In December 2023, Herman’s Osage Studios LLC bought a parcel of land at 1305 North Osage St. for $2.1 million. Herman, a designer, saw an opportunity to rehabilitate a couple of junk-car-storing warehouses into an interactive attraction at the northern tip of the abandoned Burnham Yard railyard. The dream for the site — bringing an immersive tiki lounge to Denver — was strong enough to shrug off a couple of purchase inquiries by legal representatives connected to the Denver Broncos, in the midst of a massive land grab just down the street. But actually designing such physical plans in a dilapidated area, Herman said, has been “an absolute horrorfest” of legal issues and property damage.

“There were days where I was like, ‘I’ve made a huge mistake,'” Herman said.

The Broncos have now become the most visible entrepreneur to identify Burnham Yard as a ripe pocket for redevelopment, continuing to march forward with the railyard as their preferred site for a new stadium district in Denver. Beyond a finalized agreement to buy the railyard itself, property records compiled by The Denver Post show the Broncos have been tied to at least $186 million in land purchases in the surrounding area, with the expressed goal to build out a mixed-use district around a new stadium. For now, unlike Herman and its neighbors, the organization does not need to concern itself with potential break-ins.

The Broncos’ path to a successful stadium-anchored development at Burnham, though, is fraught with larger-scale hurdles surrounding their planned stadium opening in 2031 — stemming directly from the same reasons they keyed in on the site in the first place.

“I’m so skeptical,” Herman said, “that they’re going to pull it off in time.”

A simple building remodel took Herman a year and a half due to city processes. People have broken into his warehouses on multiple occasions, and stripped the copper wire from his air-conditioning units. He has bled money on damage control. And on one occasion, he walked into his primary building at North Osage to find his window shattered and a man without any clothes standing in the middle of the room.

Herman has stuck it out, one of several owners who have poured money into new development around the railyard in recent years. Directly east of Burnham, The Refractory — — has seen interest from potential businesses ranging from a jiu jitsu gym to an indoor golf facility, broker Russell Gruber said. Directly adjacent to Herman’s property, Memphis Orion and Adam Lerner are leading a $27 million development of a wellness center dubbed Coba Bathhouse; they saw a “giant wave” in the area, Orion said , and felt they could surf it. And the Broncos are the latest to hop on, because of such tantalizing development potential.

The modern era of stadium construction has popularized the “stadium district,” a mini-neighborhood that relies on mixed-use offerings around the stadium itself to generate revenue outside of gamedays. The Broncos are buying up over 150 acres around Burnham to build out that concept in Denver, similar to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s plans at Ball Arena. But such a large-scale development in an area primarily zoned for industrial use has inevitably entangled the Broncos in a web of lengthy city processes, community-benefits-agreement negotiations with the recently established Burnham Yard Community Action coalition, and soon-to-be-costly negotiations with private landowners and the public utility, Denver Water, that have yet to be resolved.

And that’s just the first wave, as both the organization and the city will need an immaculately phased development at Burnham to justify the investment there.

“While our current focus is on the community-benefits-agreement process, the long-term goal is for Burnham Yard to contribute to a connected, mixed-use community to the La Alma Lincoln Park and Baker neighborhoods,” Broncos president Damani Leech told The Post. “In terms of selecting the Burnham Yard site, we think it’s important for the Broncos to remain in Denver.

“Though a project of this scope on a former railyard presents some challenges, it aligns with our overall vision to create Denver’s next great neighborhood, the future home of the Denver Broncos and a year-round destination that delivers meaningful impact for the city.”

Why the Broncos ‘have to make the mixed-use district work’

Twenty miles south, a 440-acre expanse of open dirt spills out below the intersection of East Lincoln Avenue and Interstate 25 in Lone Tree, the site that was — and could still be — the Broncos’ Plan B.

Over the last two years, the organization has done its due diligence on the Lone Tree City Center, a massive planned mixed-use sprawl that Douglas County has openly campaigned for as a possible home for the Broncos.

Lone Tree has already approved a sub-area plan for the Lone Tree City Center, and the area is zoned for large mixed-use development. The city “prides itself on being business-friendly,” Mayor Melissa Harmon told The Post, and aims to provide “clear expectations, timely feedback and response, and always a predictable permitting process.” And the alignment with the Broncos — or any other catalyst developer — is obvious: the city would make sure the integration was as smooth as possible, Harmon pointed.

“They have our phone number, and we know — I joked with Damani (Leech), I said, ‘You still say preferred, you know,'” Harmon said, referring to the Broncos’ current positioning at Burnham.

“But in all honesty, of course, we always knew that Denver and Burnham Yards was their preferred and No. 1 site for many reasons,” she continued, “and it was really such an honor to be able to have the conversations, but also really get national attention for this piece of property.”

To Harmon’s point, the Walton-Penner ownership group selected Burnham over Lone Tree or Aurora specifically to keep the franchise in Denver. And the specific location makes sense, as several real estate and development experts told The Post, because of the immediate proximity to higher-population-density neighborhoods around Denver that can therefore attract tenants and foot traffic alike.

“Obviously, like, the Broncos chose to be here instead of going to some suburban location,” said Ryan Meeks, founder of Denver-based Bosk Urban Design. “And so … they have to make the mixed-use district work, right?”

The appeal of building a stadium district at the Ěýlies in built-in historical and industrial aesthetics that the Broncos have highlighted since their very first Large Development Review pre-submission in November 2025. The organization has repeatedly cited theĚýrefurbishment of the site’s locomotive shop as a key component of its initial design plans. In that vein, the Broncos are the largest piece of a greater transformation around Burnham; a slew of developers have bought warehouses to repurpose for non-industrial uses in recent years, commercial broker Gruber told The Post.

“It¶¶Ňőap a more challenging site, in some ways,” Broncos owner Greg Penner told The Post in September. “But we think it creates an opportunity to create something special.”

Those challenges, though, are substantial in the short term. Penner said in late March that the Broncos want to have “all of (their) ducks lined up” before officially shedding the preferred-site label for a Burnham development.

That calls for progress on a legally binding community-benefits agreement with the recently finalized Burnham Yard Community Action coalition, for one. That calls for progress on negotiations with Denver Water around the utility’s relocation, which has been further complicated by community pushback against the utility’s plans for a potential facility on Lot M of the existing Empower Field stadium site.

And that calls for progress toward a resolution with SRM Concrete, which owns a large concrete plant smack-dab in the middle of the Broncos’ stadium district plans.

Most important of all are the dominoes that’ll fall once the city’s Department of Community Planning and Development completes a small-area plan for the site, which a source with knowledge of the process said should be finalized late in 2026 or early in 2027.

The Denver Urban Renewal Authority will only begin work on an urban-renewal plan at Burnham once that small-area plan is finished, DURA Interim Executive Director Bill Pruter told The Post. That urban-renewal plan will determineĚýwhetherĚýtax-increment financing is approved for the Burnham development, which Pruter said he expects the Broncos will seek.

Penner and Denver’s brass have made clear the stadium itself won’t introduce any new taxes. But if the larger 150-acre site is approved for a TIF district by Denver’s City Council, the infrastructure around the stadium can be paid for in some capacity by borrowing against future growth in property taxes within that district — a form of tax break.

Essentially, the Broncos can wind up using the potential for a larger-scale stadium district at Burnham to actually pay for the stadium itself.

“This is incredibly typical in stadium ancillary development,” said Geoffrey Propheter, a . “You build the stadium first, and then all the non-stadium stuff that you’re actually using to try to convince lawmakers to support this — all of this comes in years 10, 20, 30. And they all come with a promise.”

“The track record for delivering on these promises by teams in development,” Propheter said later, “is shaky. And that¶¶Ňőap being super generous.”

Why the phasing and selection of district features matter

Fortunately for Denver, the Walton-Penner Group has built a considerable track record of delivering on its promises.

Look to Denver, for one, where Broncos owners Penner and Carrie Walton Penner have revitalized the NFL franchise and just invested significant capital into the Colorado Rockies. And look across the country to Bentonville, Arkansas, where has been transformed into a mini-metropolis at the Walton family’s investment.

Nelson Worldwide senior vice president Lamar Wakefield, an expert in mixed-use development who helped design The Battery stadium district in Atlanta, told The Post that he’s working on a current development in Bentonville for the Waltons.

“They really want to see a wide range of housing options,” Wakefield said. “And I was really pleased to hear that. They understand that if you can make it attainable, but the whole neighborhood itself has all these wide ranges — maybe that single mom with three kids raising them in that environment is a little bit different … so they embrace that. I was very impressed.”

The Broncos will likely focus, in the initial phase, on the stadium and surrounding infrastructure before a 2031 opening at Burnham, multiple experts in stadium-district development told The Post. Slow-playing other aspects of the district for too long, though, would do a “huge disservice,” nearby warehouse owner John Victor said, to both community and city investment in the development. And the Broncos will face the challenge of establishing a center of gravity where there isn’t one at Burnham — different from KSE’s task of developing a district around the nearby Ball Arena.

“That’s the secret sauce there,” said Matt Mahoney, KSE’s senior vice president of development, “when we’re talking about neighborhoods that just do not exist. I mean, both these properties — our property is a surface parking lot. We’re fortunate to actually have an arena already built.

“The Broncos have a much tougher, steeper hill to climb. Because they want to create a neighborhood, but they also have to build a new stadium at the same time of establishing a sense of place there.”

The organization’s initial infrastructure master plan outlines that the Broncos would complete vertical construction of an “entertainment zone” in time for the stadium’s 2031 opening. The key there is what mix of mixed-use development (housing, office, retail, dining, hospitality) the Broncos will prioritize within that specific zone. Wakefield, who helped design The Battery Atlanta — a gold standard of mixed-use stadium development that the Broncos’ brass toured while identifying stadium-district ideas — emphasized the initial importance of establishing residential units to build an on-site customer base.

Any dreams about the district’s makeup, though, will be clouded by the current Denver market. Ortiz said building hotels would be an initial priority. But hotel-occupancy rates in metro Denver still haven’t rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels, . RC Myles, a broker with Denver-based Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors, said he anticipates the Burnham district won’t prioritize much office development, as office vacancies in downtown Denver .

“There’s so many missing pieces to this,” said Carrie Makarewicz, chair of CU Denver’s urban and regional planning department. “I mean, they’re moving forward in the typical style of a private developer — you acquire low-cost land in a strategic location, you build the revenue generators first, you tap into as much public funding you can get … and then you work on the immediate surroundings for your project, but you don’t take into consideration the city and regional demand for retail, apartments and entertainment.

“Like, we’re cannibalizing all of our districts around the city.”

Demand for multi-family housing in downtown Denver has steadily ticked up, though, according to . And Myles pointed to Cherry Creek, which has dropped retail vacancy rates below 2%, as an example of a local destination for offices, families and businesses alike. Multiple real-estate experts noted to The Post that there aren’t currently many options for dining or support retail in the extended Burnham area — identifying a potential development focus for the Broncos.

“Colorado needs a big high five right now,” Gruber said. “And I think the Penners are helping do it.”

The Broncos, though, have yet to truly cement their investment in Burnham Yard, let alone a phased approach for an amorphous stadium district. And time is ticking, now a full nine months after their initial preferred-site announcement.

“If they can pull it off — I mean, dude, I guess money talks,” Herman said. “And they got plenty of that.”

“You will see a significant reduction in the time fresh food is sitting on the trailer before it actually gets to a store, and it also gives us a lot more flexibility when you think about weather,” said Amy Probst, a senior vice president with Target.

Palisade peaches that might have been shipped from Grand Junction to a distribution facility in Denton, Texas, only to make the trip back to the Front Range, now can come straight down Interstate 70.

And the facility, beyond serving an 11-state region, will be a central transfer point where vendors can bring their products to one location rather than having to drop them off at multiple warehouses.

The facility contains more than half a million square feet of refrigerated space and will employ 380 warmly dressed workers, including 37 holding salaried positions.

Wages for the hourly positions will range from $15 to $24, Probst said. The facility will run around the clock, with most workers on four 10-hour shifts, with three days off.

Target employs 9,300 people across 45 stores in Colorado, as well as at a dry goods distribution facility in Pueblo and a sorting center in Denver. Employees at other locations are being offered the chance to work in Thornton.

The company has hired employees from careers outside distribution, said Juan Armendariz, who joined the company in February.

Target takes the time to bring its workers up to speed and has a focus on safety, he added. But the work isn’t for everyone.

“You have to like cold,” he said.

Most of the facility is kept at a constant 34 degrees , which is balmy compared to the minus 15 that those working in the freezer section must endure.

A focus on healthier options

Although both got their start as general merchandisers, Target has lagged Walmart in appreciating the power groceries have to drive store traffic and sales.

Walmart now accounts for just under a fifth of U.S. grocery sales, followed by Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers, and Costco, with about 10% each.

Albertsons, which operates in the state as Safeway, and Ahold Delhaize USA, owner of Food Lion and Giant, round out the top five grocery providers.

Target falls into the bracket of the next five largest grocery retailers, but it historically has been treated as a “fill-in” rather than a “stock up” source of food.Ěý“Fill-in,” as in grabbing a gallon of milk while shopping for school supplies after remembering the jug at home is running low.

Until recently, the company relied on third-party vendors to distribute its fresh food offerings, which increased supply costs by adding middlemen.

Walmart, by contrast, built a “hub and spoke” distribution model for refrigerated goods and mastered the art of moving items with a short shelf-life.ĚýIts efficiency allowed it to beat larger grocery-dedicated chains in price and, over time, surpass them in sales.

Playing catch-up, Target has built three new distribution hubs in the past four years to replace the capacity third-party partners previously provided.

Thornton represents its fourth and largest facility in square footage, and it has enough room to allow for an expansion in the products that can be carried, Probst said.

The new center will allow Target to offer its customers a greater variety of products, improve freshness and carry healthier options, she said.

Target has overhauled its food and beverage lineup to include more health and wellness items, like premium protein and meat products and products that promote improved gut health.

The “mass wellness” strategy, as some analysts describe it, also emphasizes “clean” ingredients. In late February, the Ěýfrom its cereal line by May.

“Certified” refers to FDA-inspected synthetic colors, typically derived from petroleum sources, such as Blue No. 1 and No. 2, Red No. 3 and No. 40 and Yellow No.5 and Yellow No. 6.

“We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and we’re moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs,” said Cara Sylvester, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at Target, in a release in February.

The company has reformulated its in-house Good & Gather brand to reduce artificial colors and sugar content. And to keep in the retailer’s good graces, national suppliers have reformulated their cereals and other products.

WK Kellogg Co., for example, is providing Target with an exclusive Wild Berry version of Froot Loops made without certified synthetic colors.

And the retailer plans to carry more exclusive boutique brands, like Boulder-based Purely Elizabeth, which will provide a Protein Granola, and new offerings from Lovebird out of Minneapolis.

Target is known for its mass-market prestige or “masstige” lines in clothing and home decor, such as its partnership with Missoni, the Italian apparel design house, and its collaboration first with Michael Graves and then Studio McGee for household goods.

“We’re just seeing a lot more celebrity and design intention within our food and beverage. That’s a fun element, and we are seeing a lot of growth there,” said Ashley Lowes, a spokeswoman for the company.

Top Banana

But curated brands won’t ever dethrone the uncontested king atop the grocery store food pyramid — the common banana.

Highlighting its importance, the tropical fruit receives special accommodations at the new food distribution center with 12 dedicated rooms, said Sean Walker, quality manager at the new facility.

Bananas, as they are at most grocery stores, are the top-selling item at Target, surpassing other staples like milk, eggs and bottled water in popularity.

In contrast to more seasonal fruits, they remain available and popular year-round. But that requires providing special ripening rooms where they can bathe in ethylene after arriving in the U.S.

Bananas release the gas naturally during ripening as complex starches turn into simple sugars, and the green chlorophyll in the peel softens.

But soft bananas don’t travel well. It takes about six to eight days for a newly arrived and green banana to get the proper yellow tan required to head to market, under the watchful eye of a ripening system powered with artificial intelligence.

Ten of the rooms are “single” rooms that can accommodate 21 pallets at a time, and two of the rooms are double rooms. Each pallet carries a ton of bananas.

If all the rooms were at capacity, the Thornton facility could host about 1.5 million or more bananas at any given time.

A strong Colorado connection

Target’s first location opened in 1962 in a suburb of St. Paul, and when the retailer expanded outside of Minnesota in 1966, it didn’t head to neighboring Wisconsin or Iowa.

Instead, Colorado received two stores, and six decades later, the one launched in Glendale remains one of the company’s most active.

Colorado has one of the highest concentrations of Super Target stores, which have expanded food and beverage sections. And the company’s focus on wellness plays well in a state that was at the center of the health food movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

The food distribution center represents an investment of more than $300 million, a significant chunk of the $5 billion in capital spending Target plans to make this year.

It will serve 130 stores in a region stretching from Salt Lake City to Kansas City, Mo., and from the Dakotas down to Texas.

“This gives us the added capacity to really continue to accelerate growth in food and beverage,” Probst said.

Colorado should see additional Super Target stores opening in the years ahead, part of the ongoing investment the company is making.

And existing stores in the state should see fresher food compared to the previous system that brought food in from Denton, Texas, and Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Regional suppliers also should benefit. Several consolidation docks between the inbound and outbound sides of the building will handle vendor shipments.

After arriving, those items will be transferred immediately into other outbound trucks, along with other incoming deliveries, and sent out to other warehouses.

The setup is designed to reduce the number of stops and miles that vendors have to complete to reach the various distribution facilities. And the trucking firms that Target contracts with can operate with fuller loads.

But it will also mean a lot more trucks on the road in Thornton.

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann, who attended the center’s opening ceremony along with several Thornton City Council members on May 20, said the area is commercial with no residential nearby.

Food processors operate in the area, and the hope is that the distribution center will drive more of them to locate there.

As to truck traffic, the center is on Washington Street, south of E-470 and east of Interstate 25.

Trucks will have easy highway access and will spend a minimal amount of time on local roads, like Washington Street, which has been expanded to handle higher freight volumes, she said.

“They have a good plan for managing it,” she said.

Target has also agreed to help the Food Bank of the Rockies and Food for Hope with its surplus product, she said.

The Salida man is now among Colorado entrepreneurs navigating the choppy waters of seeking refunds on tariffs declared illegal. He and his two partners in hired a broker to apply for refunds for the tariffs the company paid on surfboards, bodyboards, inflatable stand-up paddleboards and other items manufactured in China.

From Walmart to automakers to Main Street businesses such as the Badfish surf shop, companies across the country started submitting records and invoices when the U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims portal went live April 20.

“It would be nice if we got some money back,” Harvey said. “It would be amazing.”

But he’s skeptical about how much money Badfish will recoup from tariffs the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in February. He said sorting through the different kinds of tariffs and rates the company paid is daunting.

“We’re definitely going to try to figure it out,” he added. “But it¶¶Ňőap just hard for me to imagine that they’re just going to easily offer up refunds for all of us. I don’t place a ton of hope on refunds.”

levied by the Trump administration under a law allowing the president to regulate international commerce in a national emergency. The Supreme Court said the tariffs enforced against numerous countries were unconstitutional.

ordered the Trump administration to set up a process for businesses to recoup an estimated $166 billion in taxes paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.

Tariffs in Colorado have risen sevenfold, rising from 3% to 21%, the highest level in more than a century, Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young said in April. He said Colorado businesses paid $1.1 billion in tariffs in 2025.

Badfish, which started in 2010, faced higher tariffs during the first Trump administration when levies on imports from China were raised. The Biden administration didn’t lower those.

In 2025, tariffs on China surged as a trade war erupted. A ship carrying Badfish’s products was headed to the U.S. “when Trump did his whole escalation thing with China,” said Harvey, a co-founder of the company.

“We had a container which effectively we didn’t make any money on last year because of the tariffs,” he said.

Harvey said although one of the reasons given for tariffs was to stimulate domestic manufacturing, the cost of producing goods in the U.S. is insurmountable for companies like his. He views tariffs as unfair taxes on small businesses that adapted as manufacturing shifted offshore.

“That global economy enabled two guys who didn’t have very much money to start a business in a garage in Salida and sell products all over the place, out of this little town in Colorado,” Harvey said.

Boulder-based Ěýa high-end women’s outdoor and lifestyle apparel company, plans to apply for a refund. But first, it has to correct how it’s listed in the database.

“We are set up for some reason as an exporter only instead of both an importer and an exporter,” said Gail Ross, Krimson Klover’s chief operating officer.

The company has tried for several weeks to correct the information with no luck. Ross was going to contact Krimson Klover’s attorney for ideas.

The company was paying a 37.5% tariff on its clothes manufactured in China. As with many small businesses, the higher tariffs forced Krimson Klover to put some spending on hold. On-again, off-again tariff increases have made it tough to plan, Ross said.

“It’s crazy-making from a business standpoint,” Ross said.

And even if Krimson Klover receives a refund, Ross doesn’t know what to expect next. Trump imposed a temporary, across-the-board 10% duty that Congress would have to approve after 150 days.

Another avenue for the administration is to that allows tariffs against countries for unreasonable or discriminatory trade practices. The administration has said it’s opening investigations into other countries.

“We believe that the president remains as committed to his tariff strategy today as he was when he entered office, and that small businesses are unlikely to see a significant drop in tariff rates during the Trump Administration without an act of Congress that defies the president¶¶Ňőap wishes,” Ben Johnston, chief operating officer of , a small-business lender and marketplace, said in an email.

While the future of tariffs remains unclear, the prospect of reimbursement for past tariffs is a little more solid for Denver-based , which has produced commercial ice machines for more than 70 years. The company applied for a refund two days after the claims portal opened, said Kevin Walker, Ice-O-Matic’s strategic sourcing manager.

“I was really surprised how well it went because they built that in like 45 days,” Walker said.

Ice-O-Matic uses materials produced in the U.S. and in other countries: China, Canada, India and the Middle East. Walker said the kinds of tariffs levied on the various countries and the rates changed quickly over the last year, making it a challenge to keep up with the latest numbers.

The system to apply for refunds was busy the first two days. After that, Walker said he was able to pull a report he needed, figure out which tariffs were affected by the court ruling and upload the information. The refunds will be transferred electronically to recipients’ bank accounts.

“They gave approval right away that the information was correct and that they did accept it,” Walker said. “I would never say it’s 100%, but it feels at least like we’re at a good point of having the chance to get that money back.”

Walker has heard refunds might start hitting people’s accounts in 60 to 90 days. “But then I’ve heard other estimates where it could be as early as May 11.”

Customs brokers at the Denver office of are working with businesses of all sizes on applying for reimbursement for the IEEPA tariffs that were ruled illegal.

“We’re supporting our clients with multiple, different sources of data, trying to help them consolidate their import data, go through it, see what is eligible, what is not eligible,” said Kate Rayer, vice president of regulatory services at Green Worldwide.

“I think a lot of the smaller companies are the ones who have been needing the most help because they don’t generally have in-house resources,” she said.

So far, Rayer has been impressed with the process set up by Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. “I was very pleasantly surprised at the system they stood up because it does enable this mass processing.”

, according to a filing by the CBP. Roughly 1.7 million were in the refund process.

, a travel-gear company based in Steamboat Springs, has filed for a refund. The company, which largely manufactures its goods in Indonesia, estimates it could be due close to a half million dollars.

“I’m reasonably optimistic that we’re going to see the refunds that we’re owed,” said Travis Campbell, Eagle Creek owner and CEO. “They essentially hit the timelines that they laid out for developing the system and the system appears to be working.”

Campbell said he understands why customers want to be reimbursed for the higher prices passed on by suppliers and importers. Consumers have filed lawsuits seeking refunds.

“As a consumer who’s been obligated to pay higher prices because of these tariffs, I understand the sentiment. As a business person, though, I also understand the complexity,” Campbell said.

Eagle Creek absorbed the tariff-related costs for all of 2025, Campbell said. He believes it would be difficult to draw a direct line from the tariff to the price paid by the consumer.

What’s also difficult for Campbell to calculate is the overall impact of the tariffs on his business. Plans were upended. The company’s profits dropped. Employees were laid off.

“There were so many negative repercussions beyond just the cost of the tariffs,” Campbell said. “It’s going to take us years to come to terms with all of the impacts.”

This is not the weekend for the Broncos’ front office to be sensible with its Walmart money. Oh, no. The 2026 NFL Draft is a free hit. An open goal. A chance to patch holes on a good roster by taking some chances.

Denver was an ankle away from the Super Bowl last season. A freak injury from waving high enough for everybody in Kansas to see.

Act like it.

Be bold.

Be brave.

Please don’t be an inside linebacker.

We’re wringing our hands about pick No. 62, of course, a second-round selection that, as of Monday, is the Broncos’ first — and maybe only — chance to make a draft weekend splash.

Six of the Broncos’ seven picks are slated to fall on Day 3 (rounds four-seven), and three of those six currently lie in the final round. History says Paton and Payton will move around some if they see someone specific they like. But a class this small needs to be about quality — not quantity. So as the weekend approaches, here are five things you’d hope general manager George Paton and coach Sean Payton keep in mind as they shop for depth:

1. If Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers is available at No. 62, or close, move Heaven and Earth to make him yours

Linebacker or tight end? Defensive lineman or slot weapon? You nuts? Did you watch the Commodores? Don’t overthink this. Stowers is a tight end who looks like a wide receiver (6-foot-3, 239 pounds), runs like a wide receiver (4.51 in the 40) and jumps like a wide receiver (45.5-inch vertical).

He’s a matchup nightmare, the kind of target who leaves linebackers eating his dust and safeties flailing to reach jump balls they can’t touch. Stowers the draft epitome of a “Joker,” the TE/WR/inside triangle hybrid that Payton spoke about so lustily in January 2025. He’s Evan Engram. Only younger. Sure, Stowers doesn’t grade out well as a blocker. Guess what? You’ve got plenty of “blocking” tight ends on hand already.

2. Grab a contributor Friday — save your projects for Saturday

Could you find a starting-caliber linebacker late in the second round, too? Sure. Assuming Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez is still on the board, he’d make a perfect understudy for Alex Singleton, who’ll turn 33 in December. Or Justin Strnad, who turns 30 in August.

But with only seven picks, and a ton of contracts slated to end after the 2027 season, isn’t time of the essence? Shouldn’t you be saving the understudies for Saturday?

This is a back-filling draft, not the foundational one that 2024 turned out to be, thanks largely to Bo Nix. But winning now means getting guys who can play, and contribute, from the jump. Ideally, that means finding someone in Round 2 who could start for you in a pinch as soon as Week 1. Nail that, and the rest is gravy. Because if you don’t …

3. Don’t fall in love with BPA if that BPA has nowhere to play

See: Barron, Jahdae. Paton’s 2025 BPA with selection No. 20 a year ago. As in, “Best Player Available.” Or is it, Best Pick Again?

You can never have too much of a good thing in this league, given the volatility and injuries. Unless, of course, it’s nickel backs, especially when you’ve already developed an undrafted one (Ja’Quan McMillian) into one of the best in the AFC. At the time of Paton and Payton picked Barron, last spring’s first-round selection, folks didn’t whoop and holler. Barron, a speedster who raised Cain at the University of Texas, made folks sort of shrug and go, ‘Yeah, well, makes sense.’

The Broncos late in 2024 got badly exposed along the perimeter in the passing game — that Cleveland game on Monday Night Football was wild — while Pat Surtain II was out and a still-young Riley Moss was forced to cover more WR1s.

Fast forward to the fall of ’25, where Moss improved and cut down on his penalties. McMillian upped his game another level and rarely left the field on passing downs.

Before last spring’s draft, pundits and fans pleaded for the Broncos to add more help at running back, tight end and wide receiver. By and large, they’re making the same pleas in 2026 — which doesn’t exactly speak well for the early returns on Barron in the first round or for RJ Harvey in the second.

There’s time. But 2027, when so many of the contracts for this current core are slated to run out, gets closer by the day.

4. Remember Bo Nix — and Nix’s costs down the road

If someone offers you picks — even late ones — for the 2027, 2028 or 2029 drafts, you’d be wise to listen. Nix’s four-year rookie deal The Bo Show is slated for a $5.08-million cap hit this fall, and a $5.92-million hit in two seasons. Justin Herbert’s first post-rookie-contract extension had an average annual value of $52.5 million. Joe Burrow’s post-rookie extension featured an AAV of $55 million.

That raise is coming. More rookies will need to be coming, too.

5. Secure a RB you can trust in January

Here’s an idea. Actually, think of it as an exercise. At some point on Saturday, or before, look at the tailbacks most likely to be on the board after Round 2 or Round 3. Ask yourself, very simply, one question: Which one would I feel good about starting, at home, in late January, come rain, sleet or shine?

Because, presuming that J.K. Dobbins is going to be there is pure hubris. Or ignorance. Or both. Presume he’s not. Presume the rest of your options are still best used as pass-catchers in space (Harvey) or as special-teamers (Badie). Which of these prospects can pound the rock between the tackles 12-15 times per game against a salty defense? Which one could help grind me to a Super Bowl?

I’m partial to Nebraska’s Emmett Johnson, a workhorse for the Cornhuskers last year, a volume carrier with power who recorded just three fumbles over 550 touches as a collegian. A born closer. Johnson averaged 6.7 yards from scrimmage last November every time he saw the ball, scoring five times on 120 touches that month. Sounds like the perfect fit, on paper, for a franchise that won’t just be judged on how it finishes next season. But where.

Kris Bryant’s last at-bat in Rockies pinstripes happened a year ago this past Sunday. April 12, 2025. Haven’t seen him since.

“Hey, look, I get it — baseball is a business,” Bryant’s father Mike told me during a short conversation last spring. “They want (Kris) hitting 40 home runs and hitting .300 … you got your Todd Heltons for that, and you’ve got your other guys. Kris is happy. When it’s all said and done, (Denver fans are) going to look back on Kris favorably.”

As a person? Without a doubt.

As a contract? As an investment? No chance.

Which is where the Broncos enter the picture, riding to the rescue on The Penner Sports Group, fronted by Broncos owners Carrie Walton Penner and husband Greg Penner, now possesses a 40% stake in the Rockies. As reported by The Post’s Patrick Saunders last Friday, the Walton-Penners are the largest minority investors for Colorado’s Major League Baseball team, topped only by the Monfort family, who retain team control.

The Broncos needed leadership and money to get out of the darkness and back into the AFC Championship Game. The Rockies need … well, everything. But more money and better leadership would be two welcome steps in the right direction.

Because, lest we forget, the Broncos had to bottom out before starting their three-year climb. The Penners and Waltons went all-in on Russell Wilson. They got a 5-12 train wreck in 2022 to show for it, all while fans counted down the play clock. At home.

Sean Payton wanted to wash his hands of Russ, who was clearly toast. So the Broncos ate $85 million in dead cap money over the ’24 and ’25 seasons for cutting Wilson, the kind of hit that’s supposed to punish a franchise for its free-spending folly.

Only a funny thing happened: The Broncos got better. Much, much, much better. And fast. Bo Nix hit. Nik Bonitto hit. Jonathon Cooper hit. Quinn Meinerz hit. Brandon Jones hit. Talanoa Hufanga hit anything within six feet of him. A lot of shrewd drafting, a pinch of smart free-agent signings and good coaching hoisted the Broncos from outhouse to penthouse.

The road is longer for the Rockies, who’ve lost 100 or more games for three straight seasons and will flirt with a fourth. The NFL is designed for parity, competitive socialism at its finest. Major League Baseball is the last of the major North American sports leagues without a salary cap.

But the Broncos couldn’t move forward until they chucked Wilson’s contract overboard and let Payton build a roster in his image.

And any hope for a new dawn in LoDo, any tailwind that pushes the Rockies forward, starts with getting Bryant’s seven-year, $182-million contract off the stinkin’ books. And as quickly as possible.

Not his fault, mind you. Nice guy. Amazing dude. Bryant’s spirit, like his smile, was always willing. His body, alas, had other ideas.

Since signing with the Rockies in March 2022, KB23 has played in only 170 games over the first four years of his deal. In what’s amounted to basically a full season of stats over the last 48 months, KB’s Colorado line to date is 632 at-bats, 29 doubles, 17 home runs, 61 RBI, a .244 batting average and a .695 OPS.

In other words, for $26 million per season, the Rockies have gotten 42 games a year of (.244 career batting average, .695 career OPS) in the middle of the order.

The surface takeaway from the Walton-Penner family’s investment was that all that sweet Walmart dough would wipe away debt. Most MLB clubs lost some serious change with the collapse of regional sports networks — the Rox reportedly collected at least $57 million from AT&T SportsNet in 2023, the last season of their old TV contract.

Given inflation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that $57 million in March 2023 would’ve been worth $58.98 million in March 2024, $60.39 million in March 2025; and $62.4 million in March 2026.

That’s an estimated $181.7 million shortfall for the Monforts, even before factoring in returns from the direct-to-consumer/subscriber model. You need cash to patch the wound and stop the bleeding.

The other purple elephant in the Monforts’ room, of course, is Bryant, a deal that’s aging the way

A bad idea at the time looks even worse now. Counting this season’s salary, the Rox still owe Bryant, now 34, another $81 million through the end of the 2028 season.

Word leaked that Bryant was signing with Colorado the same day that Wilson was introduced as the new QB savior of the Broncos in Dove Valley — March 16, 2022, a date that will forever live in Front Range infamy.

The Waltons and Penners quickly saw the error of their ways, although it helped that NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed beyond the signing bonus. MLB deals are. Bryant is repped by Scott Boras, and baseball divorces aren’t cheap. An injury settlement feels like the most logical path at this point. Which is why it’s also not hard to picture the Monforts asking Walton-Penner and her husband if they’d like to chip in to help the Rockies get past their version of the Wilson deal.

“It’s just been very frustrating (here),” the elder Bryant told me. “We came in with high expectations for him to really enjoy himself and it was killing him (to not play). Then to listen to the B.S. that goes along, people running their mouths about how he wasn’t worth the contract …

“It’s not like he was trying to play at 80% (health). He was trying to play at 50%. You can’t do that in this game. There’s just too many good pitchers. It’s a brutal game.”

With brutal realities. If the Broncos can make two of the worst deals in Denver sports history go away, that would be almost as impressive as sticking a fork in the Chiefs’ AFC West dynasty.

After two decades of operating the Rockies as a mom-and-pop grocery store, it was time for owner Dick Monfort to bring in Walmart as a partner.

In what amounts to a home run for baseball fans in this state and region, Monfort has agreed to sell a 40 % minority stake in the Rockies to the Penner Sports Group, composed of Broncos’ co-owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner.

With a roughly $672 million investment based onĚýForbes’ most recent $1.68 billion valuation,Ěýthe Penners will provide fundsĚýto pay down debt and financial resources that give Monfort runway to determine his future vision for the franchise as a labor stoppage looms following this season.

For Monfort, it was past time in the national pastime to treat the Rockies as a civic institution. By bringing on the Penners, he shifts the conversation about his ownership from selfish to selfless. At last.

It is wise, if not belated, recognition that family-run sports teams are becoming archaic and lack the wherewithal to consistently chase championships.

Monfort has groused in recent years, including in an interview with The Post before the 2024 season, about Major League Baseball’s lack of a salary cap. The concern about competing became amplified with regional sports networks dissolving, siphoning a source of revenue for a Rockies team that is already heavily dependent on attendance.

In the most recent homestand, the Rockies posted their smallest crowds in Coors Field history.

But lost in that nadir is that Monfort finally realized in October that significant changes were needed.

His decision to promote son Walker Monfort to vice president and give him freedom to hire baseball president Paul DePodesta, general manager Josh Byrnes and a battery of new business people was the clearest signal that he understood how dormant the team had become after seven consecutive losing seasons.

Until Friday.

This is a seismic event. A grand slam for Rockies fans.

By bringing the Penners on board, it creates a pathway for the Rockies to become relevant.

In 34 seasons, the Rockies have managed only five playoff berths, never won a National League West title and appeared in one World Series in 2007, swept by the Boston Red Sox in a buzzkill end to the most magical run in baseball history.

The obvious question: Why wouldn’t Dick Monfort simply sell the team?

This is something understandably frustrated fans have been chirping about for years.

It was not time for that. On multiple levels. Could that change down the road? Perhaps.

But starting with conversations a year ago, the Penners were motivated to get involved rather than take over. This is not a palace coup. It is a partnership. But it is also one (heck) of a safety net.

The new partnership continues momentum for Monfort, which has been evident on the field with the team’s 6-7 record after starting last season 7-33 en route to losing 100 games for a third consecutive season.

And it gives the Penners an opportunity to become financially tethered without dealing with the minutiae of running another team.

Can we pause for a second and acknowledge the commitment to sports and this community the Penners have shown since the summer of 2022?

As they enter their fifth year owning the Broncos, they have built a $175 million team headquarters, moved forward on a privately-financed new stadium for billions of dollars, created a $12 million initiative to donate over 15,000 helmets to high school football teams and and turned the franchise from a laughingstock to a Super Bowl contender by hiring Sean Payton and signing players to in-house contract extensions for more than $400 million over the last 18 months.

To Colorado sports fans, it’s worth even more.

The Penners have shown at every turn that they are amazing stewards, setting a standard for excellence in everything from how their players travel and eat to how they increase alumni involvement.

Before you ask, their roles with the Broncos will not change. Owning the team has exceeded their expectations in how fulfilling, challenging and rewarding it has been. They will still attend practice a few days a week and mingle at the facility.

The Rockies, make no mistake, piqued their interest as a business investment.

Like many who have lived here, they recognize that baseball is a sleeping giant, a potential No. 2 sport in Colorado if Rocktober returns semi-annually. Coors Field, despite being the third-oldest ballpark in the National League, remains a destination spot with its timeless appeal and charm.

Fans have shown they will come if the team is good. It just takes several flips back in the calendar to remember when that was.

Overall, baseball is on the right track, benefiting from the pitch clock, eliminating shifts and creating the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System.

The Penners obviously saw this.

For the Rockies, for Monfort, this move makes sense.

Just look at all the Penners have done, how deep their pockets are, and how much they commit to ventures. They are unbelievably curious people who look for answers, never satisfied with the status quo or mediocrity.

They will learn baseball just as they did the NFL. There is no reason to think they cannot help make the Rockies better.

Everyone will wonder if they will eventually buy the team. That is for a later day and could hinge on the outcome of the labor talks, in which Monfort serves as a hawk in the negotiations for commissioner Rob Manfred.

Since back-to-back playoff berths in 2017 and 2018, the Rockies have nosedived, bottoming out with 119 losses last season.

By bringing in the Penners, Monfort is letting the respected neighbors down the street spruce up the place. Their money matters. But more than that, it provides hope for the future.

And for this city, this state and the fans, that is priceless.

“To me, personally, it speaks about the rich getting richer, and (everyone else) has to absorb the cost of everything,” Hayes sighed when I reached her by phone on Monday. “Honestly, I don’t know how you get around that.”

Mary is a Josh Allen gal in Bo Nix territory, a Bills Mafia transplant, a Rochester, N.Y., native who’s lived in Boulder County for eight or nine years now. When she hears talk about the Burnham Yard stadium site and the Walton-Penner Group, or when folks start whispering about “Personal Seat Licenses,” or PSLs, in Denver, she circles back to her ex-father-in-law.

Almost every adult Broncomaniac has met somebody like Mike from upstate New York at some point. He had Bills season tickets for five decades. He was a combat veteran who served in Vietnam, was awarded a Purple Heart, and became a true Don of Bills Mafia. Now in his 70s, Mike recently elected to give up his tickets rather than pony up for a PSL — a fee paid by customers of some NFL franchises to gain the right to purchase season tickets. In essence, it’s a cover charge for a cover charge.

Major pro franchises that agree to foot the bill for privately financed stadiums these days often seek to defray at least some of those costs by adding PSL fees to their customers’ bills. The Walton-Penner Group is working on a privately financed stadium and entertainment district for the Burnham Yard area near I-25, with an estimated $4 billion price tag. It’s not hard to do the math on the possibility of PSLs landing here.

The Bills announced last December that it had sold out its PSLs —Ěýreportedly more than 53,000 —Ěý The average annual cost of a PSL at its new Highmark Stadium ranged from a reported $750 to $50,000 per seat, depending on location. Just to give you a ballpark figure, literally, of what might be coming down the pike for ¶¶Ňőapountry. And why she thinks of Mike.

“And those are the people who are behind the scenes, with personal stories,” Hayes continued. “Growing up a Bills fan, to me, that was all about family. I remember watching games with my dad on the couch on Sunday afternoons. And him taking us to games that we could afford … it’s just become this thing, now, where that (tradition) is getting lost in everything. To me, that’s the heart of being a Bills fan or a Broncos fan, is generational memories. And its connection.

“Those were the people that want it and need it the most, that are struggling to make ends meet every day. And now you’re taking away the one thing that they look forward to year-round.”

That one thing — the Broncos — is more than a line item on a tax return. It’s fathers and daughters, mothers and sons. It’s woven into the fabric, baked in the blood. It’s passed on, like a grandfather clock, from generation to generation.

“But we’re winning now,” chuckled Lori Hosmer of Rochester, N.Y., child of two massive Bills fans “We have to pay up. If you want Josh Allen, you’ve got to pay Josh Allen. If you want James Cook, you’ve got to pay James Cook.”

The Bills are not a perfect comp, granted. For one thing, the new Highmark is jointly funded by public and private sources, with at least $850 million coming from New York taxpayers. For another, the Bills’ home upgrade is estimated to feature about 10,000 fewer seats (62,000) than the current version’s reported 71,608. Empower Field features a capacity of 76,125 for football.

But in terms of passion, devotion, organization, loyalty, national presence and a blue-collar ethos, ¶¶Ňőapountry and the Mafia are cousins cut from the same AFL cloth. And the ones in upstate New York have some advice for Denverites on the fabric of PSL life:

1. Do your homework

If you treat PSLs sales like Black Friday at Walmart and storm through the doors at midnight, you might get your bank account trampled, Hosmer noted. Have a plan.

“Understand what your budget is before you walk in, so you don’t get excited about the hype,” she said. “Your experience depends on who your rep is … we had some (fans) who felt very pressured (initially).”

Hosmer’s old seats were above one of the Bills’ tunnel entrances, but that section wasn’t offered to her in the new Highmark.

“It’s a very good idea to have written down what you can actually want to afford and what you can afford, and what you actually want to spend on (seats),” Hosmer said, “before going forward. It’s a big commitment. It’s easy to get caught up in that (sales pitch).

“Our rep said, ‘Guys, no pressure, but all these other people are going to have a chance to (have these seats) the next couple weeks, I’m not sure where you’ll land.'”

2. Be patient and prepared to change seats

Hosmer described the PSL selection and confirmation process as “very long” and “very confusing, because you had no idea when you’d be called … that was just an odd thing.”

Another layer of odd? Her PSL ‘rep’ was not the same person as her season-ticket rep.

“My understanding is that every team does it how they want to do it,” she stressed, “but (Buffalo) was not based on seniority, because seniority didn’t matter. People spending the most money got first dibs. That makes sense. It’s a business.”

While preaching patience, Hosmer also would advise Broncos fans to “be prepared to change seats.”

“Someone who was sitting next to me (for years) was like, ‘I’m not paying $2,500, I’m not paying $3,000 (for this),’ so he ended up in a different (section),” she said. “He said, ‘I wanted to be in the new stadium, but it was too much of a (financial) ask. It was just too much.'”

3. Brace for sticker shock

Hosmer’s end-zone seats cost $450 a head in 2010. The ones she’ll be getting this fall landed at $1,895 — and that’s before parking.

“If (a Broncos fan) is not sure (about a purchase), you make sure you find out before you sign any paperwork,” she said. “People in our group were really mad to find out afterwards, after we signed our (contract), that the Bills were actually going to go in and out at the end of the half and at the end of the game by their bench and not by (the end zone).”

The community hand-wringing picked up when the Bills began charging $8,000-$50,000 annually per patron on PSLs for club seats. Late last year, Bills ownership introduced a $1,000 PSL cost for an upper-deck seat, and some higher-up end zone seats were offered at a three-figure level — $500-750 per patron.

In all cases, Hosmer said, financing options were made available, “so it’s not killer .. you have to have a credit card, you have to put down a deposit.”

She recalled being offered a six-year plan to pay off her PSL at an interest rate of around 8.7%. Hosmer was also told she couldn’t sell her PSLs until at least a year after its purchase, and that there were restrictions as to how those licenses could be resold, and to whom.

“I’ve heard fans complain about the (lack of stadium giveaways and bobbleheads) here,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘You don’t get that, but you get Victory Mondays.’ Take your pick. Do you want cheap sunglasses, or do you want AFC Championships? I know what I’m choosing. Every time.”

The nonprofit law firm, Towards Justice, sent to Sheriff Lou Vallario after months of allegations raised by Glenwood Springs-based advocacy group Voces Unidas. That group said Vallario had sidestepped state law to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in transferring immigrants into ICE custody.

The letter asks the Western Slope county’s sheriff to stop that practice, as well as any prohibited information-sharing with federal immigration authorities.

“Sheriff Valerio and other law enforcement across the state seeking to collaborate with ICE must know that they are not above the law,” Towards Justice executive director David Seligman said in a statement.

Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Shannon Stowe said in an email that she hadn’t yet seen Towards Justice’s letter. She pointed to a Feb. 7, 2025, statement from Vallario, in which he wrote that he works “with ALL law enforcement agencies, from local to international, to the degree I legally can.”

“As it is a legal matter, it will need to be reviewed by the County Attorney’s Office before any action is taken,” Stowe wrote.

Voces Unidas and Towards Justice accused a Garfield County deputy and an ICE agent of arresting an immigrant outside of a Walmart last June. The deputy then drove the man from Glenwood Springs to the town of De Beque, the organizations said, where he was turned over to ICE custody.

Alex Sánchez of Voces Unidas and Toree Lindblad of Towards Justice said the man had no federal or state criminal charges, and he was later deported from a detention center in Aurora.

The incident report, which is included in the letter, states that the ICE agent was part of a joint task force with the sheriff’s office. The deputy helped transport the man into the custody of “ERO,” or Enforcement and Removal Operations, which is the branch of ICE that handles civil immigration and deportations.

Five other deputies were present at the initial arrest, Towards Justice alleged.

Colorado law broadly prohibits local law enforcement from participating in civil immigration enforcement activities, and it also blocks any sharing of personal information with ICE outside of criminal probes.

Stowe did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Walmart arrest.

The letter from Towards Justice also accuses the sheriff’s office of allowing ICE agents into the local jail to pick up immigrants before they’re released. Sánchez said his group had documented nine cases of in-custody transfers, and Towards Justice released a statement from a woman who said she’d exited a jail bathroom after paying her bail, only to find a sheriff’s deputy waiting with an ICE agent.

But that practice may not violate state law. Colorado law prohibits jails from holding people at ICE’s request, or from holding them longer than necessary to allow ICE to come and pick them up.

However, it’s not illegal for ICE to arrest someone in a jail or for a jail to alert the agency that an immigrant is set to be released.

Last year, Colorado lawmakers briefly debated blocking ICE agents from entering nonpublic areas of jails. show Vallario criticizing that provision as dangerous and saying he would “not comply” with that part of the bill, if it were passed.

But the provision was later stripped from the bill.

Vallario told The Denver Post last year that he did not delay immigrants’ releases and that he was bound by state law. In his statement last year, Vallario wrote that people who are eligible for release must be set free from jail custody within six hours.

“However, local ICE agents review our public jail website that shows the status of everyone in jail,” he wrote. “If ICE has an interest in detaining one, or more of them because of the seriousness of their crimes, they notify the jail and ask that we let them know when that person of interest is going to be released, and we do.”

The emails obtained by Voces Unidas also show Vallario criticizing state Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, a Glenwood Springs Democrat who sponsored last year’s bill proposing to further limit ICE cooperation by state and local officials.

In a June email to other law enforcement officials, Vallario sent a picture of Velasco carrying an anti-ICE sign, and he called her a “POS.”

Foran has a reputation as a tech-savvy and detail-oriented leader. He led Walmart¶¶Ňőap U.S. division from 2014 to 2019, where he focused on cleaning up stores, ensuring items were in stock and improving the fresh produce selection. He also introduced online ordering and pickup, and accelerated Walmart¶¶Ňőap digital capabilities.

Walmart has reshaped itself into a that has leaned heavily into automation and artificial intelligence, and it¶¶Ňőap one of the biggest competitive threats to Kroger, the largest standalone U.S. supermarket chain.

Shares of The Kroger Co. rose nearly 7% in early trading Monday after Kroger said Foran would lead the company.

Walmart has become a larger challenge to Kroger and other traditional grocers as Americans increasingly pick up their groceries along with other general goods that Walmart sells. Walmart currently controls around 21% of the U.S. grocery market, compared to 8.5% for Kroger, according to the market research company Numerator.

Kroger has also felt pressure from fast-growing discount chains like Aldi and Lidl and online behemoths like Amazon.

Kroger with Albertsons in 2022 as a way to better compete with its rivals. But the and two states — and — sued to block the merger in 2024, saying it would raise prices and lower workers’ wages by eliminating competition. Judges ultimately ruled that the merger should not proceed.

Kroger has struggled to adjust as customers increasingly embrace delivery, pickup and ship-to-home for their groceries. The company said in December that its e-commerce sales jumped 17% in the latest quarter.

In November, Kroger in Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida and said it would monitor its five remaining facilities. The company said it found that delivering directly from its stores was faster and cheaper than using the automated facilities, where robots pick and pack groceries. Kroger said the closures could help make its e-commerce business profitable this year.

Kroger also recently with the third-party delivery services DoorDash and Uber Eats. For years, Kroger had limited what third parties could deliver and instead tried to meet demand with its own delivery drivers.

But Kroger has also found that it needs to tread carefully when experimenting with new technology. When some of its stores switched to , which allow stores to change prices instantly, state and federal lawmakers questioned whether the company would use the technology to surge prices.

Kroger also got heat from lawmakers about a partnership with Microsoft that would place cameras in aisles and offer personalized deals to shoppers based on their gender and age.

Foran succeeds Ron Sargent, who has been Kroger’s interim leader since former CEO Rodney McMullen resigned last March. McMullen had been Kroger’s CEO since 2014 and was also the company’s chairman. Kroger said he resigned after an investigation into his personal conduct, which was unrelated to the business but violated its ethics policy.

Sargent will continue to serve as Kroger’s chairman to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

“Greg is a highly respected operator who knows how to run large-scale retail businesses, strengthen store execution and lead high-performing teams,” Sargent said in a statement. “His leadership style, focus on the customer, commitment to associates, and disciplined approach to execution are the perfect fit for Kroger.”

Foran, a New Zealand native, most recently served as CEO of Air New Zealand, where he also improved digital capabilities, led negotiations with the airline’s union and guided it through the pandemic.

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, has 2,731 stores operating under various brands, including Ralphs, King Soopers, Smith’s and Fred Meyer. It has 409,000 employees. In Colorado, the company has 120 King Soopers and 32 City Market locations.

The Broncos were the only NFL team to place three players among the league’s top 15 in dropped passes during the regular season, per Pro-Football-Reference.com — wide receiver Courtland Sutton (eight), tight end Evan Engram (eight) and running back RJ Harvey (seven).

No wonder a 15-4 record feels like such a Boverachievement, in retrospect.

It’s going to be a beast to repeat if Payton and GM George Paton don’t add an experienced, proven wideout for Bo Nix in 2026. Or a big-time tight end. Better yet, both.

What the heck. Russell Wilson is off the books, right? Paton is rolling into the offseason with diamond encrusted Walmart gift card in his wallet. Go nuts.

“I think the position that this team, the position that we’re in, (we) have a win-now mentality,” Engram said Monday at Dove Valley as the Broncos cleaned out their lockers following a 10-7 loss to New England in the AFC Championship. “And there are some things that we can work with to even make our roster even better.

“So, yeah — I have the utmost faith in the guys upstairs, all the decision-makers, the coach. They’ve done a great job since they’ve been here. They’ve built (a) championship team. Being able to add to that already, we’re in a great spot. We’ll be in a good spot for a while.”

Yeah, but you’ve got to strike now. Nix is on a rookie contract through 2027. That time is going to fly by. Like the Nuggets with Jokic and Murray and the Avs with MacKinnon and Makar, this is the window. Right here. We going for this? Or not?

“Obviously, we need some key players to come in and do what they need to do by getting points on the scoreboard,” veteran left tackle Garett Bolles noted Monday. “(We’ve) got a phenomenal defense. We have everything we need. We just need a couple more playmakers, and sky’s the limit for this team.”

Almost everything. Nix can sling it with Sam Darnold all stinking day. What do the Super-Bowl-bound Seahawks have that the Broncos don’t? A bell cow tailback (Kenneth Walker) who has averaged 15 games per season over his career. And a No. 1 wideout (Jaxson Smith-Njigba) who’s putting up seven catches and 86 receiving yards per game this postseason.

Over two playoff games in ’25-26, Sutton’s collected seven catches and 70 yards through the air. In total.

That’s not to dog Big No. 14, who, at age 30, has been healthy and productive on the field — and a much-needed leader off of it.

It is to say that the man needs more help. And more outside help, especially.

Pat Bryant Jr. made strides, but you worry about all those repeated dings as of late. Troy Franklin had some amazing flashes. Yet while they might be cost-effective, neither of them has the kind of consistency of, say, a Tee Higgins. Or a Jaylen Waddle. Or a Cooper Kupp. Or a Davante Adams. Or a Garrett Wilson.

Payton has it backwards. He thinks he can turn anybody into a WR1 with his system. In truth, the system needs another potential WR1 to take off.

OverTheCap says the Broncos should have $27 million in cap room for ’26. Time to go shopping. And not in the discount section, either.

Giants wideout Wan’Dale Robinson is a free agent coming off his first 1,000-yard season. His drop rate was 2.29% — 10th lowest among players with at least 90 targets. The Colts’ Alec Pierce, who’s got the kind of size (6-foot-3) that Payton craves, is also hitting the market after his first 1,000-yard campaign. The former Cincy Bearcat sported a miniscule 1.2% drop rate this past fall and a 3.4% rate for his career.

The Broncos went 13-3 in one-score games in 2025, 12-2 during the regular season. It wasn’t luck. But it’s also tough to repeat, at least at that pace. Those fine margins are only going to get finer. And more fleeting.

Ideally, you build an offense that can pile up more leads, which eases the burden on that defense. Vance Joseph’s unit seemed to carry a game for three quarters until Nix and the offense came to life in the last eight minutes. You might sustain that over a season. It’s a lot to sustain it for two. Ask the Chiefs.

Per Pro-Football-Reference.com, only the Jaguars (45) logged more drops (43) than the Broncos did during the regular season. And Denver ranked second to Jacksonville in drop rate (7.0% to the Jags’ 8.0%.)

For a coach who thinks running the ball is for squares and suckers, that’s not exactly adapting one’s philosophy to fit your personnel.

Unless, of course, you change said personnel. A year ago, Payton vowed to upgrade the inner triangle of running back/tight end/slot receiver. J.K. Dobbins was a step in the right direction in the backfield — at least before he got hurt. Engram’s impact at TE1 was erratic, though, to put it kindly.

“I can only do the most with the opportunities that I get,” Engram said Monday. “There (were) times where I had opportunities. There (were) times where they were a little slim.”

Or none. Engram logged one or zero catches four times over the course of the season and logged three or fewer targets on six different occasions.

“Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, that’s kind of out of my control,” Engram reflected. “I do think there are opportunities in this offense. I think that the tight end position can bring a lot more than it should. Even speaking for the other guys, there’s a lot more that we honestly could have helped with.”

Moving the chains, mostly. Which is why it’s time for the Broncos to put their money where Payton’s mouth is.

Denver ranked 19th in NFL cap spending on wide receivers, The Broncos were 28th in 2024. When it comes to wideouts, you tend to get what you pay for. Right between the hands.