Arkansas

Why not? Green is a massive player at 6-6 and 227 pounds, and he wowed at the NFL Combine by running 4.36 in the 40-yard dash, jumping 43.5 inches vertical, and 11-foot-2 broad. Played in 53 games between Boise State (2021-23) and Arkansas (2024-25), is turnover-prone and completed 60.5% of his passes the past two years, but if you’re looking to let a guy develop and play on your practice squad, you might find other uses when he’s got this kind of athletic profile.

And Draymond Green may be a lot of things. But the man’s no fool.

“What we’ve seen now is the tip of the iceberg (for Watson). He ain’t even scratched the surface yet,” “Peyton Watson is going to be an elite NBA player … so, y’all keep an eye out for Peyton Watson. That kid is going to be an All-Star. No questions asked.”

Exactly. And yet, because it’s April, because it’s “Where Will LeBron Play Next Year” season, silly questions give way to even sillier suggestions.

On Tuesday, longtime ESPN scribes Dave McMenamin and Tim Bontemps authored a piece for Worldwide Leader’s website — including one that featured the Nuggets. In it, they speculated that Denver and Los Angeles could work out a sign-and-trade that would see the Lakers land Peyton Watson (a former UCLA star and Long Beach native) or Cam Johnson for the King. This was backed by an unnamed source, a “West executive,” who suggested:

“Who is the only guy on (James’) level from a basketball IQ standpoint in the league? Go there and team up with that guy.”

‘There’ would be the Front Range. The ‘only guy’ would be Nikola Jokic. Fun? Sure. Flattering? No doubt. But for Watson? Who ships a 23-year-old player coming into their prime for a soon-to-be 42-year-old? Even if that middle-aged wonder is one of the best five guys to ever play the game?

Yes, Tom Brady won a Super Bowl at age 42. Barry Bonds, at the same age, led the National League in walks (132). Some 44 years earlier, a 42-year-old Warren Spahn led the National League in wins (23). Age is just a number.

Although the numbers in this scenario are bonkers. Especially when you consider that, odds are, James is staying put with the Lakers, popping back to the Cavaliers, or hanging it up. Of the ESPN.com hypotheticals, Denver was fifth on the list — and it’s hard to believe King James’ camp, once push comes to shove, would even have to dig that deep.

But let’s humor the concept for a second.

There’s the cost, for one thing. Watson is a restricted free agent after the season who’s made the Nuggets look bad for not giving him an extension earlier — putting up, as of Tuesday evening, career highs in points (14.9 per game) and rebounds. A show-stopping leaper and defender over his first three seasons on Chopper Circle, at age 23, he’s evolved into a foundational, two-way wing whose jumper now complements years of sky-walking athleticism. He’s also currently sporting a team-friendly $4.36 million cap number. That’s about to be tripled, or quadrupled, by somebody.

King James is slated to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent coming off a $52.6 million cap hit this season following a $48.7 million hit in ’24-25. If he’s going to give any franchise a “hometown” discount, it’s more likely to be given to his actual hometown — Cleveland — than to the Nuggets. If the Kroenkes can’t afford Watson, how would they turn around and justify stretching the cap that much more for James?

There are the realities of the East vs. the West. If the King wants at least one more ring, more power to him. Oklahoma City’s core is young enough that they’re not going anywhere, and the Spurs with Victor Wembanyama are right behind them. The road back to the Finals in the East through Detroit, Boston and New York is far easier than the brutal hellscape of the current West bracket.

There’s the fit. Remember The Russell Westbrook Experience? Now picture that vibe, times about 50. As part of Team ‘Bron, the Joker might start seeing kinder foul calls come his way more consistently. But when you get The King, you get his demands, his parameters, his show. And maybe his family members, too. In some ways, it wouldn’t be all that unlike The Prime Effect at CU. And yet, this situation is markedly different than Boulder four years ago. The Buffs, at the time, needed an identity besides irrelevance and bad football. The Nuggets don’t.

On the court, James is an alpha who can play with anybody. If you squint hard enough, you can even see LeBron doing for the Nuggets next year what Aaron Gordon, whose health has become a daily concern, does now. Although so could Watson, at a price close to or less than James’ likely asking price.

The genius in building this Nuggets core was not just in finding Jokic and grooming him into a generational big man. It was also in finding pieces that accented Joker’s ridiculous, prodigious strengths (hands, feet, vision, touch, IQ, passing, shooting, ball-handling, strength, physicality, dexterity, anticipation, etc., etc.) while simultaneously lessening the impact of his few on-court weaknesses (rim protection, straight-line speed).

Jokic could find the open man in the middle of a crowded supermarket, so you surround him with excellent spot-up shooters (Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., Tim Hardaway Jr., Aaron Gordon, etc., etc.) and let him pick from several poisons. He can hit an earwig in stride from 80 yards away, so you give him superlative sprinters and finishers on runouts (Also Gordon, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, Bruce Brown, etc., etc.). He’ll contest shots, but probably won’t swat many into the second row — so you pair him with defenders who can cut off the supply chain of drivers at the head (Also AG, also Watson, also Braun, also Brown, etc., etc.).

Even at age 41, King James is still an elite scoring machine (20.7 points per game as of Wednesday). That long-distance shooting, though, has been slipping — James’ 41% conversion rate on 3-pointers in ’23-24 dropped to 37.6% last season and was at 31.4% as of Wednesday, a dip of 10% over about three years.

Watson, meanwhile, is trending in the exact opposite direction on his treys. Two seasons ago? 29.6%. A year ago? 35.3%. This season, before Wednesday? 41.5%.

And then there’s the defense. , James went into Wednesday evening with a Defensive Rating (DR) of 116 opponent points allowed per 100 possessions (lower is better), and that number has been trending the wrong way, too. Last season, LeBron’s DR was 114, the same as the season before that. In ’22-23, that DR was 113. In ’21-22, it was 111. Career blocks per 100 possessions: 1.0 — 0.9 this season, 0.8 two years prior.

While Watson’s DR, per Basketball-Reference, Even in a “down” defensive year for P-Swat, he was blocking 1.9 shots per 100 possessions this season before the midweek Utah trip, after 2.7 stuffs per 100 possessions in ’24-25 and 2.9 per 100 in ’23-24.

“Peyton Watson has gotten so much better,” Green continued. “He clearly has a high-level processor. When you have a high-level processor in this league, it’s an advantage. It’s very understated, but a very big advantage.”

Why give that one up so soon? When it comes to the question of an old King or a young Watson for the Nuggets next season,

He played it slow during the first week of free agency, then got fast in a hurry by completing a blockbuster trade for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle.

Payton and the Broncos have spent more than a year prioritizing retention, but he insists that assuming anything from 2025 will be the same in 2026 is folly.

This is the challenge of arriving on the doorstep of a Super Bowl only to come up short. What you did worked well, but not well enough. Ifs and buts are easy to come by, especially after quarterback Bo Nix broke his ankle in overtime of the AFC’s divisional round.

Change for change’s sake doesn’t make sense, but neither does stasis.

“The better you get, the harder it is to improve your team,” Payton said Tuesday at the NFL’s annual spring meeting.

He spoke and answered questions from that unique perch: Well-situated as a contender with a quarterback in the midst of his rookie contract and also warding off any notion of complacency.

Here are five takeaways from Payton’s 27 minutes with reporters:

The Broncos know the stakes of having QB Bo Nix in his rookie contract window

What Payton said: “Everyone would say, ‘Hey, you’ve got Bo on his rookie deal.’ Well, no kidding.”

What it means: Teams with talented young quarterbacks who are still cheap are in the best position to build a complete roster. There’s really no way around that fact. Nix is entering his third professional season and will play with a cap charge just a shade above $5 million.

The implication of what Payton said is that he senses an external notion that perhaps the Broncos didn’t get aggressive enough to build around Nix in the midst of this window.

The PG-rated version of his response: Baloney.

In his mind, though, the Broncos had already done much of their building when free agency opened in early March.

That����ap what the 10 contract extensions over the preceding 18 months were about. That����ap what the last-minute run of deals for unheralded-yet-important pieces like Alex Palczewski, Justin Strnad, Alex Singleton, and Adam Trautman were about.

Payton chided anybody who cast the offseason as wasted before Denver swung the trade for Waddle.

The numbers mostly back Payton up. The Broncos retained virtually every core member of their offense and defense. �ٱ�Ա����,��, is in the middle of the pack in cap space (No. 19 at $18.8 million) but ranks seventh in active cap spending. Only Seattle has less dead cap than Denver.

The Broncos have loaded up the roster; they are just betting that doing so with their own players is the better path to the Lombardi Trophy than bringing in extensive outside help.

Jaylen Waddle can be a force multiplier in multiple ways

What Payton said: “Whenever you get into a big-name free agent or a trade of this magnitude, the all-the-other-stuff is important research. When it comes to Waddle’s all-the-other-stuff, it was 10, 10, 10, 10. Obviously, he will help us.”

What it means: Waddle is a really good player. That much is obvious. The Broncos traded the rough equivalent of a first and a fourth-round pick for him because they think they’re acquiring much more than that.

Start with what Payton refers to as the “all-the-other-stuff.” Payton got glowing reviews on the receiver from former quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, one of the coach’s favorite former players and a trusted resource, as well as legendary former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Broncos corner Pat Surtain II and more. Payton calls certain players “force multipliers” in the locker room. Running back J.K. Dobbins is one. Defensive lineman Malcolm Roach is another. So, too, is Courtland Sutton. Denver thinks Waddle can be that, too.

He should have a similarly broad impact on the field. Payton said Waddle can play inside and outside and referred to his route tree as “extensive.” The coach’s favorite part about his new pass-catcher’s skill set: “He’s extremely fast and he stops fast.”

That����ap the kind of player who can not only make an impact on his own — the Broncos wanted a high-caliber route-runner and believe Waddle is that — but who can also make life easier for the other receivers and Denver’s running game, too.

He’s the kind of player who can improve a team even when a team is good enough, as Payton said, where improving becomes a more difficult challenge. That, ultimately, is why the Broncos paid the price for Waddle. He checks every box they set out to find.

A creative option at inside linebacker — and a breakout candidate on the edge

What Payton said: “You’re going to see (Jonah) Elliss take some snaps inside. That����ap something we’ve discussed relative to our depth on the edge.”

What it means: Perhaps the single most interesting personnel note from Payton is an impending position change for Denver’s third-year defender. Time will tell if the move sticks, but it says as much about another player on the roster as it does about Elliss himself.

This, in some ways, is a Que Robinson move. The Broncos think they might have stolen a really good player in the fourth round of the 2025 draft in Robinson, who is long, strong, plays tough against the run on the edge, but also has real pass-rush juice.

Robinson, though, was often a gameday inactive as a rookie behind Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper, Elliss and Dondrea Tillman. They’re all back for 2026. So perhaps Elliss can provide some quality play on the inside and free up time for Robinson in Denver’s OLB rotation.

Payton called the switch a matter of “looking at your assets” and lauded the skill set of Elliss.

The head coach noted that two of Elliss’ brothers, Kaden and Christian, have played in the middle of the field, and also that Zach Baun flourished in Philadelphia when he moved to the middle of the field.

If Denver gets anything resembling that kind of production, of course, the move will be a home run. At the very least, it’ll be a fascinating project to follow this summer.

Breaking news: The Broncos coach is not the warm and fuzzy type

What Payton said: “I don’t have anything warm and fuzzy in my golf bag. Except my towel.”

What it means: Payton was asked, essentially, if he could occasionally play the good cop with Nix or anybody else. He dropped one of his funniest lines of the day in response.

In more practical terms, though, Payton made an interesting comment in suggesting that Davis Webb’s promotion to offensive coordinator and play-caller will likely change the complexion of Webb’s day-to-day relationship with Nix to some degree.

“Bo is in there with (new quarterbacks coach) Logan Kilgore now. Logan will be his warm and fuzzy.

Now, Davis and myself will be like, ‘Hey! What are you doing?’

One of the more fascinating subplots of the 2026 Broncos will be how Payton helps groom Webb as a play-caller. When Payton first took that role under his mentor, Bill Parcells, Parcells was extremely hands-on. Will Payton operate the same way? Will he push Webb to coach Nix in any form or manner differently now that he’s in the coordinator role rather than at the front of the QB room on a daily basis? Does Webb need to do anything differently now that he’s in front of the entire unit rather than one room?

Webb doesn’t have to have the same approach as Payton had when he was a young play-caller and Payton doesn’t have to have the same approach Parcells did all those years ago. But the similarities in both are readily apparent.

Sean Payton’s flag football coaching career will not go down as illustrious

What Payton said: “Well, that was humbling.”

What it means: Payton coached a bunch of NFL players and former players — including legendary former quarterback Tom Brady — against the U.S. national flag football team earlier in March. The tournament was originally supposed to be in Saudi Arabia, but was moved to Los Angeles due to the war in Iran.

What happened: The NFL guys got their clocks cleaned by the national flag football team. And Payton, who had Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh along as his defensive coordinator, had his eyes opened.

“You remember the ‘Home Alone’ series and Macaulay Culkin was inside the house? Well, the national team was Macaulay Culkin and I felt like Harbaugh and I were the two guys outside tripping over the garden hose. It����ap an entirely different game. It was cool to be around those guys.”

Payton left the weekend with a prediction regarding the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A.

“When this was announced, there was this feeling that there would be 10 NFL players on that roster and I’ll be surprised if there’s one,” he said.

Mikaela Shiffrin was choking.

That is what people were saying. That is what they were thinking.

When you are to skiing what Serena Williams is to tennis, there is no grace, no free passes.

As Americans, we only watch the winter sports at the Olympics. It makes performances the equivalent of a college final exam, disproportionately weighted.

It is not fair. But it is who we are.

On the biggest stage — Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals — championships provide exclamation points in barstool arguments.

On Wednesday in Cortina, Italy, Shiffrin shut up her critics.

The silence was as golden as her medal.

But it wasn’t about the haters. This was about her.

She gets the credit.

She did this. Not us.

She blazed to gold in the slalom with a combined time of 1 minute, 39.10 seconds — 1.5 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Camille Rast.

In her final race of the 2026 Olympic Games, she vanquished demons that have followed her since Beijing.

“I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash,” Shiffrin told reporters. “In the end, today, showing up, that was the thing I wanted most. More than the medal. Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable.”

Shiffrin eliminated the confusion, poofed the black cloud hanging over her.

She won gold in slalom in Sochi in 2014 and in giant slalom in Pyeongchang 2018. No one, man or woman, has more World Cup victories or podiums. She is not the product of marketing. She is a legend.

And suddenly, somehow, the Olympics became her soft spot, the site of crippling vulnerability.

Four years ago, she crashed out of both the giant slalom and slalom seconds into her runs. She ambitiously entered six events and medaled in zero of them. She would later say she was “embarrassed” by her performance.

Shiffrin had become a victim of her own trophy case. Imagine Tiger Woods, in his prime, missing the cut at The Masters annually.

When Shiffrin finished 15th in the slalom in the team combined event last week in Cortina after Breezy Johnson took first in the downhill, it created concern. Only a wreck or oddly conservative run could take them off the medal stand and Shiffrin skied tentatively, leaving the Americans fourth.

Then, she finished 11th in the giant slalom. That ran her streak to eight straight events without a medal.

It officially reignited the debate. Had the Olympics become a hurdle she could no longer clear?

It did not make sense because of her past success on and off the slopes.

Shiffrin had overcome the sudden loss of her father in 2020 and PTSD from a freak injury to her abdomen in an accident in 2024.

How could Shiffrin be the greatest and succumb to the Olympic glare?

The too-simple explanation is pressure.

It overwhelmed Simone Biles, the best gymnast of all time, in Tokyo, forcing her to withdraw because of the twisties, a spatial disorientation that affected her balance. Last week it swallowed up men’s figure skater Ilia Malinin, the Quad God, who breaks physics with his jumps but was broken by the magnitude of the moment.

Malinin has demonstrated class and resilience in talking about his disappointment, believing he has an Olympic path forward in the sport he loves. Biles restored her roar in Paris last summer, winning four medals, three of them gold, while becoming a Shiffrin ally.

Here in Colorado, Shiffrin’s pursuit of redemption was personal. She spent part of her childhood in our mountains. She trained in Vail. We wanted her to crush it for our country, of course, but really for our state, for all of us.

But she had to do this for herself.

She had to be present for this present to hang around her neck.

“Through a lot of discussions with my psychologist and my mom and my team, everything we said was that, despite pressure or nerves, I want to feel this skiing,” Shiffrin said Wednesday.

She arrived in Cortina with seven slalom wins in the first eight events on the World Cup Circuit this season. She was dominant. So when Shiffrin did not shine in Italy, it made her an easy target.

This is where nuance matters.

Skiing is unique because every mountain is different and the weather remains a variable. And as easy as it is to lump her in with Tom Brady or Michael Jordan, she is not representing a city, a state or region. She is carrying the weight of an entire country.

There is no teammate to ski the last few gates. No coach to rescue her with the perfect play call. She does not get multiple passes or 30 shots. She has a few runs, where being off line by 3 inches can lead to four years of anguish.

Shiffrin did not cower in the face of disappointment. She accepted her underwhelming performances in Cortina as a challenge, not a conclusion.

This could not have been easy. She acknowledged in an interview with Biles recently that she had nightmares before these Olympics, worried that things would not work out as planned.

We have come a long way as a sports viewing public from the days of rubbing dirt on it. But Shiffrin provided a reminder that mental issues are real and must be addressed like a physical injury.

She patiently, if not painfully, worked through her public failure in private. With one last chance to seize glory, she became comfortable again, making us all proud.

But this is all about Shiffrin.

She found the courage to remove the burden she was carrying.

And it was worth the wait in gold.

Denver and New England’s whiteout matchup in the AFC Championship in 2025, though, brought back several degrees of recent history. Back to the days of Brady, and Peyton Manning, and the last time the stands at Empower Field rocked as loudly as they did this winter. Back to a Broncos group that knew quite well, as ex-Denver running back C.J. Anderson recalled, who they’d have to go through in the AFC to get to a Lombardi Trophy.

“It����ap interesting to see like — it����ap them two at the top of the apex,” Anderson told The Denver Post this week. “I think for us, it was like, we knew that we were going to run into Ben (Roethlisberger). Or we were going to run into Brady.”

History has repeated itself, a decade later. These Broncos have thrust their Super Bowl window wide open after a 2025 season where they came three points and a blizzard away from a trip to the Super Bowl last Sunday. They built a team to climb over the Chiefs and the Patrick Mahomes hump. They built a team to climb over the Bills and the Josh Allen hump.

Now, though, they’ll have to build for a future where they can topple the Patriots, a similarly young team that also employs a culture-changing head coach and a second-year quarterback still on his rookie deal.

“Denver’s a great team,” Patriots receiver Trent Sherfield said, sitting at his locker Sunday after New England’s loss to Seattle in the Super Bowl. “This team’s a great team. Like, you’re in the first year of a rebuild, and you get to the Super Bowl.”

“So,” Sherfield continued, “it’s gon’ be real competitive.”

Sherfield, of course, saw both franchises’ ascent firsthand in 2025, after spending half the year as the Broncos’ fifth wide receiver and the end of the season on New England’s practice squad. He sees a future where Denver and New England — who both went 14-3 in 2025 — will have to go through each other, once again. And where quarterbacks Bo Nix and Drake Maye go head-to-head across the future playoff runs.

“I think Bo’s arm talent, being able to run the ball, extend plays, turn a bad play into a good one — I think they have a lot in common,” Sherfield said. “I feel like that����ap gonna be, probably, an AFC Championship for a couple of years. Kinda like how Patrick Mahomes is always in it.I think that those two will be going at each other for a long time.”

Of course, the two quarterbacks have yet to actually face off in their NFL careers, after Nix’s fractured ankle heard ’round the world. And several Broncos made it quite publicly known that they believed they should’ve been in the Bay Area if a couple of factors had broken differently, as the Seahawks  dominated the Patriots from kickoff to triple zeroes in a 29-13 win.

“This game is making me even more sick to my stomach that we lost,” safety P.J. Locke . “‘Cry me a river?’ Yes I am! Lol.”

Maye struggled mightily throughout the Patriots’ playoff run after an MVP runner-up regular season, posting an expected-points-added mark of -41.2 in the postseason — worst of any playoff quarterback, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Still, New England enters the offseason with just six players set to hit unrestricted free agency and an enviable $41 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap. Several key pieces beyond Maye, like left tackle Will Campbell and cornerback Christian Gonzalez, are also still on rookie deals.

For years, in general manager George Paton’s five-year Broncos tenure, Denver has structured its rebuild in part around toppling the Chiefs and Mahomes in the AFC West. The Broncos’ wild-card loss to the Bills and Allen in 2024, meanwhile, served as a direct wake-up call for areas of roster need.

Count New England and Maye, now, as the next conference foe that Denver will have to account for across the next few months.

“I would say that the league is in good hands,” Sherfield said.