It doesn’t always come with a Jaylen Waddle-sized splash or the exhilaration of taking Bo Nix at No. 12 overall in the 2024 draft.

Sometimes, it����ap meat and potatoes.

Sometimes, it����ap patience — or something like it.

Sometimes it����ap waiting 61 picks, trading back four more and then taking a player at what was arguably your deepest position the past two years.

That����ap where the Broncos found themselves Friday night when they used their first pick of the draft at No. 66 on Texas A&M defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim.

Everybody else in the NFL made a selection in the first 56 picks. Denver waited 10 more.

Of course, the Broncos’ big offseason fireworks came more than five weeks ago when they traded their first and third-round picks for Waddle, the explosive wide receiver.

That, combined with their late selections in each round, put them among the teams with the least overall capital in the league.

They committed to waiting it out for No. 62 to roll around. General manager George Paton said last week that Denver had six players it was targeting for its first selection.

That alone took patience.

The Broncos watched all of Thursday night — “that was a boring day,” Paton said — and then saw players at other positions of need come ripping off the board in the middle of the second round. Between picks 43 and 59 alone, four inside linebackers and three tight ends heard their names called.

Then the two picks preceding Denver: Inside linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. to Tennessee, which traded up, and tight end Max Klare to the Los Angeles Rams.

“It’s a typical draft — there’s a run at different positions, which we figured there would be,” Paton said. “It fell like we thought it would. I think I mentioned we had six players and they all started going. Tyler was one of those six, but it fell kind of like we thought it would.”

The Broncos were aware the Rams loved Klare, a source told The Post on Friday, so they either did not like him enough to jump in front of L.A. or thought the Rams would look elsewhere. Tennessee general manager Mike Borgonzi, a former Kansas City executive, explained trading up to No. 60 for Hill by talking about pro scouting and understanding the needs and potential interest of the teams in your part of the draft board.

When Denver’s pick arrived, Paton and head coach Sean Payton��decided to move back, trading No. 62 to Buffalo for Nos. 66 and 182.

In Onyedim, they leaned into a roster belief they often espouse.

“He plays a position that’s always hard to find at defensive tackle,” Payton said Friday night. “His strike, his shed, the athlete, makeup, those are traits.”

At 6-4 and 292 pounds, Onyedim played four years at Iowa State and then in 2025 for the Aggies. In Denver, he joins All-Pro Zach Allen, veteran D.J. Jones and a room that also features Malcolm Roach, Eyioma Uwazurike, Jordan Jackson and 2025 third-round pick Sai’Vion Jones.

Roach and Uwazurike each are expected to help fill the gap left by John Franklin-Myers, Denver’s lone high-profile free agency departure, but Sai’Vion Jones and Onyedim are the kinds of pieces the Broncos are betting play key roles at some point in the future.

“We typically like to draft high-trait players,” Paton said earlier this month. “Maybe they lack a little bit of polish and it����ap going to take some development. We’ve done a great job with the coaches in developing these types of players. … Sure, we’d like somebody to come in and start right away, but that����ap not always realistic no matter where they’re picked. ����’s just hard.

“With the way our team is built now, it����ap going to be hard to come in and start Day 1.”

That is true of Onyedim, too. His versatility — he called himself “a true d-lineman” capable of playing every spot — is a virtue and in the Broncos’ mind maximizes the chance he’ll find a home somewhere along the front at some point, whether it����ap in 2026 or beyond.

One source said the club believes Onyedim can play, “across the board.”

They have two players like that, now, that they’ve picked in the third round each of the past two years. They moved up for Jones and back for Onyedim. Each has versatility and traits the Broncos like. Either could be a key for Vance Joseph and defensive line coach Jamar Cain as soon as this fall or either could be insurance while veteran players chew up almost all of the snaps in Denver’s regular rotation.

Either way, the Broncos set themselves up for a draft weekend like this. They may well find flashier help at tight end, running back or linebacker with their now seven slated selections on Saturday. There are starters to be found every year — though clearly at a lower hit rate — in rounds four through seven. Particularly so at the positions that Denver still needs to fortify.

Regardless of what happens over the course of Saturday, Payton, Paton and the players in Denver’s locker room believe the roster is already in a place where it can compete for a Super Bowl.

They made their big splash earlier in the spring. The brass knew it’d be tough to find a player on Day 2 who would step right in and start.

That, Paton said, is particularly true on the defensive line.

“Just going into it, we feel pretty good,” he said a month ago. “We have Sai’Vion and we have our four guys coming back. Our starters and then Eni really came on. Then Sai’vion and Jordan Jackson.”

In the NFL, though, the reality is there is almost no such thing as too much depth on the line of scrimmage.

“We’re looking closely at the grade and at the stack,” Payton said. “We’re never trying to worry about the splash.”

1,300 miles away, the biggest news of the day inside a quiet Broncos facility in Dove Valley: ?

The Broncos’ brass, of course, all took their seats in the war room for the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night. They sat. And continued to sit, for 32 picks, as the rest of the league maneuvered around them. This was the reality all but ensured since March 17, when general manager George Paton and head coach Sean Payton and the rest of the staff decided that trading for Dolphins star receiver Jaylen Waddle would be well worth the ultimate price of their first-round pick.

NFL draft 2026 first-round winners and losers: The Jets QB of the future is smiling somewhere. Matthew Stafford? Maybe not

"We spent a lot of time looking at that selection, and trying to determine — we could safely say that pick would’ve been one of these 7 or 8 players," Payton said at league meetings in late March. "And we didn’t feel like that would help us as much as Jaylen Waddle.”

In a pre-draft press conference last week, Paton all but promised that Denver's draft festivities wouldn't start until Day 2 on Friday night, with the Broncos' current capital too limited to swing a massive trade to leap back into the first round from their No. 62 selection. And a handful of potential Denver options already leaped off the board in the first round as the Vikings swung on high-upside but injury-concern DT Caleb Banks at No. 18 (a Broncos top-30 visit) and the Seahawks snagged Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price with the last pick of the first round.

There's even more urgency for the Broncos to hit on their Day 2 selection now, though, as other AFC West teams leveled up Thursday night. The Raiders, of course, took their franchise man in quarterback Fernando Mendoza first overall. The Chargers added a potentially instant-impact edge rusher, Akheem Mesidor, late in the first round. And the Chiefs to take LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane as a new antidote to the Waddle-Courtland Sutton combination in Denver.

The Broncos, however, will enter Day 2 with a slew of targets still left on the board, as Paton said last week, there's "six players we're kinda focused on" that the Broncos feel could fall to them at No. 62. Most of those six should still be there, come Friday night — whether the Broncos move up or back to get them.

Here's a breakdown of the 10 best remaining fits for Denver at their late-second-round slot Friday.

10 best remaining for Broncos at No. 62

RB Mike Washington Jr., Arkansas:��One NFL assistant coach who's heavily evaluated this RB class told The Post that "some team will take (Washington) higher than they should" because of his size and speed. Maybe that's Denver. It'd be incredibly hard to imagine Paton spending back-to-back second-round picks on a running back, but Washington's upside — at 223 pounds with a 4.33-second 40-yard-dash — is as high as any RB in his class not named Jeremiyah Love.

WR Germie Bernard, Alabama:��Denver won't — and shouldn't — take a receiver here, after the Jaylen Waddle trade. But Bernard is too good, and too perfect a fit in a Sean Payton offense, not to be listed here. The production (64 catches, 862 yards) is solid, the size (6-foot-1, 206 pounds) is good, and the blocking mentality is even better. Alas, in a different timeline.

TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt:��The Post's second-round selection in our final mock draft of this cycle, Stowers still lingers, an explosive receiving threat who profiles as a hybrid receiver at the next level. But Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq, the consensus top tight end in this class, went relatively early at No. 16 to New York. That could well mean a team will swing on Stowers early in the second round.

TE Max Klare, Ohio State:��This draft, as Payton said in a pre-draft presser last week, is ripe in both in-line "Y"-type tight ends and versatile "F"-type receiving threats. Klare combines the best of both worlds into one tidy Day 2 package, a 6-foot-4 pass-catcher who thrived from both the slot and as a run-blocker last year for the Buckeyes. He's not as athletic as a Stowers, but he'd be an excellent option for Nix.

OL Emmanuel Pregnon, Oregon:��Similar to Stowers' situation, Pregnon could find himself flying off the board early in Round Two after Georgia Tech guard Keylan Rutledge went higher than consensus (No. 26 to Houston). The Denver native took a top-30 visit in Denver, but the Broncos might have to move up to grab him.

OT Travis Burke, Memphis:��No. 62 might be high for Burke, but Denver's done plenty of work here for a reason. Burke has rare size at nearly 6-foot-9, and a nasty disposition to match. With veterans Garett Bolles and Mike McGlinchey both still locked in as 2026 starters, Burke could be a fascinating investment for offensive-line coach Zach Strief.

LB Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech:��One of ����apountry's original favorites at the beginning of the draft process, Rodriguez has risen considerably up boards across the last few months — but not high enough to be off the table before Day 2. That could be good news for Denver, whether he manages to slip into a trade-up situation in the middle of the second round or simply prolongs an inevitable run of linebackers to fall into the Broncos' lap at No. 62.

LB CJ Allen, Georgia:��Take your pick of Rodriguez or Allen as the second-best linebacker in this class. Allen revealed to reporter Brett Kollmann late in February that Georgia largely let Allen run calls and checks at the , and he could slot into the heart of Denver's defense for a long time.

LB Anthony Hill Jr., Texas:��Everything about Hill, traits-wise, screams star. 4.51 40-yard-dash. 37-inch vertical. Good size at 6-foot-2 and 238 pounds. He led the SEC with 16.5 tackles for loss in 2024, and has some upside as a blitzer in Vance Joseph's scheme. He'd be a perfect fit to push Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad for starting reps while contributing in a third-linebacker role as a rookie.

S A.J. Haulcy, LSU:��Not a frequently-discussed option for Denver at No. 62, given the Broncos' positional needs beyond safety. But Haulcy has fantastic ball production across his last two seasons, with eight interceptions total for Houston and LSU. Starting Broncos safety Brandon Jones will be a free agent after next season, and Haulcy played a season for new Broncos defensive backs coach Doug Belk with the Cougars in 2023.

Nobody, by his own admission, loves draft picks more than Broncos general manager George Paton. And yet, in the pursuit of all-in roster-building, this Denver organization has actually only held a first-round pick in two of the previous five draft cycles.

“I’ve probably traded too many, God darn it,” Paton joked, at league meetings in March. “But I think it’s worked out.”

After trading for Jaylen Waddle in March, the Broncos will pick later in this upcoming NFL Draft (spanning Thursday to Saturday) than any other team in the NFL, sitting with their first selection at No. 62. And it would be nearly impossible for Denver to drum up the capital to trade back into the first round come Thursday — the team is only opening their facility to media for draft coverage come Day 2 on Friday, clearly indicating no plans to leap into Day 1.

But the Broncos could “certainly” move up a few slots from that No. 62 selection, as Paton said point-blank in his pre-draft presser last week.

With that in mind, The Denver Post explored scenarios in which Paton and staff could move a few picks up to snag a key offensive piece for head coach Sean Payton. Spoiler alert: it’s Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers, who has quickly become a darling of the Broncos’ pre-draft media cycle.

Here’s The Post’s final full seven-round Broncos mock draft before the real thing kicks off on Thursday, in which the organization will inevitably take several prospects who nobody on Planet Earth predicted would land in Denver.

Round 2, pick No. 54 (from Philadelphia): TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt

�հ������:��Broncos receive Nos. 54 and 197; Eagles receive Nos. 62 and 108

The idea of Stowers-to-Denver couldn’t be any more obvious, as he’d give Payton and quarterback Bo Nix a hybrid WR/TE with a record-setting 45.5-inch vertical. The reality is plenty more complicated. Stowers is highly unlikely to fall all the way to No. 62, and could start receiving interest as early as the late first round. With that being said, here’s a scenario that’d make sense from multiple angles.

In this spin through Pro Football Focus’s mock-draft simulator, The Post explored trying to move up to both pick No. 46 (Buccaneers) and No. 51 (Panthers) to leap in front of two tight-end-needy franchises. The price, however, wound up too steep on the Jimmy Johnson draft-pick valuation chart — but not for the Eagles. There are ties, too, between Denver and Philadelphia’s front offices, as former Eagles national scout Jordon Dizon became the Broncos’ director of pro personnel in 2025.

Ultimately, here, the Broncos give up a fourth-rounder for a sixth-rounder and the chance to take Stowers, a 2025 All-American who’d become a tantalizing prospect for Payton. This move would likely mean Denver moves on from Evan Engram; quietly, the organization explored alternatives at tight end through free agency, but the price crept too high. Here, the price is just right.

Also considered:��Notre Dame RB Jadarian Price was somehow still sitting available here, at No. 54. There’s a very finite chance of that actually playing out Thursday and Friday, as some RB-needy team will likely stump earlier for Price’s abilities as a runner.

Round 4, pick No. 125 (from New England): LB Kaleb Elarms-Orr, TCU

�հ������:��Broncos receive Nos. 125, 171 and 247; Patriots receive No. 111

Bonanza! Payton loves trading up, and Paton loves trading back; here, the latter winds up happy. It’s highly unlikely the Broncos would jump up twice within the first three rounds with limited capital to begin with, and instead they sit and wait for a high-upside linebacker late in the fourth round.

Elarms-Orr could wind up flying higher than this if a team takes a swing on his traits, because they are a-plenty: 4.47 40-yard-dash and a 40-inch vertical. He had a low percentage of missed tackles last year at TCU, and added 25 pressures and four sacks. Vance Joseph would have a true weapon here, and let Elarms-Orr develop for a year behind Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad. Denver, of course, likes Elarms-Orr, having completed a top-30 visit with him.

Round 5, pick No. 170: S Michael Taaffe, Texas

Taaffe has told The Post he’d love to play in Denver to reunite with old Texas teammate Jahdae Barron, and had a strong first initial meeting with new Broncos defensive passing-game coordinator Robert Livingston. His leadership skills would be a direct fit in the Broncos’ locker room, as a former walk-on who grew into a star at Texas. Plus, the familiarity would likely help Barron’s development, too.

Taaffe doesn’t have a standout frame or athleticism, at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds with a 4.5-second 40-yard-dash. He’s racked up a combined seven picks across three seasons, though, and would bring instant special-teams value.

Also considered:��We thought about trading up again from this slot to select a running back like Penn State’s Nicholas Singleton or Kaytron Allen, but ultimately decided to stay put. Both fell off the board, leaving us with…

Round 5, pick No. 171 (from New England): RB Kaelon Black, Indiana

The Post has mocked Black to the Broncos before, and lands here again. The Hoosiers back will need to show and develop more third-down value, as he caught just eight passes over two seasons at Indiana and fluctuated in pass protection. But he was considerably more productive as a receiver back at James Madison, and Black’s steadiness as a runner — 1,034 yards, 5.6 yards per carry in 2025 — makes him one of the best late-round RB fits for Denver in this draft.

Round 6, pick No. 197 (from Philadelphia): OLB Caden Curry, Ohio State

The Broncos could look to add another depth edge rusher if they shift Jonah Elliss full-time to inside linebacker, and Curry would be an excellent late-round option. The 6-foot-2, 257-pound rusher grew from a reserve into a breakout star last season for the Buckeyes, racking up 11 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss. He’s also quick enough to drop into coverage, and could compete during camp with last year’s fourth-round pick Que Robinson for snaps.

Round 7, pick No. 246: CB Latrell McCutchin Sr., Houston

This kicks off a run of four seventh-round selections for the Broncos, which Paton has used aggressively for years to keep desired prospects from hitting the open undrafted market. Despite a glut of cornerbacks, Denver is exploring late-round options, and has been in frequent contact with McCutchin through the pre-draft process. He’s a big corner with good athleticism — nearly 6-foot-2, 4.43-second 40-yard-dash, 38.5-inch vertical — and would give Denver another developmental option at boundary corner during training camp. He could become a special-teams player, too.

Round 7, pick No. 247 (from New England): OT Enrique Cruz Jr., Kansas

Classic high-upside, low-risk swing here on an offensive lineman. Cruz could certainly go earlier due to his sheer athleticism — a 4.94-second 40-yard-dash and 1.74-second 10-yard-split — but his tape needs work, as he allowed six pressures and received a PFF pass-blocking grade of 0.0 in a game against high-octane Texas Tech this year. He’d be a perfect project for Broncos offensive-line coach Zach Strief, as Denver’s tackles Mike McGlinchey and Garett Bolles continue aging quite gracefully.

Round 7, pick No. 256: QB Haynes King, Georgia Tech

Just a fun one here. King’s athleticism is off the charts, with a 4.46-second 40-yard dash and a 1.55-second 10-yard-split. Payton had immense success with Taysom Hill in New Orleans in converting an athletic quarterback to a skill-position weapon, and a source has told The Post that the Broncos see King the same way. He ran for 953 yards and 15 touchdowns last season at Georgia Tech.

Round 7, pick No. 257: WR Donaven McCulley, Michigan

Another upside swing, McCulley would become the draft’s Mr. Irrelevant. His profile is entirely relevant to Payton, though, measuring at 6-foot-4 despite poor athleticism. A converted quarterback who played four seasons at Indiana, McCulley should have some untapped upside. Broncos offensive coordinator Davis Webb was on McCulley’s pre-draft Zoom call with Denver, which should raise eyebrows.

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 Alex Singleton to a two-year, $15.5 million deal; re-signed Justin Strnad to a three-year, $18 million deal; re-signed Levelle Bailey to a futures contract.

Under contract:��Singleton, Strnad, Jonah Elliss (if he’s a full-time ILB), Drew Sanders, Jordan Turner, Karene Reid, Bailey

Need scale (1-10): 8.��Doesn’t have to be a top-of-the-line piece, but it’s time for the Broncos to invest actual draft capital at the ILB spot. Strnad will be a member of the room long-term, but Singleton will turn 33 this December, and it’d make plenty of sense for Denver to add another off-ball ‘backer who can develop behind the two — regardless if Denver shifts Elliss to ILB full-time. General manager George Paton has said multiple times that this is a good ILB class, too.

The Top Five

Sonny Styles, Ohio State

Already a first-round lock, the 6-foot-5 Styles blew the doors off at the combine back in February — a 4.46-second 40-yard-dash, a 43.5-inch vertical — and could rise all the way into the top five this coming week in Pittsburgh. His 2024 season for the Buckeyes was a marvel: 100 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, six sacks. He’ll make a linebacker-needy franchise quite happy.

Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech

Initially considered a mid-round prospect, Rodriguez now looks poised to land squarely in the second round. In a perfect world, the 2025 Bronko Nagurski winner — college football’s top defensive award — would fall to Denver at No. 62. But Rodriguez’s combination of leadership and coverage skills will make that highly unlikely.

CJ Allen, Georgia

Allen was one of the hotter early names for Denver at No. 30 back when the franchise still had its first-round pick, but the Georgia product has fallen a smidge down draft boards the past couple months. The 2025 All-American will likely still be gone by the back of the second round, as he’s a textbook green-dot fit in the heart of an NFL defense.

Anthony Hill Jr., Texas

If you flipped Hill’s 2024 and 2025 seasons, he’d be an easy first-round pick: the tape looked much better a year ago, when the linebacker led the SEC with 16.5 tackles for loss and racked up eight sacks and four forced fumbles. The athleticism popped at the combine, though, and Hill is a versatile fit who can play mike or will and thrive in pass-rush situations. The Rodriguez-Allen-Hill tier, and where they land in the second round, will be one of the more interesting developments for Denver to monitor.

Jake Golday, Cincinnati

Here’s a guy that could be sitting pretty for Denver at No. 62. Golday graded as excellent against the run in a 105-tackle season in 2025, added 3.5 sacks, and posted decent numbers in coverage. It’s easy to imagine Vance Joseph utilizing Golday as a blitzer similar to how he creates pressure with Singleton and Strnad.

More Broncos fits

Kyle Louis, Pittsburgh

A linebacker-safety hybrid, the Broncos should have their eyes all over Louis. The versatile 22-year-old has totaled six interceptions across the last two seasons, and has the speed and agility to both pursue sideline-to-sideline and cover in space. The only concern here is his durability playing ILB — Louis is a shade under six feet, and weighing at 220 pounds.

Kaleb Elarms-Orr, TCU

Paton said Thursday that Denver likes to draft “high-trait players” that “maybe lack a little polish.” Meet Elarms-Orr, who ranked second among all ILBs at the combine in the 40-yard-dash, fifth in 10-yard-split, and second in vertical leap — all at 6-foot-2 and 234 pounds. He racked up 11 tackles for loss and four sacks in 13 games in 2025; if the Broncos are confident he can grow into an adequate coverage linebacker, he could be a mid-round steal. He’s taken a top-30 visit in Denver.

Jimmy Rolder, Michigan

Rolder grew from a reserve into a key starter across four years at Michigan, and racked up 73 tackles and seven tackles for loss in 2025. In a deep draft, he could be a solid Day 3 option for Denver. He’s graded as one of the best tacklers in this class at his position.

Bryce Boettcher, Oregon

Boettcher said at the combine that he felt a “like-minded mentality when it comes to the physicality of the game,” in an initial conversation with Denver. That physicality, indeed, should endear Boettcher to the Broncos: he racked up 136 tackles in 15 games for the Ducks last season. He’s a ready-made Singleton-type who also will provide plenty of special-teams value.

Dom DeLuca, Penn State

A Day 3-to-PFA-type, DeLuca grew from a walk-on special-teamer to a key contributor at inside linebacker across five years at Penn State. He struggled at times to both wrap up and cover in space for the Nittany Lions, but the Broncos love versatile pieces who can offer special-teams value, and DeLuca fits squarely into that mold. Denver’s reached out on him.

He has already come further than anyone could’ve reasonably expected, a walk-on safety at Texas who molded himself into an All-American and legitimate NFL Draft prospect this spring. And Taaffe has existed, for two months, in the carefree limbo that comes with the utter lack of choice over his future. He’s done pre-draft training in Austin, Texas. He’s played golf. He’s hopped on countless calls with NFL teams. And his mind has wandered, naturally, to old teammates who could become new again.

Recently, after a pre-draft Zoom with new Broncos defensive passing-game coordinator Robert Livingston, Taaffe told Broncos cornerback and former Longhorns buddy Jahdae Barron that it’d be “awesome” to play with him again.

Barron, however, has learned such dreams are not so simple.

“He was like, ‘You don’t even know,'” Taaffe said, describing Barron’s advice. “Don’t even fixate on a team. Don’t even fixate on a round.”

Such is life, in particular, as a Denver draft target, as such targets are usually fairly unaware they’re actually targets. Numerous agents across the NFL landscape share similar stories of minimal pre-draft communication with this Broncos regime before their client suddenly received a call from Sean Payton. Take Barron, who told reporters on a post-draft conference call last year — shortly after Denver swooped on him at pick No. 20 in the first round — that he “truly didn’t know it was coming.”

Between Payton and general manager George Paton, the Broncos have built a particular reputation for holding pre-draft cards close to their vests. Their top-30 visits, where NFL clubs host prospects at their facilities to gather further intel, are often smokescreens. Predicting their draft leanings is often a fruitless endeavor, for the media and for players themselves.

Let’s try anyway.

Across the last two months, The Denver Post has spoken to hundreds of league sources to collect information on the Broncos’ draft process — visits, calls, needs, general leanings — and the countless flavors of prospects they’re coveting.��Welcome to “The Horse” — a Broncos-specific 2026 NFL Draft guide (and a play on ).

Coming off a 14-3 regular season and a blockbuster move for receiver Jaylen Waddle, Payton, Paton and company enter this cycle with no first-round pick and just seven choices in total. The Broncos still have plenty of flexibility to add key contributors; they’ll likely flip some capital to move up or back at some point once the festivities kick off this coming Thursday.

Here’s the breakdown.

The picks

Day 2, Friday:��No. 62 (second round)

Day 3, Saturday: Nos. 108, 111 (fourth round); No. 170 (fifth round); Nos. 246, 256, 257 (seventh round)

Fun fact: The Broncos can become the first NFL team to draft both Mr. Irrelevant and Mr. Slightly-More-Relevant since the seven-round modern era began in 1994. For the last three decades, no team has ever selected the last two picks of the draft back-to-back.

The needs, in order of importance

1.��Tight end.��Broken record here. The Broncos still view 2025 signee Evan Engram as a “key piece” and want to “add to his workload,” as Payton said in his pre-draft presser Thursday. But Denver explored potential upgrades or alternatives in free agency before the price got too high, and the 31-year-old Engram’s contract is up one way or another after this year. Denver desperately needs a young, athletic target for Bo Nix who can be a factor both as a blocker and as a receiver. There are quite a few such types in this draft.

2. Inside linebacker. Denver brought back captain Alex Singleton and ascending reserve-turned-starter Justin Strnad on multi-year deals this offseason, but cut Dre Greenlaw after an injury-plagued 2025. The Broncos are planning to deploy edge rusher Jonah Elliss inside, but that shouldn’t preclude Denver from dipping into a pretty solid ILB class. It’d make sense to take a high-upside ‘backer who can play behind and alongside Denver’s starting duo in 2026 while developing for the future.

3. Running back. On paper, the Broncos’ one-two punch of J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey is solid. The thing about paper is that it tears. Quite easy. Denver’s rushing attack cratered after Dobbins’ season-ending injury last year, and the Broncos can’t count on the veteran to play 17 games. They’ll be looking to add a third RB as either a change-of-pace upgrade from veteran Jaleel McLaughlin or a third-down upgrade from Tyler Badie.

4. Offensive line. As presently constructed, Denver will roll the same starting front out for the third straight year. That’s great for continuity. But the Broncos haven’t once pursued high-end draft talent on their offensive front in the Payton era, instead preferring to develop seventh-round picks and undrafted free agents. Starting left guard Ben Powers is entering the final year of his deal, and tackles Garett Bolles and Mike McGlinchey have both cleared 30.

5. Safety.��Here’s a sneaky one. Veteran Brandon Jones is entering the final year of his contract, and starter Talanoa Hufanga had been frequently bitten by the injury bug before playing in every game last year for Denver. Offseason signee Tycen Anderson profiles as more of a special-teams ace, and a young piece here would make a lot of sense.

The sinister six

At Thursday’s pre-draft conference, Paton offered an unusually forthcoming tidbit: Denver has “six players,” the general manager said, that it favors should they be available at No. 62. The Broncos have honed in on the crop available between roughly Nos. 40 to 75 on their board, Paton also said, to arrive at that determination.

Here’s a guess at those potential six, informed by learned intel and positional needs, that Denver could be favoring.

DT Caleb Banks, Florida

If Banks weren’t facing some very real injury concerns, he’d be a first-round pick. Possibly top-15. The��if��could drop Banks into the Broncos’ lap. He played just three games in 2025 with a foot injury, and . He also stands 6-foot-6, weighs 327 pounds, racked up 4.5 sacks from the interior in 2024, and . Risk. Reward.

OT Travis Burke, Memphis

A massive pre-draft riser. Literally massive. Burke measured 6-foot-8 and three-quarters at the combine, had an excellent season at Memphis in 2025, and has played at both right and left tackle in a five-year collegiate career. Denver’s done plenty of work here: meeting with Burke at his Pro Day and conducting a Zoom call with him. A source told The Post that multiple Broncos area scouts had a third-to-fourth-round grade on Burke, which could make this a slight reach at No. 62, but Burke would be off the board by the time the fourth round rolled in.

LB Kyle Louis, Pittsburgh

It’s wholly rare to find a linebacker who can capably hold their own in man coverage against tight ends or running backs. Louis, a safety-LB hybrid, can be that guy. He ranked in the top four at his position in every single speed and agility drill at the combine, and has proven ball production (six INTs combined between 2024 and 2025). The size — weighing at 220 pounds — is a slight concern against the run, but Louis could be an excellent, versatile piece in Vance Joseph’s defense.

G Emmanuel Pregnon, Oregon

There’s no way Pregnon slides to Denver. Right? Probably not. The Oregon product has visited with a handful of teams who sit in the late-first-round to early-second-round range, and will likely fly off the board shortly after consensus top guard Olaivavega Ioane gets snapped up. If Pregnon — a Denver native — slides a bit into Day 2, though, the Broncos could look to move up. Denver did a top-30 visit with him, which raises the antenna on a prospect they seem to have little shot at with their current slot.

TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt

Stowers set the modern combine record for all tight ends with a 45.5-inch vertical, so let’s start there. He ran a faster 40-yard dash than first-round WR prospects Makai Lemon and Carnell Tate, and profiles more as a hybrid receiving weapon rather than a true tight end. Drafting Stowers could bring an end to Engram’s time in Denver, as Stowers doesn’t profile as a piece that Payton would trust to stay on the field in blocking situations.

RB Mike Washington Jr., Arkansas

One NFL assistant coach who spoke with The Post on this year’s running-back class described Washington’s 2025 season as a “tale of two halves,” but noted his size and speed — a 4.33-second 40-yard-dash at 223 pounds — “might fit” what Denver’s looking for in a third back. The traits are all there, and the consistency isn’t.

The top-30 visits

Here’s a run-through of every Post-confirmed prospect who’s taken a top-30 visit with the Broncos.

DT Caleb Banks, Florida:��As much potential as an interior pass-rusher as anybody at his position, but the foot injuries are tough to swallow.

DT Uar Bernard, International Player Pathway: Literally the most athletic defensive tackle in the history of the NFL pre-draft cycle. The issue: he’s never played a snap of professional football.

TE Nate Boerkircher, Texas A&M:��Classic blocking Y-type tight end who could have a tinge more receiving upside than he showed in college, with a career-best 19 catches last year.

RB Kaelon Black, Indiana:��A combine snub after a 1,060-yard rushing season for the national-champion Hoosiers. He’ll be 25 in October. A possible Day 3 fit.

OT Jude Bowry, Boston College:��High-ceiling, developmental, mid-round prospect who jumped 34.5 inches at the combine.

RB Jonah Coleman, Washington:��Steady, solid back who doesn’t wow but doesn’t make many mistakes. Denver might have to move into the third round to get him.

WR Omar Cooper Jr., Indiana:��This visit happened before the Waddle trade. Cooper will go somewhere in the first round.

ILB Kaleb Elarms-Orr, TCU:��4.47-second 40-yard dash, 40-inch vertical jump at 234 pounds. Phew. A potential fourth-round difference-maker.

G Josh Gesky, Illinois:��Underrated, productive left guard in college who ran a 4.94-second 40-yard dash and had a 33-inch vertical at Illinois’s Pro Day. Would be a seventh-round or PFA target.

TE Justin Joly, NC State:��Only 6-foot-3, but a productive receiver who had 49 catches and seven touchdowns in 2025. Could be right there in the fourth round.

DT Chris McClellan, Mizzou: Draft riser who racked up six sacks last year.

LB Dasan McCullough, Nebraska: Hybrid-type linebacker who never quite found a consistent role in collegiate football but has intriguing size (6-foot-5, 235 pounds).

DT Christen Miller, Georgia:��321-pound nose tackle who can be a consistent presence in the middle of an NFL defensive line. Might not be there at 62.

OT Gavin Ortega, Weber State:��Sleeper! A late visit this cycle, Ortega was terrific in pass protection at Weber State and should have some versatility at several spots at the NFL level.

G Emmanuel Pregnon, Oregon:��24-year-old strongman who could be an instant starter, but probably won’t land in Denver.

OT Paul Rubelt, UCF:��Another skyscraper. Rubelt stands 6-foot-10, and the Broncos will have a good read on him from watching Harvey’s tape last year.

TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt:��Athletic marvel who could be gone well before Denver could grab him at the back of the second.

OLB Josh Weru, International Player Pathway:��A converted rugby player who’s studied tape of Nik Bonitto for a year and has been timed at a 4.45-second 40-yard dash. Obvious PFA target.

The larger-scale takeaways from all this: the Broncos are pretty intent on evaluating both top-end and sleeper talent across the defensive line, and are exploring high-upside offensive linemen.

The runners

Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love might just be the best outright player in this draft, regardless of position. After him, though, there’s an unusually steep drop to the next tier of running-back options, a glut that stretches anywhere from the back of the first round to the back of Day 3.

Payton said at league meetings in late March that running back was a position that “could get addressed, if the opportunity presents itself.” It will present itself next week, no matter how the chips fall. Washington, Coleman and Black have already been covered here; for more options, The Post spoke with an NFL assistant coach who’s done extensive work on this RB class for thoughts on the post-Love crop.

Jadarian Price, Notre Dame

Likely draft slot:��Late-1st, early-2nd round

Love’s complementary option for the Fighting Irish, Price carries lead-back NFL potential in his own right. His per-touch production over the last two years at Notre Dame has been ridiculous. Price, though, caught just 15 passes across three seasons and will need to develop three-down value.

Coach’s comments: “If you want to hand the ball off to somebody, I think Jadarian Price is just as good, if not better (than Love). So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone took him late-first.”

Emmett Johnson, Nebraska

Likely draft slot:��3rd-to-4th round

The testing wasn’t inspiring, as the 202-pound Johnson ran a 4.56-second 40-yard dash. The tape and the production, though, tell a different story. Johnson led the Big Ten in rushing last year (1,451 yards), and caught 46 passes in 12 games.

Coach’s comments:��“The more you watch that kid, the more he looks like LeSean McCoy at Pittsburgh.”

Demond Claiborne, Wake Forest

Likely draft slot:��Day 3

Huge pop here, as Claiborne ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash and has standout agility. He increased his yards-per-carry average every season of his collegiate career, but has less-than-ideal size at 5-foot-9 and 188 pounds.

Coach’s comments:��“Best speed-and-space back in the draft … can score from anywhere at any time.”

Kaytron Allen, Penn State

Likely draft slot:��Day 3

Allen, rather quietly, became Penn State’s all-time leading rusher this past fall, and ran for 1,303 yards and 15 touchdowns in a rough overall season for the program. The athleticism doesn’t stand out, but the motor does.

Coach’s comments:��“He was the most cerebral back I evaluated. He’s extremely smart. Football IQ is very high … that’s a guy that won’t get you beat, that you’d love to have on your team.”

The nuts and bolts

A young Joker? Clemson’s Adam Randall could be an incredibly intriguing fit in Payton’s offense. A receiver-turned-running back, the 232-pound Randall ran for 10 touchdowns last year and caught 36 passes in his first year playing full-time RB. In a best-case scenario, Randall could become a matchup-threat TE/RB hybrid from the backfield; Denver has enough interest in him that a coach flew out this past week to visit him, a source said.

QB options. Denver is set to roll its same quarterback room from last season into 2026, with Nix, backup Jarrett Stidham and QB3 Sam Ehlinger all under contract. But the Broncos have been active in evaluating young depth in this class. Quarterbacks coach Logan Kilgore has hopped on Zoom calls with Rutgers’ Athan Kaliakmanis, Illinois’s Luke Altmyer and Minnesota-Morehead (DII)’s Jack Strand. Denver also sees Georgia Tech’s Haynes King — a 6-foot-3 athlete who ran for 953 yards and 15 touchdowns last season — as a potential Taysom Hill-type, a source said.

Big-bodied targets. No matter how much WR depth the Broncos accumulate, Payton will always love big receivers. A few notable prospects Denver has called about or hosted Zooms with: Baylor’s Josh Cameron (6-foot-2, 872 yards, nine TDs in 2025); Texas Tech’s Caleb Douglas (6-foot-3, 846 yards, 7 TDs); SMU’s Jordan Hudson (6-foot-1, 766 yards, six TDs); TCU’s Joseph Manjack IV (6-foot-3, 579 yards, three TDs); St. Thomas’s David Hayes (6-foot-4, 790 yards, 10 TDs); and Michigan’s Donaven McCulley (6-foot-4, 588 yards, three TDs). Keep an eye on McCulley in particular, as a source said newly-crowned Broncos OC Davis Webb was on a Zoom with him — notably different from normal pre-draft calls with position coaches or scouts.

Local day? Denver hosted Wyoming QB-turned-TE Evan Svoboda and OL Jack Walsh at their facility earlier this week, among others, for what sources termed a “local day.” This, however, wasn’t open to anyone, as multiple prospects from Colorado and CSU weren’t in attendance. Svoboda is an interesting project who caught 11 passes for the Cowboys this past year.

A couple weeks before the Buffaloes began spring practices, ex-Colorado defensive coordinator�� Robert Livingston ventured south to interview as the Broncos’ defensive passing-game coordinator. He was particularly “excited,” as Colorado offensive coordinator Brennan Marion recalled to The Denver Post, about the prospect of coaching Denver’s 2025 first-round cornerback Jahdae Barron. A day later, Livingston was back in the Buffs’ building in Boulder.

There, walking in around noon, was Barron — there to catch up with Marion, who was the receivers coach at Texas in 2022 while Barron was a junior cornerback.

“The synergy of them two just meeting at the same time — being right there, right after (Livingston) was at the interview the day before — sometimes, God just syncs things up that way,” Marion said.

Barron talked ball with Marion and cousin Naeten Mitchell, a safety who recently transferred to Colorado. He ventured into the Buffs’ secondary room, too, to break down tape. And eventually, as Marion recounted, he and Livingston wandered off to go watch film together.

Barron stayed until 8 p.m.

“I haven’t met a person yet who doesn’t like Jahdae,” Marion said. “I mean, he’s kinda like a quarterback from that standpoint, where — he has that infectious personality.

“So him and Rob hit it off pretty easy, pretty quick.”

Shortly thereafter,��the Broncos officially hired Livingston to replace the departed Jim Leonhard. It marked a��professional reunion with Denver DC Vance Joseph, who Livingston worked with in Cincinnati in 2014 and 2015. It also marked a new figure in Barron’s development. And the development of their relationship will shape one of the most important questions awaiting the Broncos in 2026 and beyond: how can Denver extract first-round value from its 2025 first-round pick?

Finding a fit in a crowded secondary room

None of the dozens of Barron’s friends and family watching the NFL Draft last year, as his old high school coach Jason Cecil said, expected the Broncos to be the team to call in the first round. Denver — a team with established starters at every cornerback spot — simply felt he was the best player available, and took him “out of a place of luxury,” as Leonhard recounted to The Post.

Barron, according to data reviewed by The Denver Post, played the fewest percentage of his team’s regular-season defensive snaps (30%) of any first-round defensive rookie in 2025, when active. He played just 17 snaps combined in two playoff games.

“He was obviously upset,” Marion said of Barron, “from the standpoint that, he wanted to have a better year.”

Leonhard’s greatest challenge with Barron in his first NFL season, as the ex-Broncos coach told The Post last summer, was getting the rookie to actually turn his brain off. To understand his assignment at nickel — sometimes fitting a run gap, sometimes checking a tight end, sometimes fluid until a play developed — and stay within that. Read. React. Don’t cheat and try to apply learned collegiate tendencies to the NFL game.

At times, Barron looked like the instinctive ballhawk he was advertised to be; at times, he also looked like a 2001 iMac desktop trying to process five billion lines of code before triggering a decision.

Denver’s staff anticipated this, yo-yoing Barron between nickel and outside assignments from the start of his rookie camp.

“The vision was, he’s going to come in and challenge,” Leonhard, now the Bills’ defensive coordinator, told The Post this week. “But it wasn’t this, like — ‘There is a glaring hole in our secondary that he has to fill.’ We just thought he complemented the room great, and we were going to be able to create ways where he can impact games as he’s growing into what his eventual every-down-player role is going to be in that system, and the NFL.”

Entering Year Two, though, the Broncos need to solidify where Barron’s strengths fit best, both for his own development and for the future of their secondary. CB2 Riley Moss is entering the last year of his contract. So is Ja’Quan McMillian. Barron may well have a better shot at competing with Moss at outside cornerback in camp, but the organization has expressed a mixed view of his abilities there.

Head coach Sean Payton said multiple times last season that the Broncos view Barron as a nickel “with outside flex.” Ex-cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch, meanwhile, pounded the table to Denver brass in the pre-draft process in 2025 that Barron could play outside corner in the NFL. Leonhard said this week, too, that he felt Barron proved in 2025 he could “be an every-down player on the outside.” But both Lynch — fired after the season — and Leonhard are gone.

Enter Livingston, now, who has a decade-long track record back in Cincinnati of developing young secondary talent in veteran-laden rooms — as the Bengals had a habit of drafting a cornerback “every other year,” former Cincinnati defensive coordinator Paul Guenther recalled.

“I’m sure he can teach (Jahdae) how to play the position a little more instinctually,” Marion said. “The thought process of, ‘OK, they’re in 13-personnel, it����ap 3rd-and-3, this is what plays are coming.’ Or, ‘They’re in 11-personnel, 3rd-and-8, this is what plays are coming.’

“And they’ll be able to play a little bit faster, with the knowledge that Rob has.”

An up-and-down rookie year

“I just know the kid that he is – the faith-based kid that he is, how hungry he is to prove and take care of his mom and all of this stuff that he has to do and he’s responsible for — I know he’s going to get it done,” Marion told The Post last week. “The hard part is knowing, will he be able to get it done there, because of the talent in the room?”

Pat Surtain II is, well, Pat Surtain II. McMillian had a career year at nickel. Moss tied for the most-penalized cornerback in the league in 2025 (12) but also led the league in passes defensed (19). Barron vacillated between playing deep in situational dime packages, fitting run gaps as a veritable off-ball linebacker in big-nickel packages, covering tight ends man-to-man, and even started a game at safety.

During one conversation last year, Leonhard reminded Barron that Surtain, who came out of Alabama at the No. 9 overall pick in 2021, actually didn’t start in Week 1 of his 2021 rookie year. And Leonhard would confirm to Barron, from the staff’s side, that there was no frustration with his development.

But there was frustration, of course, from Barron’s own standpoint, a player who Leonhard said has “extremely high standards of himself.”

In a Week 11 win over the Chiefs, the rookie cornerback turned in his best game of the year: four tackles, a pick-six that was called back, and a few reps of excellent coverage on Kansas City legend Travis Kelce. A few days later, : “Tell swift (sic) put me on a song RIGHT NOW.” His confidence was soaring. Temporarily.

Two weeks later, Barron called Marion one late night after a sloppy Broncos overtime win over the Commanders.

“One week he’s riding high and thinks like, ‘Man, I’m killing it,'” Marion said. “And the next week, he’s like, ‘Damn, Coach — I messed up on this situation, I messed up here, I was supposed to be on this guy.'”

A film review of that Barron performance showed no real glaring errors, in his 24 snaps against Washington.��He was a step too slow on a couple routes covering tight end Zach Ertz. He took a poor angle on a first-down scramble by Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota. He communicated well on multiple other snaps, and nearly jumped a route for a would-be game-sealing pick in overtime. But Barron played more than 40% of Denver’s snaps in just one more game (Week 17 against Kansas City) the rest of the season.

“In no way was it a punishment thing — like, ‘He wasn’t doing what we asked him to do,'” Leonhard said, asked about Barron’s declining snaps down the stretch. “Just plays out sometimes, when you’re not a starter, that way.”

Barron, the 2024 Thorpe Award winner as the best defensive back in collegiate football, is not cursing circumstance. He is of the mentality, as Marion described, to shape his own results.

“From a parent situation, you want your kid to be on a great team sometimes, just to see what greatness looks like,” Marion said. “And they can match that, and then it takes their game to a whole new level. So, I think that����ap what that did for him, right? Seeing, like, ‘I can’t make a mistake. These guys aren’t making any. I can’t slip up. I have to be on point at all times.’”

“He took that as a challenge. He didn’t take that as a crutch, or crippling his development. He’s taking that as like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna prove it.’”

Barron, Marion said, respects Joseph, who’s repeatedly gushed about Barron to The Post. By proxy, Marion added, Barron will respect Livingston, who worked with Joseph in coaching Cincinnati’s defensive backs in 2014 and 2015. Many of Joseph’s current defensive principles — disguising blitzers indistinguishably from players dropping back into coverage — are similar to what Cincinnati did a decade ago, under defensive coordinator Guenther. And the “roots” of Livingston’s defenses for the last two seasons at Colorado, Guenther told The Post, are the same.

Upon arriving to Colorado, Livingston organized a turnaround from one of the worst defenses in the FBS in 2023 to a top-45 unit in 2024. Colorado slumped back to 112th in the country in opponent points-per-game in a 3-9 season in 2025. But he leaves the building with high marks from head coach Deion Sanders, one of the best corners in the history of the NFL.

“I feel like, he knows, inside, what he’s done with this program,” Sanders said. “Sometimes, we get caught up in numbers, and statistics, and not understanding personnel and knowledge and what he brought to this program. He brought a lot.”

A track record of molding young talent

In February, Barron met former Bengals cornerback Darqueze Dennard for the second time at the annual Thorpe Award banquet in Oklahoma City. They’d first chatted a year before, when Barron took the stage himself to accept the trophy. The circumstances, this time around, were rather different.

Dennard offered a shred of advice.

“I told him, he’s just gotta trust them,” Dennard said, speaking on Denver’s staff. “They’re mad scientists, what they’re doing.��Just put the work in, and all the rest of the stuff gon’ play out how it����ap supposed to.”

He would know. 11 years before Barron, there was Dennard, who was drafted late in 2014’s first round by Cincinnati after a Thorpe Award-winning senior season at Michigan State. Guenther and Joseph shifted Dennard from outside corner to nickel to eventually supplant aging veteran Leon Hall. It was not easily received.

Livingston, as Dennard recounted, was a constant support,��then in his first year as a staffer after spending a couple years in Cincinnati’s scouting department.

“He saw more into me than I did, at the time,” Dennard said. “I just kinda wanted to be on my island, X-out this player, and be done with it for the day. Where, he wanted me to come in and actually be able to impact football games.”

“Like, I don’t know how much he can help a 10-year vet,” Early said. “But a young one that he’s able to get his hands on and that hasn’t quite had that breakout year yet — I think you’ll see a tremendous difference in whoever the previous guy was, and how Doug is able to bring those guys along.”

Those development-focused hires, then, will set up a fascinating positional battle between three younger cornerbacks vying for two starting spots — and long-term futures in Denver. The 25-year-old McMillian is playing this season on a one-year, $5.8 million tender, and is currently set to hit unrestricted free agency in 2027. The 26-year-old Moss is on the final year of his rookie deal.

The Broncos got plenty of glimpses last season of Barron in big-nickel units, and saw him play heavier snaps outside midseason when Surtain was sidelined with a pec injury. And the rising second-year corner has a chance,��this spring and summer, to make it easy for Denver to decide whether to pay McMillian or Moss long-term.

“There is learning in the NFL, but nothing’s going to be new this year that he (doesn’t) already know,” Leonhard said. “But he did prove last year, he can be an every-down player on the outside, just as much as he can play on the inside and be a nickel and dime.”

At this year’s Thorpe ceremony, too, Barron and Dennard — men of faith — bonded over Proverbs 27:17, talking about Barron’s future.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

“Get better with your sword, get better with your crown,” Dennard said. “And that was his mindset.”

Most of all, though, his ex-Utah coaches believe he will succeed at inside linebacker in the NFL because of his DNA.

“I would never count any of Luther Elliss’ sons out,” said Freddie Whittingham, once Utah’s recruiting coordinator and now Michigan’s tight ends coach. “I would always bet on his sons.”

Indeed, the Elliss family is to tweener linebackers as the Manning family is to pocket-passing quarterbacks. Luther Elliss, the former Broncos defensive tackle and chaplain who’s helped raise a litter of 12 children, will swear he didn’t do anything special. But four Elliss brothers have reached the NFL, with one more, Elijah, in college. And most remarkably, fit the same profile: 30-year-old Kaden Elliss is an outside-turned-inside linebacker who just signed a $33 million contract with the Saints, and 27-year-old Christian Elliss is a larger ILB who just signed a $13.5 million contract with the Patriots.

23-year-old Jonah Elliss, now, will be the latest Elliss to try to make his money at inside linebacker. With a glut of edge options and further depth needed at ILB, Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters at league meetings earlier this week that Jonah Elliss will “take some snaps inside.” Privately, the move has been discussed inside the Broncos’ building since the 2025 season ended, multiple sources told The Denver Post at the February NFL Combine.

“Sometimes, that inside ‘backer position — one of the best in our league in San Francisco, Fred Warner, you saw him play more out in space, outside ‘backer,” Payton said in Arizona. “So, sometimes, you have to look at the skillset and then project where you think it can go.”

It’s a drastic shift. Jonah Elliss played just 3% of his snaps in three seasons at Utah (2021-2023) from the box, according to Pro Football Focus.

Quietly, though, the potential for this move has always lingered in his background, from his very bloodline to his maturation as a prospect.

“I’m excited to see how he functions there,” former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, now Michigan’s head coach, told The Post. “Because, like I said, he’s fully capable of it.”

A skill set that translates inside

Back in 2021, a then-210-pound Jonah Elliss committed to Utah out of Idaho, . At the time, the Utes weren’t sure if he’d step in immediately as an inside linebacker or grow into a defensive end, Kyle Whittingham said. Utah ended up moving him outside, where he racked up 12 sacks as a junior All-American, because of the scheme fit — not because “oh, he can’t play inside linebacker,” as Kyle Whittingham put it.

As Jonah Elliss went through the pre-draft process in 2023, there were “some teams” who were looking at him as an ILB, Kyle Whittingham said. Evaluators asked the former Utah coach how he thought Jonah Elliss could profile as an inside ‘backer, and he told them he simply played OLB at Utah because it was more valuable given their personnel.

“He’s certainly got the physicality to destroy blocks — block destruction is something he’s really good at,” Kyle Whittingham told The Post. “He’s also got very good just, flat-out speed … I think he’s got what it takes to be a very good all-around (inside) linebacker.”

Jonah Elliss has landed in a near-impossible path to starting edge snaps in Denver, as Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper have become one of the best OLB duos in the league. In two seasons since the Broncos drafted him in the third round in 2023, Jonah Elliss has shown plenty of flashes as a rotational edge rusher, but rarely played in any alignment except at OLB: 96% of his snaps came there in 2025, according to Next Gen Stats.

It’s easy to see his frame and downhill speed transitioning to ILB in Denver, if he makes a full-time switch. Bonitto has said previously that Jonah Elliss is a frequent winner of get-off timing drills in practice, and he’s missed just three tackles in two seasons, according to PFF.

The key to any success at ILB, now, will be his ability to cover in open space and read the middle of the field. The Post watched�� all 31 of Jonah Elliss’ regular-season snaps when dropping back into coverage last season; he struggled at times in the first half of the year with his assignment in match-coverage situations, but improved dramatically over the course of 2025 in blanketing multiple opposing tight ends in one-on-one situations.

Jonah Elliss improved a *ton* in coverage throughout '25. Can see ' ILB vision for him.

Clip 1: 3rd-down stop vs. GB TE John FitzPatrick in space.
Clip 2: Blows up screen to Travis Etienne.
Clip 3: Blankets TE Brenton Strange, takes away 3rd-down Trevor Lawrence's read.

— Luca Evans (@bylucaevans)

Jonah Elliss also played substantial reps early in his Utah career on the Utes’ punt-coverage teams, and has done the same in two years in Denver. His stickiness there, as Freddie Whittingham told The Post, is a “pretty good indication” that Jonah Elliss can cover.

“As far as football intellect and also the discipline to get in the film room and watch tape and learn and understand assignments and adjustments, and everything that the linebackers need to be able to understand,” Freddie Whittingham said, “I think they’re going to be able to count on that guy.”

A hole to plug at ILB

The question: how much Denver wants to count on Jonah Elliss at ILB. He is a legitimate asset even in a rotational edge role, with 7.5 sacks and 11 quarterback hits across his last two seasons. But Payton’s voluntary admission at league meetings suggests this won’t be just a specialty-situation role, which could influence the Broncos’ plans come April.

After the Broncos cut Dre Greenlaw, Denver has a clear hole at LB3 entering the draft. There will be a glut of options available at No. 62: Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, Cincinnati’s Jake Golday, and Mizzou’s Josiah Trotter are all potential young targets who could eventually grow into starters in Denver.

If defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and the staff like Jonah Elliss as a legitimate LB3 option who can also take some outside snaps, though, the Broncos could opt to go offense at the back of the second round — tight end, running back, offensive line — and sit on a linebacker like TCU’s Kaleb Elarms-Orr in the fourth round.

The move could also be a way to preserve Jonah Elliss’ body, as the 246-pound linebacker has an undersized frame for banging against opposing offensive tackles. He missed four games in 2025 with a variety of ailments, and Luther Elliss told The Post during the playoffs that Jonah is “really looking at how he trains” and could add “a little more finesse” to work on staying healthy.

It’s not the most lucrative option for his career, as the market for pass-rushers has exploded in recent years. But older brother Kaden Elliss just earned himself $11 million a season back in New Orleans — where Broncos head coach Sean Payton originally drafted him. And Jonah Elliss’ old college coaches believe he has the pedigree and profile to pull off the move.

“Athletically and mentally, if anybody can make that switch, it����ap a kid like him,” Freddie Whittingham said.

Parker, the Broncos finally did something! With Jaylen Waddle and Courtland Sutton now our Nos. 1 and 2 receivers, how does the rest of the WR room look? Does Marvin Mims Jr. fill that joker role now that we can put him anywhere on the field? Do we turn Lil’Jordan Humphrey into a tight end?

— David Miller, Commerce City

Hey Parker, the Broncos finally made that big offseason splash trading for Jaylen Waddle. I’m assuming he’s taking the WR1 slot with Courtland Sutton shifting over to WR2. How does the rest of the WR room look now?

— Ryan K., Bennett

Hey David and Ryan, thanks for writing in and for the interesting questions about Denver’s new-look receiving group.

Waddle may well end up with more targets than Sutton in 2026, but there aren’t really set WR1, 2 and 3 roles like that. Guys align by position — Payton wants guys that can play multiple — and then, of course, there are primary options on every passing play. Payton refers to those as tags for certain players. There will undoubtedly be a ton of plays tagged for Waddle.

Perhaps one of the more exciting prospects for both Denver’s offensive coaching staff and for Waddle himself is the manner in which the Broncos will likely move him around. They see him as a guy who can play outside or in the slot.

What����ap interesting about Waddle, in particular, is that despite his diminutive stature, the Dolphins last year used him predominantly as an outside receiver. According to Next Gen Stats, 307 of his exactly 400 routes came after being lined up outside. In 17 games, Waddle lined up in the slot just 22.8% of the time and was targeted out of the slot 16 times.

It would be a surprise if those numbers held in Denver.

Not to say Waddle will be only a slot or even line up in the slot a majority of times — we don’t know yet what his usage will look like — but he’ll likely move around quite a bit.

For comparison, Courtland Sutton, who is about as prototype outside “X” receiver as there is, lined up in the slot more frequently (23.3%) in 2025 for Denver than Waddle did for Miami.

It may surprise some to see the Broncos’ pecking order for who played in the slot most frequently by routes run.

Pat Bryant led the way as a big, power slot, running 170 of his 301 routes from the slot (56.5%). Next came Troy Franklin at 200 out of 480 (41.7%). Lil’Jordan Humphrey (56 out of 174) was at 32.1%. Last but not least, Marvin Mims ran just 62 of his 270 routes from the slot (22.9%).

All of those players will see their roles impacted and one of them may not even be on the 2026 roster unless the Broncos decide to roll with six on their initial 53-man this summer.

Who exactly sees what changes to their roles is yet to be determined, but suffice it to say Sutton and Waddle will be on the field together a ton and then Payton, offensive coordinator Davis Webb, new receivers coach Ronald Curry and the rest of the staff will mix and match third and fourth guys based on situations, matchups and more.

We don’t know exactly how that����ap going to shake out, but we’re not the only ones. Mims himself spoke with Altitude after attending a recent Nuggets game and said he was “really surprised” by the trade. He spoke highly of Waddle and said he was excited to add another playmaker but also added, “It’s interesting to see how I’ll fit in in the offense.”

Marvin Mims tells his initial reaction to the Jaylen Waddle trade: "It really surprised me, bringing in a guy like that. … Offensively you always need more playmakers."

Also, "It's interesting to see how I'll fit in in the offense."

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

Parker, this question may take a longer explanation than you have room for in your column (which I enjoy reading by the way), but I’m curious about the Denver coaching staff. I just saw an article that shows Denver has 26 coaches on staff. I was surprised at the quantity but also the titles and even duplicated titles (quality control assistants for offense, defense and special teams). I was particularly surprised that Denver has an inside and outside linebacker coach, and then you see the various run and pass game coordinators. Is there any insight you can provide on how these guys all work together or coordinate their efforts?

Thanks for the consideration!

— F.J. O’Leary, Frisco, Texas

Hey F.J., thanks for writing in and good question.

The Broncos do indeed have a large coaching staff and, like most, there are a variety of titles. Most of the time, a coordinator title (think run game coordinator or defensive pass game coordinator) is a way of giving a coach a promotion — and a raise — to keep him in your building. They can also help you ward off attempts from other teams to interview your coaches, since a club can block an interview for a lateral move but not for a promotion. Sometimes those jobs also come with added responsibilities in meetings or on game day, but if a staff is already kind of in place, there’s not necessarily a major change. Last year, for example, Davis Webb was made the offensive passing game coordinator and Jim Leonhard the defensive passing game coordinator. They each said at different times that they had a little more responsibility, but it wasn’t like suddenly they were running meetings differently or had a completely different workflow during game weeks.

Now, of course, Webb is the offensive coordinator and Leonhard the DC for Buffalo. Denver rehired John Morton as the offensive PGC and Zach Strief is once again the offensive RGC. He still coaches the offensive line, though, along with Chris Morgan.

Quality control coaches may not have specific titles, but they mostly work with certain position groups. Todd Davis works with inside linebackers. Brian Neidermeyer worked a lot with outside linebackers last year. It’ll be interesting to see how the new trio of offensive QCs splits up. Previously, Logan Kilgore was a QC working with tight ends. Now he’s the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach.

As for the inside/outside linebacker split, that����ap because those groups have very different responsibilities and techniques. In many ways, OLBs are closer to defensive linemen than to inside linebackers.

����’s similar for corners and safeties. Leonhard was the PGC and defensive backs coach last year, but day to day on the practice field, he worked with the safeties, while Addison Lynch worked with the corners. Payton fired Lynch after the season.

The new-look group there is PGC Robert Livingston and defensive backs coach Doug Belk. We’ll see how they split up on-field coaching duties during practice.

With our re-signing of Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad, who do you see covering tight ends as the roster looks now?

— Mark, Albuquerque, N.M.

Hey Mark, thanks for writing in. I see largely the same group covering tight ends as last year — Singleton, Strnad and Denver’s safeties. Nickel Ja’Quan McMillian or a cornerback, depending on the matchup.

There’s a narrative out there that Singleton and Strnad are bad in coverage. They might not be the best coverage linebackers in football, but I think — and, perhaps more pertinently, coaches and people in the building believe — that����ap overblown.

Denver played as much man coverage as anybody in football, but its defensive principles aren’t as simple as lining up across the board and running with the man you’re responsible for, no matter where he goes. Especially in the middle of the field, the Broncos play a lot of match-style coverage, hand-off players, etc. ����’s not as simple as seeing a tight end catch the ball and get tackled in pursuit by Singleton or Strnad and saying definitively that he had responsibility.

Again, this isn’t to say they’re the most dynamic cover linebackers in football. They’re not. But it����ap not as simple as saying they’re bad and can’t do the job, either.

Late in the season, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph had a lot of insight into this. Here’s what he said:
“Our corners are really good players. …�� Sometimes, in (offenses’) minds, their better matchups are with backers and safeties. They can control the leverage, which is smart. So we understand that.”

He said he likes to try to control tight ends and running backs by showing pressure looks that force them to think about blocking before going out on a route, referring to it as covering them using defensive structure. But he also acknowledged defenses can’t always do that and also that third downs, in particular, become prime time for targeting tight ends and backs.

“����’s tough to find tight ends, especially on first and second down. But on third downs, that����ap the matchup they want because they get the leverage they want. That����ap just football. ����’s always been that way for my defense. We understand that.”

With Jaylen Waddle on the roster, what’s the big target in the draft? An inside linebacker? A tight end? Do we trade back our second-round pick for most picks?

— Michael Smith, Denver

Hey Michael, great questions. I’m inclined to answer yes, yes and yes. Obviously if there’s a player the Broncos feel strongly about at No. 62, they’ll take him right there. By that time in the proceedings, though, if Denver has a clump of players graded similarly, trading back and recouping a selection or two makes a lot of sense.

����’s impossible to say from here who will be available at No.62, but if you’re talking about tight ends and linebackers, there figure to be multiple or several already gone at each position by the time the late second round rolls around. Beyond just the surefire first-rounders like linebacker Sonny Styles and tight end Kenyon Sadiq, it’d be a surprise if players like Vanderbilt TE Eli Stowers, Georgia LB CJ Allen and Texas Tech LB Jacob Rodriguez are still around as the 60s approach.

Given where the Broncos are roster-wise, you really can’t count them out from taking any position if they think the value is there. I’ll agree with you on tight end and linebacker as top needs and throw running back in the mix, too. They could use a young safety and could stand to add more young, cheap options on both lines as they plan for the future.

Parker, what do you think about running back Adam Randall out of Clemson? He’s a converted wide receiver and is 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds.

— Eric Price, Altoona, Pa.

Hey Eric, thanks for writing in. He’s a really interesting prospect, that����ap for sure. Big guy who can really run. Not the most refined runner at this point, but given that he hasn’t been playing running back very long, he should have considerable development in front of him. Physically, it����ap an uncommon profile and not a type of back Sean Payton’s typically pursued, but if you think there’s a chance he turns into something special, it����ap worth considering later in the draft.

Overall, though, he’s a fun and interesting watch. I’m guessing there aren’t many guys his size with extensive kick return experience.

David Njoku is still available. We should sign him. We need more talent in our tight ends.

— Tom, Boulder

Hey Tom, thanks for writing in. Njoku is indeed still available. So far, we haven’t heard much about any substantial interest shown by the Broncos. That, of course, could change.

Njoku, at his best, certainly would upgrade Denver’s tight end room. Given where the group’s been collectively from a production standpoint the past couple of years, it would be hard to push back too much against such a move.

Njoku, though, hasn’t been at his best in the past two seasons. He’s missed 11 games in that stretch — six in 2024, five last year – and hasn’t come close to his 2024 output of 81 catches and 882 yards.

Njoku’s played predominantly in-line, meaning adding him would be more about Adam Trautman than about Evan Engram. Even in limited time the past two years, Njoku’s been a more dangerous receiver than Trautman. Trautman has been the better blocker by most metrics and Njoku would have a long way to go to catch up to Trautman’s knowledge of the offense and the implicit trust the coaching staff has in him.

Full disclosure: The basketball wonks in the Grading The Week (GTW) offices were fans of the Michael Porter Jr.-for-Cam trade last summer. Again, not because it was a fair swap of talents. It wasn’t — the Nets got the guy with the bigger frame and far sexier upside. It was a “win” because it got MPJ’s bloated contract off the books and enabled the Nuggets to grab the cap space to land three more veteran players (Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas) in the process.

But what’s often said about Christian Braun applies to Johnson, too — he’s got to show up offensively within the flow of the offense, not get down when the shots aren’t falling, and find ways to contribute when the moment finds him. Because it inevitably will.

Cam Johnson’s rebound — B

From last Saturday through Friday, the up-and-down In three games prior to the Nuggets’ visit to the Lakers on Saturday night, Cam was averaging 12.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 3-point makes per contest. He put up 17 points and three treys in a rout of Houston and added another 15 points in a huge win at San Antonio late Thursday night.

Here’s why that matters, and why coach David Adelman has remained in Johnson’s corner through thick and thin this season: The Nuggets look like a title contender when Johnson contributes offensively — and are more of a play-in level team when he doesn’t.

Heading into Friday night, when Johnson scored at least 11 points in a game, the Nuggets were 15-4 (78.9% win percentage), and 26-22 when Cam was 10 points or less.

When Johnson made at least five field goals in a game, the Nuggets were 13-4 (76.4% win percentage), 28-24 when it was four makes or fewer.

When Johnson drained at least two treys, they were 13-6 (68.4% win percentage), 28-20 otherwise.

“����’s been a tough year for the Nuggets in the clutch, which is something that we’re not used to seeing.” former Nuggets coach Michael Malone, now an ESPN analyst, offered up on the “NBA On ESPN” halftime show Wednesday. “And they’ve got 17 games to go to try to figure it out.”

They figured it out in San Antonio. If they can get Johnson figured out for the stretch run and the postseason that follows, hold on tight.

Broncos’ free agency start — D

Oh, we’ve heard all the caveats by now. There’s time. You just went 14-3. The selection wasn’t that great. The locker room is full of good players and good guys who get what Sean Payton, Davis Webb, Vance Joseph and Darren Rizzi are all trying to do. And we get all that. And we get that, as of last Friday afternoon, per OverTheCap.com, the Broncos still had $22.3 million cap room for ’26 to play with — even after bringing almost everybody back.

Yet there are good reasons why ����apountry was more than a little alarmed at the alacrity with which GM George Paton and coach Sean Payton seemed to sit on their respective hands during the opening ��days of the NFL’s free-agent signing period.

Why? Two words: Rookie contract.

QB Bo Nix has a cap hit of $5.1 million in ’26 and $5.9 million slated for ’27. That’s going to change. Joe Burrow had a $9.87-million cap hit in 2022, the third of his four-year rookie deal. On Burrow’s second deal, If Nix continues to trend upward, and health permitting, he should, the Broncos are going to have another Russell Wilson-sized cap number to deal with in a few years.

Which is why they may regret not spending while they were in a period of flexibility “between” big-time/franchise-level QB cap numbers. Especially when you’ve got a Super-Bowl-worthy roster that’s, quite literally, only one or two playmakers away from winning it all — and only one or two offensive playmakers in particular. But, hey, we can get admittedly panicky in the GTW offices, so maybe that’s just us. Although based on our emails and social media exchanges since Monday night, it’s definitely not just us. At all.

No one wanted the Broncos to spend like Liberace. But how about Cincinnati?

Only three teams have yet to sign a free agent off another roster since legal tampering opened Monday morning: the Seahawks, Jaguars and Broncos.

All are playoff teams.

The difference? The nuance? Seattle won the Super Bowl last month. And the Jaguars are a “smaller market” team. Are the Broncos really taking cues from them?

The Seahawks crossed the finish line because of shrewd additions. They took risks on quarterback Sam Darnold and receiver Cooper Kupp.

There were misses, like receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. But, this was a contender determined to take a step forward. It was not unlike the Eagles the previous year when they added running back Saquon Barkley and defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

Seattle’s gamble paid off in a ring.

So what are the Broncos doing?

What new running back did they sign this week?

Nobody.

Which secondary receiver did they welcome to a room that needs experience?

None.

What about tight end? Surely, they brought in help at a position that has struggled with receiving production since the salad days of Noah Fant. Right?

Nope.

Perhaps the previous free agent signings by coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton convinced everyone into believing the Broncos would make a single headline-worthy move.

That was the expectation.

And it was born from words, not delusion.

Paton explained at the end-of-season press conference in January that, “We will determine our needs. We’ll be aggressive in filling those needs.”

In addressing how coming so close could shape this offseason, coach Payton admitted at the NFL Combine, “We won a lot of games by one score or less (12-3 record). I’m not naive enough to think those games couldn’t have swung. You could grab any two or three, but where’s the meat on the bone? It is with our takeaways. That has to improve. Our run game consistency (has to improve).”

So what happened?

The Broncos fell in love with their own players in a sport where falling in like is advised.

They finished with the second fewest takeaways in franchise history last season, and instead of pursuing Jacksonville linebacker Devin Lloyd — he had five interceptions a year ago, one more than the Broncos’ entire starting secondary — they stayed in-house, re-signing Justin Strnad and Alex Singleton.

They are solid players. But wasn’t the preference one or the other? Apparently not.

The thought is that they steady Vance Joseph’s defense, in play calls, blitzes and leadership. But are they good enough to win a Super Bowl? You’ve seen them. Do you agree?

It is easier to argue for sticking with the inside linebackers than with the offensive positions.

To run it back at running back remains deflating.

Understand something. Everyone loves J.K. Dobbins, the bilingual breakaway threat who answers to the nickname “El Toro.” But if you are going to be OK with bringing him back with a $5 million raise, then you have to be prepared for the consequences, namely that he will not play a full season.

It has never happened. His injury history looks like a script from “The Pitt.”

Dobbins defended the Broncos’ move on social media. He replied with fire to a Twitter post that asked how Denver could pay him $10 million a year and not give Travis Etienne Jr. $13 million: “Go be a fan of a different team lame (butt) dude and don’t try to turn back around when I shut the fluke injury (blank) up this year.”

I was cool with keeping Dobbins — as a complementary piece to Etienne. The Broncos had enough money to pay them both.

Have we forgotten how Dobbins’ foot injury derailed the offense last year? The run game wilted with rookie R.J. Harvey as the starter, costing the Broncos a chance to win the AFC Championship. Payton is correct. Consistency is the key. But it is impossible without availability.

If Dobbins stays in the lineup, it will be a terrific story. The odds are against it.

The Broncos boast a championship-caliber defense. So, not arming Bo Nix with more weapons while he is on a rookie contract feels like a huge mistake.

There is the belief, one expressed by Payton, that free agents can be deceiving. Last August, he told a story of his parents finding couches — thanks to friend Andrew Mason of 104.3 The Fan for digging this up — at garage sales.

“They would come home with a new couch. And you were so excited — it was a sectional — until you sat in the left corner and it wiggled,” Payton said. “And then you realized why it was a free agent.”

This is countered by the fact that the Broncos don’t sniff the NFL’s Final Four without significant free agent upgrades in Mike McGlinchey, Ben Powers, Zach Allen and Talanoa Hufanga.

The hit rate on open market players is around 35 percent. And that was Denver’s batting average last season when landing Hufanga, Dre Greenlaw and Evan Engram.

Again, no one was asking them to go full John Elway when he signed DeMarcus Ware, Aqib Talib, T.J. Ward and Emmanuel Sanders in 2014. But let’s be clear, the Broncos had the best offense in NFL history before they arrived, and they would not have won the Super Bowl without the defensive boost.

Yes, Payton and Paton have earned the benefit of the doubt. But why make it so hard on themselves, especially with the schedule much tougher next season?

This means they have to ace the draft — Arkansas running back Mike Washington Jr. or Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers make a lot of sense. They have to stay healthy and coach up young players like Harvey, Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant.

It is not a terrible plan. It is just the worst plan for this offseason. They are so close, and no one objectively watches the offense and thinks it is elite.

So, the answer is Davis Webb calling plays? That is going to make up the difference that could have been provided by a big-time free agent? Are we even sure Webb is going to keep the job all season? Are you convinced he is not going to get pushback on new ideas from Payton?

The defense to all of this is the 11 contract extensions signed since July 2024. Those players returned the Broncos to relevancy and achieved cost certainty.

So, given the chance to make a splash, the Broncos chose not to dip their toes in the pool.

The big names are gone in free agency.

The Broncos decided to do nothing. And be very loud about it. Maybe they are right. It would not be the first time. But if not, we don’t want to hear any excuses about how they lacked a playmaker.