Week 1 against Kansas City wasn’t just slow.

It was flat.

And lackadaisical.

And sloppy.

And penalty-pocked.

And a mismatch in the trenches, where Denver has won so many games over Payton’s first three seasons.

The signs of a dud popped up early, but they snowballed on the Broncos over the course of a steaming-hot night at Arrowhead Stadium and a 31-10 demolition by the Chiefs.

Here are seven thoughts from the loss.

1. Davis Webb’s play-calling debut not only failed to soar, it really never even got off the ground

Davis Webb sat alone on the end of Denver’s bench between series in the second half Monday night.

The 31-year-old Broncos offensive coordinator looked down at his play-sheet — it is a fraction of the size of the board Sean Payton uses to house the same set of calls — and scribbled notes.

Down the bench, quarterback Bo Nix looked at pictures from another unsuccessful Denver drive with quarterbacks coach Logan Kilgore and fellow signal-callers Jarrett Stidham and Sam Ehlinger.

Further away, head coach Sean Payton had a lengthy, mostly one-way conversation with offensive line coach Zach Strief.

Webb spent most of the defensive possession there, looking for the key to unlock an offensive quandary that felt a little more handcuffed every time Nix and his guys trotted back onto the field.

It was far from an aggressive posture.

It was far from what Webb and the Broncos expected in his play-calling debut.

It was not all his fault, of course, but it will not go down as a storybook moment the way his mentor, Payton, still recalls shredding a Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick-coached New York Jets team in his first game calling plays back in 1998.

The headline numbers tell part of the story: 10 points, nine first downs, 2-of-12 on third down. A 55-yard touchdown drive in the first quarter, but from there, six punts, a fumble, a turnover on downs, and one measly field goal. Just 176 offensive yards overall and only 61 of them on the ground.

Dig in, though, and the outing only gets worse.

Six of Denver’s 11 full offensive drives ended without a first down. Four more generated one apiece.

Outside of one touchdown on their second drive of the night, the Broncos went three-and-out and punted three times (Drives 4, 5 and 10).

Each of the seven others featured a sack, a penalty, a turnover or some combination.

Drive 1: Sack, interception

Drive 3: Holding penalty

Drive 6: Sack

Drive 7: Delay of game

Drive 8: Holding penalty, sack from the red zone resulting in a field goal

Drive 9: Offensive pass interference, sack/fumble

Drive 11: Fumble

That mess led quarterback Bo Nix to put the blame for the performance on himself and his teammates rather than Webb.

“Nobody has good plays to call when you’re in second-and-long and third-and-long,” Nix said. “The play sheet is very small. We just didn’t put anybody in a good spot today, we really didn’t.”

Asked if he thought players let Webb down, Nix said, “Absolutely. Absolutely. The players did not make it easy on him today. Pretty pitiful, actually.”

Bo Nix on Davis Webb’s play calling debut: “The players did not make it easy on him today. Pretty pitiful, actually.”

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

Multiple players cited the inability to generate yards on first down, which is when the Broncos feel they can really get into their preferred tempo and get deeper into their play sheet.

Nix said Webb was his normal self on the headset, “a total pro,” and that he was imploring Nix and the offense to get to the next play when things didn’t go well.

“He shot it with conviction,” Nix said. “We called exactly what we prepared for and what we wanted to get to and we just didn’t execute. Then we were behind.”

Webb had some interesting concepts, particularly early in the game. He deployed Jaylen Waddle out of the backfield and used multiple variations of two-back and multi-tight end sets.

He aligned Waddle in the backfield on the Broncos’ opening drive, then returned to it on the touchdown drive and used Denver’s new top receiver as a decoy. Waddle flashed into the flat and drew the attention of three defenders, allowing Evan Engram to run a corner route behind him and come open for a 19-yard touchdown.

The ’ first TD of the year.

Look at the eyeballs Jaylen Waddle draws.

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

After that, though, the offense could never get itself unstuck.

Not only that, but the same hum the offense exhibited in the summer did not travel to Kansas City. The Broncos incurred a delay of game, nearly had another on a third-and-1 that went awry and burned a timeout in the second half with the play clock running low.

That area is supposed to see a marked improvement with Webb at the helm. It will need to get sorted out quickly.

2. Davis Webb’s response after a rough first outing will be fascinating

An entire lack of rhythm becomes a compounding problem for offenses.

If you can’t get anything out of your openers and your early down plays, then it becomes harder to build from them into other concepts, wrinkles or set-ups.

Right tackle Mike McGlinchey has spent his career playing for Kyle Shanahan and Sean Payton, two of the best play-callers in football.

When the guy with the sheet gets rolling, it feels unstoppable.

“If you understand why things are being built the way they’re being built,” McGlinchey told The Post during training camp. “‘Hey, we just hit them with this and there are four other plays in this package that, now, they’re going to be worried about the thing we just hit them with.’ Something’s successful, so we’re going back to it in a different way. Back to it in the same presentation, but hit them with something else while they’re thinking about this.

“It����ap like building a story throughout the game. The best play-callers have that feel and they can see it as the week goes on. ‘This is why I’m calling this play.’ ‘This is why we’re building it this way.’ … Whatever the thing is. You’re on a five-play drive and you hit them with something you’ve been working on that you saw all week. Here comes the counterpunch from the same look. I love that.”

Every sport has its version. When a baseball player is seeing the ball well and his swing is grooved, hits come in bunches. When his timing is off, hitting gets hard in a hurry. It����ap more tempting to guess. To chase a little. To overcompensate. Same with streaky shooting in basketball.

After a dominant dopamine hit of a preseason opener in Atlanta, Payton marveled at the smoothness with which Denver’s offense ran with Webb at the helm, but also went deep on what he sees as the toughest nut to crack in play-calling and the other side of the coin from the flow state McGlinchey described: Getting yourself out of a jam.

Payton couldn’t have known it at the time, but he foreshadowed Webb’s regular-season debut.

“You can have games where that call sheet looks magnificent,” Payton said then. “And then there’s been games where you can stare at 140 and hate all of them. … I think the biggest thing is, how do you reset if it’s not going? You have a set of openers and you go three-and-out. Then, how do you reset? …

“What can you get to based on what’s being stopped, and how do you adjust there? And that’s not just at halftime. The halftime is eight minutes. You’re in, you pee, you grab a banana, and you’re talking with your players. That’s going on throughout while the defense is on the field, those adjustments and discussions.”

Webb and the offense searched for answers Monday night, but his old defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and the Chiefs stayed at least one step ahead.

Now the Broncos have a short week to identify what went wrong and quickly set about finding fixes. Nix said Webb and the offense called the stuff they wanted. So, was it a bad plan? Bad execution? Some of both?

“Yeah, I mean, look, sometimes you have your openers and sometimes they go well, and other times you have to regroup,” Payton said. “So, we’ll have a chance to evaluate all of that.”

Players said afterward they expected Webb to respond well to the adversity this week. Nix believes Webb will handle the coming days the same as if the Broncos had won.

Wide receiver Marvin Mims said that, in a way, he’s excited to see what the offensive coordinator has in store.

“I think he’s going to respond great,” Mims said. “Davis, I mean, we had days of camp where they were not-so-great days offensively and the ways he’s responded and the things he’s done have been great. So I’m excited going into this week, short week, we’ve got to get going and get ready for Jacksonville to come to town.”

Marvin Mims, Jr. was glad to get back into the game after what he indicated was a recurrence of an injury he dealt with earlier in camp when he pulled up running a route. called it a hip injury tonight.

Mims: "It was just some old stuff coming back up and trying to…

— Parker Gabriel (@ParkerJGabriel)

Payton said he’ll treat Webb in the coming days, “no different than a player. You must evaluate the first quarter of the game, the second — and then make the corrections and learn.”

3. Bo Nix’s turnover and sack woes look like an aberration, but they also need to be

The first play of the game served as a harbinger.

Nix, a quarterback who is rarely sacked, got dropped for a loss on Denver’s first snap of the season.

It didn’t get much better for the third-year quarterback in his 2026 debut.

In fact, Nix had an outlier of an outing in multiple ways.

The 2024 first-round pick was sacked four times total on the night. It����ap tied for the most in a single game in his career and only the third time he’s been sacked that many times.

He also put the ball on the ground three times, the most of any game in his career.

In fact, over the course of Nix’s entire first season, he fumbled three times and lost none of them. Last year, he fumbled four times and lost two.

Essentially, Nix had a year’s worth of fumbles on Monday night. Over his first two seasons, he averaged one fumble per 318 snaps and one lost per 1,112 snaps.

In Week 1, he fumbled once per 16 snaps.

Nix has played enough football in the NFL to suggest that an outing like this one is an aberration.

All the same, the ability to avoid turning the football over and taking big negative plays has been one of the foremost drivers of Nix’s first two seasons. For Denver to get where it wants to go and for Nix to take another step forward in 2026, this outing has to be the exception.

4. The Broncos’ early running back rotation creates more questions than answers

Week 1 is ripe for overreacting, so there is time to see how Denver’s backfield looks over the first few weeks.

Still, there were some head-scratchers against the Chiefs.

First and most simply is the Broncos’ inability and unwillingness to run the football early in the game. Payton said afterward that some of Denver’s run calls turned to passes because they’re RPOs, but that doesn’t explain away 19 dropbacks and six runs in the opening 30 minutes.

Lead back J.K. Dobbins carried the ball twice in the first half and eight times for 36 yards overall.

When that����ap your leading rusher, nobody is going to have a particularly big night. But it was a surprise to watch Dobbins and RJ Harvey split nearly all of the offensive work. Rookie Jonah Coleman didn’t touch the ball on offense and played only sparingly.

As had appeared to be the case throughout training camp, Harvey also got Denver’s initial reps as the third-down and two-minute back.

The Broncos want him to handle that work because he is so dynamic and explosive as a pass-catcher. Monday night, however, showed that he still has work to do as a pass protector.

He didn’t whiff badly on any assignments, but even when the second-year man was in the right position, he sometimes got overpowered. That included Alohi Gilman charging through him and pressuring Nix despite Harvey initially getting in position to square him up.

That kind of production in that role will not suffice. If Nix isn’t comfortable and trusting in a back that he is going to do his job in protection, difficult third-down passing situations become even more of a high-wire act.

There is plenty of wonder to go around offensively after Monday. Obviously, Jaylen Waddle is not going to catch one pass for 2 yards every week. Same for Courtland Sutton and his two catches for 11 yards. Denver will run the ball more than 15 times in most games going forward. So on and so forth.

Still, the Broncos will at some point have to weigh the third-down tradeoffs with Harvey and consider getting Coleman on the field more if he’s not able to pass protect more consistently.

5. The Broncos continue to work their salary cap picture as the season begins

The start of Denver’s season brought a series of procedural moves that have become — and will continue to be — the norm in how the club manages its salary cap picture.

The Broncos made a series of decisions on option bonuses in the contracts they have with star players, including CB Pat Surtain II, DT Zach Allen, WR Courtland Sutton, and LT Garett Bolles.

The option bonuses are structured in a way that they don’t impact how much money each of those players earns in 2026 — all four have substantial guarantees as part of extensions and, in Surtain’s case, adjustments agreed to over the past two years.

What the bonuses do, though, is allow the Broncos to decide whether to prorate the maximum amount of each player’s 2026 money out over future years as bonus (smaller cap hit now, bigger prorated charges in the future), count all of the players’ money as base salary now (bigger cap hit now, less prorated charge in the future) or split the difference somewhere in between.

According to multiple sources, Denver exercised its options with Surtain, partially exercised them with Allen and Bolles and rescinded its option bonuses with Sutton.

The functional outcome of those results: Denver used proration most aggressively with Surtain, avoided it with Sutton and landed in the middle with Allen and Bolles.

The way the CBA accounts for option bonuses, the default assumption used is that they will be exercised and, thus, the bonus money is prorated for cap purposes. That����ap why teams like them. They get the benefit of proration, but they can put puzzle pieces together in any myriad combinations they want and decide as they go.

The Broncos’ decisions mean that Surtain’s cap number won’t change for this year, while the 2025 charges for Allen, Bolles and Sutton will all rise some this year, Sutton by the biggest margin. He had a $12 million option bonus , so his base salary should jump from $4.375 million to $16.375 million. His cap hit for this year will jump to $23.575 million. That is obviously a big difference this year, but it wipes out $9.6 million in prorated cap charges for Sutton in future years.

It would be easy to look at that decision and wonder if the Broncos parked more of the cap charge for Sutton this year in order to make him easier to move after the 2026 season, when he has no more guaranteed money in the four-year, $92 million extension he signed last summer. However, the Broncos generally are more conservative than some teams like Philadelphia when it comes to option bonuses and so rescinding them with Sutton is not necessarily a telltale. They partially rescinded some of Bolles’ option bonus last year and it clearly wasn’t an indication of a future move.

All told, the option bonus decisions are going to pull Denver’s available cap space from currently showing around $26 million per OvertheCap down to south of $10 million and perhaps near $5 million.

The Broncos, sources have said previously, tend to look at option bonuses in their internal models as if they are going to rescind them, so they have been operating in recent months as if they had modest cap space available rather than the big numbers that show up on sites like OTC and Spotrac.

It����ap all fairly complex and the sets of decisions made can make it more difficult from the outside to get a clear idea of exactly how much space Denver considers itself to have at any given time, but the bottom line in all of this is that roster and cap management never stops. The Broncos have dived into this world and are now working the levers they have to maintain an aggressive-yet-healthy cap position going forward.

6. No Broncos contract extensions done before the regular season

On a related note, the Broncos kicking off Monday finalized what had been becoming increasingly clear: Nobody got a contract extension during training camp. In fact, outside of bumping Surtain’s pay on his current deal this year, no player under contract has received an extension since the trio of Malcolm Roach, Luke Wattenberg and Wil Lutz last year over the team’s bye week.

The Broncos, of course, went on a mega run of locking up their core. But there are also several key players who are now playing regular-season games in the final seasons of their current contracts.

The list includes LG Ben Powers, TE Evan Engram, S Brandon Jones, DL Eyioma Uwazurike and every remaining player of Denver’s 2023 draft class: WR Marvin Mims Jr., CB Riley Moss, S JL Skinner and OL Alex Forsyth.

That is a bigger group of starters and key players than Denver has had playing out contracts than in recent seasons.

It����ap an indication of the Broncos’ roster depth, the reality that they can’t keep everybody and also the possibility that they’ll negotiate a contract extension with quarterback Bo Nix when he becomes eligible after the 2026 season.

At some point along the way, though, it will be interesting to see if Denver tries to get a couple of players on the above list to the table. They’ve typically done extension work around their bye week and have made retention runs ahead of free agency, too. Of that group, however, there are several players who already will command big dollars — Moss and McMillian among them — and others who can create even stronger markets for themselves this fall, like Mims and Uwazuruike.

7a. A few stats to wrap this thing up.

The tackling numbers from Monday night are absurd. According to NextGen Stats, the Broncos surrendered a whopping 247 yards after broken tackles. That is a whopping 63.2% of Kansas City’s total yardage on the night.

7b. The 21-point loss is the worst by margin in the regular season since a 41-10 shellacking by Baltimore in November 2024. The only other regular-season losses worse than this one in the Payton era are the infamous 70-20 blowout at Miami in September 2023 and a 42-17 loss at Detroit later that season.

7c. A silver lining, perhaps: The Broncos have not lost an opening-week game by multiple scores since getting blown out by Miami, 34-10, in 2005. That year, Denver finished the regular season 13-3 and went to the AFC title game. There’s a lot of season left.

The Broncos veteran tight end wasn’t present Aug. 31 and then didn’t do much Sept. 1, which, all things considered, will likely go down as an eminently forgettable absence.

Denver was just setting out on an in-between week of work. The club’s 53-man roster and practice squads were set, but the season opener against Kansas City still sat a distant two weeks in the future.

Trautman, though, would not make it through even a minor ailment unscathed.

After Denver’s Sept. 1 practice, Trautman and others settled into offensive coordinator Davis Webb’s skill position meeting.

First item on the agenda: A mini-roast.

“Davis started off with a funny little video of ‘Traut,’” second-year wide receiver Pat Bryant told The Post recently. “When (Trautman) was at the Saints, I think he caught a cramp and he fell. He did the same thing in practice the other day.

“They put, like, memes on it, bro.”

In years past, perhaps just the tight ends would have seen such a gag. Not these days, though. When Broncos coach Sean Payton promoted Webb to offensive coordinator and gave him play-calling duties, Webb reorganized the way Denver’s offensive players meet daily. Instead of gathering primarily by position, Broncos quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends and receivers all meet together in sessions run by Webb. The offensive line meets separately.

This isn’t reinventing the wheel, necessarily, but it is a change in Denver. It is also a signal about the latitude that Payton has given Webb to run things the way he feels comfortable with. It����ap a peek inside how Webb’s football mind works and it����ap yet another marker of all the myriad ways Webb prepared for this very moment.

It����ap his show now, in many ways. It����ap his voice — in Bo Nix’s helmet and at the front of the Broncos’ skill group every day.

It����ap his vision imparted his way.

“It����ap been good because we’re all hearing the same voice,” Nix told The Post this week. “We’re all on the same page, we can understand what he wants — the play-caller’s intent — and then how we can sort of put our skillset into that play and make it work.”

Payton has given Webb latitude to run things the way he’s comfortable with

NFL teams are like so many regular corporations in at least one way: There are a ton of meetings.

Team meetings. Position meetings. Unit meetings. Special teams meetings. Staff meetings. Game-planning meetings. Production meetings. On and on.

Broncos backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham started his career in New England with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, where offensive skill groups met together rather than by position. Webb, too, had that experience under Brian Daboll as a player in Buffalo and with the New York Giants. Daboll, not coincidentally, spent 11 total seasons in New England, nearly all of them with McDaniels.

Payton structured his offensive player meetings differently over the years, with the unit meeting sometimes, but the nuts and bolts of practice film review and installs done by position.

“I’ve done it both ways and it����ap just the coach’s preference,” Nix said. “Both have their strengths and you can get a lot done both ways.

“But I do think hearing it from one source, what he wants and why he’s calling something, it goes a long way. It����ap really important that we’re all speaking the same language.”

Throughout his career, Payton has encouraged his quarterbacks to mold their schedules in a way that works for them over the course of game weeks. He’s rarely had an offensive coordinator in a play-calling role, but he appears to have given Webb that same kind of control.

There are suggestions and insights, to be sure, but Payton said how player meetings are run is Webb’s “discretion.”

“If there’s something I think is going to be a crash, then we’re not going to drive the car (that way),” Payton said earlier this summer. Outside of that, though, Webb can mostly set things up as he sees fit.

There is natural curiosity about what Payton will do on game days when Webb is handling the play-calling. Payton smiled when he said he’d have “some suggestions, some mandates,” but he’s also repeatedly said he knows what it was like to have Bill Parcells breathing down his neck while calling plays and he doesn’t want Webb to have the same experience. Or at least not all the time.

So far, that does seem to be the approach he’s taken in how the daily offensive operations unfold.

“I just knew what it was like, and what has to happen and the confidence he has to have in me that, ‘Hey, I’m good with it,’” Payton said earlier in camp. “We’ll meet. There are a couple things we’ll tweak. There’s some collaboration on it. And yet he’s done a great job of coming up with new ideas maybe that will help us and I’m all for it.”

‘It����ap kind of a large discussion’

This style of meeting is one of those ideas.

Webb runs them every day, though Nix and the quarterbacks do plenty of talking, too.

“It����ap good because the receivers are hearing how the quarterbacks are getting taught and how to read a certain play and vice versa,” Stidham said this week. “We’re talking to the receivers, Davis is talking to the receivers. We’re hearing everything that the receivers and the tight ends and the running backs are getting told about what to do and how to do it. Coverage adjustments. We’re all hearing the same thing.

“It����ap been really good just to kind of have that unity among the skill guys.”

If Nix points something out that he liked or didn’t like or how he wants something run, it����ap not a side conversation with one receiver or tight end between drills on the field or in the locker room. Everybody receives the note at the same time, directly from the source.

“It helps Bo talk to not just one person — he talks to one person, but he’s talking to the whole group,” Bryant said. “In this offense, shoot, you can be a receiver playing running back or a receiver playing tight end. So, just being all ears and listening, nobody’s selfish on this team. We all want to learn. Everybody’s in there asking questions.”

Sometimes, Stidham said, there ends up being what are essentially breakouts. The quarterbacks talk through something specific with Webb and quarterbacks coach Logan Kilgore, while receivers coach Ronald Curry gets notes to his guys.

“It����ap all happening kind of simultaneously,” Stidham said. … “Obviously Davis is running it and it����ap his show, but it����ap kind of a large discussion.”

That format, players and coaches say, has led to discussions that don’t end when the meeting does.

“What I love about it is the dialogue starts in the room between the receivers and the tight ends and the backs – ‘Hey, if I get this look, I’m going to pin him here so you can get outside,’” running backs coach Lou Ayeni said. “It creates more dialogue for these guys and that translates to more dialogue on the field.

“Then hopefully that means more explosive plays when we get out there.”

Now that the regular season has arrived, there will be some uptick in the number of by-position meetings offensively.

“But post-practice here in an hour-and-a-half, or whatever it is, we’re all going in there as a skill group together and watching the film of practice,” he said Wednesday. “We’re all watching it together.”

‘It����ap a lot on Davis’

For as much as Webb’s star has risen in the coaching ranks since he retired from playing and joined Payton’s first Broncos staff in 2023, he’d only run the quarterback meetings his first three years in the building.

“It����ap so interesting because he never talked to the whole offense once until this year,” Ayeni said.

In the skill meetings, though, Webb is leading the discussion that includes the most intricate details for four different position groups. To do that, he also has to know the ins and outs of offensive line play, too, since that group isn’t typically in the room but serves as the engine that powers the unit overall.

“It����ap a lot on Davis,” Stidham said. “But it����ap awesome. You get to see his mastery of the offense.”

“All the other coaches are watching him and they’re going to respond the same way,” Nix added. “He’s got to be direct, he’s got to say it right, he’s got to say it with conviction. But it goes back to him studying and preparing for this role over time. He’s ready for it.

“He’s a really smart coach in many different areas. He could be a position coach for a lot of different positions, which is impressive.”

That����ap part of the plan for Webb. It����ap his first year in this role, so it����ap important to him that players and coaches alike know what he’s about and what he wants Denver’s offense to look like. He raves about Curry, offensive line coach Zach Strief and other assistants and says he leans on them heavily. But it����ap also clear he sees the most efficient way of developing an offensive identity as coming from one voice.

“What I think is cool for the players and is cool for us as coaches is they all get to see his vision for the way he wants this offense to be,” Ayeni said. “He knows what he wants and he knows how to get what he wants.”

Webb is ‘the leader of this offense,’ Nix says

Webb has been labeled as a future coach since he first started playing football.

He’s drawn raves from teammates and coaches for years and is widely considered one of the bright young offensive minds in the NFL.

He also, though, has a unique approach to keeping a room light.

The Trautman gag is one example among many. Nix said he’ll make a joke occasionally over the headset after radioing in a play.

Webb tells players he wants them to show their personalities on the field and he shows his on a daily basis.

”As long as you don’t do no stupid (stuff) to get a flag, he’s all for it,” Bryant said.

“Davis really puts a lot into it and he really wants to get a lot out of it,” Nix said. “Guys have responded really well to him. The main thing is he’s been in our shoes. He was a player and went through a lot of systems. He’s been a coach on the field for a long time. And so now with this opportunity, it����ap exciting and we don’t want to let him down as a team.

“So, him being authentic and being his true self, it just allows us to know he’s not being fake. You’re going to get the real Davis and you’re going to get everything he’s got.”

That����ap the connective tissue. Payton identified Webb as the guy to help Denver’s offense find a new gear this fall, then gave him the platform to lead the way he knows how to.

Webb, in turn, has not only run installations in offensive skill meetings and outlined his vision, but he’s also modeled the hallmarks he’s seeking from his players: Confidence, competitiveness and fire, but also an understanding that being too uptight won’t get them where they want to go.

Now comes the hard part: Actually navigating an 18-week season as a first-timer for a team that has Super Bowl aspirations.

“I’m really excited to go into the season with him,” Nix said. “I know we’re going to have ups and downs. I know he’s going to have ups and downs. It����ap not going to be easy what he’s doing, but I know he’s got a great supporting cast around him and he’s going to bust his tail and get the job done and do his best.

“He’s put himself in a great spot and he’s the leader of the offense right now.”

A text message from his old New York Giants teammate, Davis Webb, popped up.

“You like the mountains?”

It was the start of what became a fairly brief free-agency recruitment, but one in which Engram took visits to both Denver and the division-rival Los Angeles Chargers.

He liked the role the Broncos had in mind for him. He really liked that Webb was on Sean Payton’s staff.

“He was probably the No. 1 reason,” Engram said, for picking the Broncos over the Chargers. “Just knowing his influence on play-calls and his relationship with Sean. The team as well, too. The team was ready to turn the corner. They were looking for a couple more pieces, so it was the right time and the right place after getting cut from Jacksonville and needing more of a ‘move’ tight end.”

Year 1 was a success in many ways. The Broncos went 14-3, won a playoff game and nearly made the Super Bowl. Engram made several big plays along the way. But overall, his impact felt somewhat muted. He finished with 50 catches for 461 yards and a touchdown — the best statistical season by a Broncos tight end in several years — but it was well below what many expected from Engram and well short of what he’s become accustomed to in his now decade-long career.

There was natural wonder whether the Broncos would cut Engram or try to force him to take a pay cut. Neither ended up happening.

“Once the season’s done, I do some reflection things that are in my control and the way I played and the opportunities that I had,” Engram said. “I felt like there were things that definitely I can improve on, there were things I did really well and then the season’s over. I go into family time, unplugging, go on vacation. Kind of reset and recharge.

“I had a conversation with my agent and we were like, ‘We’re just going to show up wherever they ask us to show up.’”

Along the way this spring, Webb became the Broncos’ offensive coordinator and play-caller. Payton thinks it will benefit the entire offense.

Engram is a candidate to be near the top of that list, and not just because he and Webb are friends and former teammates.

“One of the most impressive things is he’s really just kind of built something for everybody,” Engram said. “Everybody’s got plays. Anytime anybody is getting the ball, it����ap an explosive. You look at Pat Bryant and the camp he’s having. Courtland (Sutton), he’s balling as usual. Troy Franklin’s flying all over the field. The running backs are getting active. Tight ends are making plays.

“So, that����ap probably been the most impressive thing. He’s utilizing all his weapons and I think that����ap going to allow us to be more dangerous when the live bullets come.”

Quarterback Bo Nix said last week the team had been using Engram in a wider variety of ways, including more frequently in the formation as a run blocker rather than just as basically a big slot receiver.

“Last year we used him a little bit more as a vertical pass threat, but I think him getting in the box and blocking is going to open more things up,” Nix said. … “He’s willing and able and I think that����ap part of his game that he’s going to really be able to show off this year and not be on and off the field.”

Engram showed it Friday night in Atlanta and said being in the mix “settles me into the game.”

In the first quarter, he motioned across to Jarrett Stidham’s left and settled off the line of scrimmage, but essentially in-line between left tackle Garett Bolles and tight end Adam Trautman. Engram and Bolles combination blocked defensive lineman Zach Harrison, but Bolles quickly climbed to a linebacker. Engram kept Harrison locked up and helped spring Jonah Coleman for a 13-yard gain.

“That was a credit to our coaches, Zach Strief and Austin King,” Engram said. “We literally worked that drill a good amount last week, it happened in the game and we executed it. It was nice.”

Engram said he made a point this offseason of wanting to prove that he could be a consistent contributor in the run game. He believes that for tight ends, “the more you can do in the run game, the better the passing game is going to be.”

One of the recurring themes of this offseason, though, has been that Denver needs a commitment to the run game. Engram thinks Webb is primed to deliver on that need, even though when the two were rookies together in 2017 — Engram a first-round pick of the Giants and Webb a third-rounder — Engram said the quarterback “was a gunslinger. He was trying to throw that (thing). He has that mentality of, when it����ap time to go, he’s going to let it fly.”

When Engram arrived in Denver, he saw another side of the then-quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.

“I remember when I first got here, I was hanging out in his office and that����ap what it was, learning the run game and diving into different schemes and being able to implement that whenever he was going to be able to call plays,” Engram said. “He turns over every stone in his preparation.”

It all has Engram in the mindset that his 10th season can be a good one. Better than his ninth.

“It����ap on an even bigger scale than just the offense,” he said. “You know the standard, you’re in the culture, you get to know the guys a lot more. Obviously, Davis, there’s some different things in the offense, but it����ap still the same family, still the same background in terms of the style we’re going to play.

“I’m definitely way more confident. Breaking the huddle a little bit more confident. Playing a lot faster.”

Did not practice: Physically Unable to Perform list — OL Nick Gargiulo. Non-football injury list — ILB Jordan Turner. Did not practice — WR Jaylen Waddle (muscle strain), C Luke Wattenberg (shoulder) , TE Caleb Lohner (foot/ankle), OLB Dasan McCullough. Left practice — LG Ben Powers

The Broncos really got mostly good news on the injury front Thursday. They were not in pads, but star outside linebacker Nik Bonitto returned to practice in a limited capacity, taking walk-through reps. Bonitto watched when the team went full speed and 11-on-11.

Wide receiver Courtland Sutton was limited for a third straight day, but Payton and Sutton each insisted it was due to a workload management plan the club has for the veteran.

Waddle has “a strain,” according to head coach Sean Payton, but is expected to return to practice in four or five days.

Wattenberg didn’t practice but had cleats on and a harness on his left shoulder. He did side field conditioning work.

Powers started off practicing but left midway through and wasn’t spotted in the later parts of the session. A source said Powers had a planned partial rest day. He, of course, missed nine games with a torn bicep last year and played the final five with a Lisfranc fracture in his foot.

Payton said several players are going to have their workloads managed over the next three days.

RJ Harvey is dynamite in the passing game, but what����ap next?

The Broncos clearly have three running backs pacing the room at this point in J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey and rookie Jonah Coleman.

The question is how those three – assuming good health – will fill roles. Dobbins is the lead back, to be sure. Coleman’s pass protection experience in college might give him the inside track for third-down work over Harvey, but Payton said recently he thinks Harvey is squarely in the mix for that work, too. The Broncos would love it if he’s ready to handle the protection stuff in third-down and two-minute situations because he is dynamite in the passing game and has made a series of big plays as a receiver out of the backfield in training camp already.

What does making a jump in that department look like?

“RJ is certainly starting to see how we’re (identifying the Mike linebacker) and where that puts him,” Payton said. “Some of that is just the (college) they come from. But I think he gives us a lot of versatility. …

“Technique is one thing, and I think that����ap the easy part. The challenging part is the front and the pieces (to the puzzle). Who the line is going to. Who are you left with? And if you’re not careful, you get left staring in the backfield, and you should be out right now. Being able to get into the pattern and then recognize where the pressure is coming from. And how to see it. Usually those back-end safeties are going to move to where the pressure is coming from. All of that is part of it. But the technique, if you have the stature — and he does — that part of it you can quickly polish up on.”

Top play

Two candidates from a little further down the depth chart in the middle of a six-day work week.

First, nickel Reese Taylor made a heck of a play to break up a pass from Jarrett Stidham to Michael Bandy over the middle. Bandy leapt and stretched out to try to snag the ball, and for a moment it looked like he would, but Taylor recovered, got his hands on the ball and knocked it away as they went to the ground. He flies under the radar, and the path to the 53-man roster is a rough one, but Taylor was on Denver’s active roster down the stretch last season and was a special teams contributor. He’s a valued player, even if he doesn’t make the initial roster in a few weeks.

The other: A pretty deep ball from Sam Ehlinger to undrafted rookie wide receiver Cam Ross. Ross has started to make more plays the past couple of days and is probably running alongside Kolbie Katsis — he also had a long catch Thursday — as Denver’s most impressive undrafted receivers.

“Cam’s doing really good,” fellow receiver Marvin Mims Jr. told The Post this week. … “The biggest thing for him is just trusting his ability, trusting his speed. It����ap a lot coming in here, especially when he had some injury stuff earlier. Come out here, try your hardest and we’ll coach it up in the (meeting) room after practice.”

Thumbs Up

Jahdae Barron, hello. Jahdae Barron hadn’t been off to a particularly bad start in training camp, by any means. He just hadn’t made many splash plays, either.

That changed Thursday. In one team period alone, Barron knifed in front of Pat Bryant on a short catch for what would have been, at minimum, a jarring hit just after a catch. Then on the next snap he broke up a pass over the middle to Lil’Jordan Humphrey. The 2025 first-round pick, like his rookie season, is playing all over. He’s Denver’s dime like last year, he’s getting extensive run at outside corner with the second unit, and he’s Ja’Quan McMillian’s backup at nickel.

“He’s got a lot more patient,” cornerback Riley Moss said. “It����ap a lot different — you throw a guy in, and he’s playing dime and then nickel and then outside, it����ap totally different. The job description is DB, but it is totally different. He’s done a great job of being a little more patient, his eyes have got a lot better, and he’s just a great athlete. It just takes time to get used to the outside stuff, but he’s doing a great job.”

Thumbs Down

Frustration bubbling. As training camp progresses, a lot of different factors wax and wane. The length and physicality of each practice, for example. Players who stand out. Who’s getting the No. 2 reps at quarterback. So on and so forth. One thing that����ap been consistent: The Broncos’ defensive front has dominated. Particularly so in the run game, but they’re generating pressure, too. On Thursday, Broncos offensive linemen were visibly frustrated. They talked among themselves and in small groups after sets of repetitions. Tight end Evan Engram joined in at one point. Thursday was a different kind of day because, without pads, there’s not as much of a true line play evaluation to be had. The OL is rotating through several veterans seeing limited reps, but so, too, is the defense. D.J. Jones didn’t do much team work Thursday, and Zach Allen had the same treatment earlier this week. Still, the defensive front has clearly been a handful for Denver’s veteran offensive line.

Odds and Ends

* If there’s a player having a better camp than Riley Moss, the list is short. He’s been sticky in coverage, and Denver’s deep receiving room has had its hands full against him, no matter who he’s covering.

* Payton on Thursday said there are eight total Broncos staffers and players leaving Friday night to head to Canton, Ohio, for Drew Brees’ Pro Football Hall of Fame induction. Payton, of course, has many more New Orleans connections on his staff than that, from assistant coaches Zach Strief, Ronald Curry, Joe Vitt, John Morton, Willie Snead IV and Darren Rizzi, strength coach Dan Dalrymple, VP of player health and performance Beau Lowery and VP of player personnel Cody Rager. Players who played with Brees in New Orleans include tight end Adam Trautman, receiver Lil’Jordan Humprprey, kicker Wil Lutz and defensive lineman Malcolm Roach.

* Speaking of the Hall of Fame, former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan was in attendance on Thursday. He chatted with Payton for a while early in practice and saw the new training facility. Payton has stumped for Shanahan to be in the Hall of Fame and said there’s frustration with the difficulty of getting coaches enshrined the past couple of years. Still, Payton said it����ap a matter of “when, not if” Shanahan’s inducted.

* The Broncos had Shawn Hochuli’s officiating crew in town for practice each of the past two days. Payton said it’s a quiet year on the officiating emphasis front — there were no major rule changes this offseason. Hochuli’s crew presented to players and staff Wednesday night.

Next: 10 a.m. Friday, lots open at 8 a.m., gates open at 9 a.m. The Broncos are expected to be back in pads.

On the roster (16): Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz, Mike McGlinchey, Alex Palczewski, Frank Crum, Alex Forsyth, Kage Casey, Matt Peart, Calvin Throckmorton, Nick Gargiulo, Michael Dieter, Reid Holskey, Gavin Ortega and Tyler Miller.

How many on the 53? 9-10.

Most impactful offseason move: Re-signing Palczewski to a two-year, $9.5 million deal

The Broncos really made three decisions that all float in the same nexus and could have made the cut here. They made an offseason priority of keeping ‘Palcho,’ the versatile fourth-year man out of Illinois, in the fold for multiple years going forward. They drafted Casey in the fourth round in April’s draft. They also did nothing with Powers’ contract, a quietly impactful move in absentia.

The nod goes to Palcho, though, because he started 10 games in 2025 and could theoretically be Denver’s primary backup at three spots going into the regular season this fall — left guard, right guard and right tackle. His ability to move to the left side and hold down Powers’ spot when Powers tore his bicep last fall was hailed throughout the building as an incredible feat. It seems a matter of time before he’s a starter, though where that will be remains to be seen.

Biggest question to answer in camp: Can the starting quintet stay healthy and keep this run going?

Yeah, there are some interesting developmental figures and potentially even maybe some playing time up for grabs — more on that below — but this is one of the most experienced, highest-rated and most expensive offensive lines. They have a pair of returning first-team All-Pros in Meinerz and Bolles and three others making top-10 money at their positions. They  have combined to start 321 games for the Broncos (426 overall in the NFL). They have played in postseason games here and elsewhere. They’re an elite pass-protecting group and a good run-blocking one. If Webb taking over the play-calling helps Denver find a real identity in the run game, this can be the best group in the league. At the same time, Bolles (34), McGlinchey (32) and Powers (29) will all be on the back side of 30 by the time Denver hits its bye week. So, this is a group that����ap expected to continue its run from the past two years and also carries a moderate dose of age-related risk.

Battle to watch: Left guard (maybe)

Powers has been Denver’s starting left guard for the entire Payton era when he’s been healthy. Palczewski filled in ably last year, but Powers raced back from a substantial injury and, as soon as he was ready, the Broncos worked him back in. Not only that, but they could have cut him this offseason and saved considerable cap space or pushed hard to get him to take a pay cut. They obviously did not cut him and if they asked him to take a pay cut, they eventually blinked because just ahead of free agency this spring, the Broncos informed Powers they wouldn’t be touching his contract. So now Powers goes into the final year of his deal with the second-highest cap charge on the team ($18.16 million), which makes him look clearly like the starting left guard. The question: Can Palcho make a run at his job? Does Denver want him to in camp? If the offensive coaches start rotating them or pitching this as a battle for the No. 1 job, it’ll be a really good one. If not, the Broncos can be confident Palczewski is ready to play there should he be needed.

Under the radar: Casey

The rookie enters his first training camp in terrific position. He’s got coaches in Zach Strief and Chris Morgan who are considered top-shelf developers, he’s got veterans in the room to learn from regardless of which position of the several he could end up playing longer-term he’s looking at on a given day. At the same time, though, there will be a sense of urgency to get Casey ready to play. You never know when your number might get called. If this is indeed Powers’ last year in Denver, Casey could compete with Palczewski for the job next summer. He could end up competing with Crum for a tackle job instead. Or he could become what Palcho is at the moment — a valuable depth piece capable of playing up to four (or, if we’re stretching it a bit, all five) positions. The Broncos would be happy if they only have to replace one starter over the next two-ish seasons. They also know that number could, in a worst-case scenario, be three or more.

Well before the sting of Denver’s loss to New England in the AFC Championship Game wore off, before anybody headed out of town to decompress and before, even, players had fully cleared out of the locker room, Payton paid a visit to offensive line coach Zach Strief in his office.

The topic of conversation: The need to run the football better and more efficiently than the Broncos did in 2025, particularly after J.K. Dobbins was injured in Week 10.

“I feel like we’re far enough along with the RPOs and some of that, but when we want to run it under center and control a game, we’ve been able to do it a few times, but not as much as I’d like,” Payton said Jan. 27. “That’ll be an important study. And with urgency.”

Nearly five months later, Payton, in some way, shape or form, has mentioned run game consistency nearly every time he’s talked with reporters. The Broncos must find ways to run the ball efficiently when they want to this fall, but just as critically, they must be able to do it when they have to.

The extent to which the Broncos are able to improve or fail to, of course, will not be known for a couple more months, and the full answer won’t come until January. There are pieces to the puzzle that will be critical, like exactly how Payton and new offensive playcaller Davis Webb develop their mix in the run game, that are still to be determined.

With only training camp and the preseason left before the 2026 campaign begins, though, there are already months of moves and tweaks that show how Denver hopes the puzzle fits together more completely this fall.

The Broncos are likely to rely on the same offensive line that powered the attack last year. Beyond that, virtually everything else will be at least somewhat different.

Start with the backs themselves. The Broncos re-signed Dobbins and have RJ Harvey heading into Year 2, but they also drafted Jonah Coleman in the fourth round. If Coleman is the pass protector the Broncos believe he can be as a rookie, then Denver has a cleaner-fitting set of three backs than it did last year, with Dobbins as the lead man, Harvey as a No. 2 and terrific pass-catcher and Coleman as a third-down back. They are also better fortified should Dobbins (or somebody else) miss time due to injury.

“I think it����ap important to stack that position,” Payton said Tuesday. “We drafted to a strength again.”

The Broncos found themselves short at the position last year when Dobbins sustained a Lisfranc injury in Week 10. They went from averaging 4.8 yards per carry and 128.6 yards per game over the first 10 games to 3.9 yards per carry and 104.5 per game in the final seven. Denver averaged 3.2 yards per carry and totaled 149 rushing yards across two postseason games.

The Broncos, though, didn’t just struggle in the second half of the season. Over the course of the year, they also ran the ball better late in games once they had established some rhythm.

Harvey’s average was marginally better (3.9) in the second half compared to the first (3.5), while Dobbins’ was substantially better, jumping from 4.1 early to 5.6 late.

Some of those marks could be driven by game situations — a rugged Broncos offensive line leaning on opposing defenses or the comfort of playing with a lead — but another possible factor is Payton’s preference to throw a lot of different looks and calls early in a game and then tailor from there.

If the Broncos can identify things that they can truly hang their hat on, perhaps Webb will get to them earlier and hammer them harder out of the gate.

“It����ap going to look a little different, obviously, there’s a different guy calling the plays,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said Wednesday. “That’ll be a little different and I think that will be an advantage, especially early for us. We open up with a division opponent and they don’t have any tape on you, that����ap always helpful.”

Once the element of surprise wears off, the key will be how Webb approaches calling the run game. He said earlier this month he expects Denver’s approach will change throughout the year and noted that the Los Angeles Rams didn’t commit to playing with three tight ends so frequently until six weeks into last year.

Still, what Webb sees as the Broncos’ bread-and-butter should be clear before that. Is it the smorgasbord approach Payton’s taken? Is it more reliance on the outside zone principles the Broncos talked up last summer and never really fully leaned into during the season? Something else?

McGlinchey sounded like a guy who’d played in an outside zone-based system for Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco the first five years of his career on Wednesday when outlining another key.

“I think having play(-action) pass work off of it will be a huge factor as well,” he said. “If you can make everything look similar, it makes it hard to diagnose what����ap about to happen. We’ve been working on those things wholeheartedly.”

A lot has to go right in order to have a consistently productive run game. The Broncos could certainly use better blocking overall from their receivers and tight ends. They need a Year 2 jump from Harvey, and perhaps nothing would go further than Dobbins staying healthy and playing the first full season of his career.

Time will tell on all of that. In the meantime, though, Denver has pieced together several changes that amount to a fairly substantial revamp. The Broncos have retooled the running back room itself, changed the offensive playcaller and appear poised to take a somewhat different approach schematically.

All of that must come together around a front-line group that has established itself as one of the best in the business.

“At the end of the day it����ap an attitude and I think we have that attitude,” McGlinchey said.

A few weeks shy of his 32nd birthday, why is he playing the best football of his career?

“Just work. And I started to find the belief and understanding of what we are doing,” McGlinchey told The Post after the Broncos’ final day of mandatory minicamp on Wednesday. “It’s a funny thing that even nine years in, you still battle those mental demons because you are so competitive.”

McGlinchey should have earned All-Pro honors last season. He was that good, building off consistency that started when he returned from an MCL knee injury on Nov. 17, 2024 at New Orleans.

He allowed two sacks in 2025. He was a force in the run game.

The idea that he would age better than Ryan Seacrest seemed preposterous during his first season in Denver. McGlinchey had seven false starts and seemed out of sorts. He signed a five-year, $87.5 million free agent contract, a reward for a lifetime of work.

Then came the hard part: He had to live up to it.

“That can go one of two ways, as you know,” McGlinchey said. “And Zach Strief changed my life.”

Strief, the Broncos offensive line coach, walked in McGlinchey’s shoes as a longtime right tackle for Sean Payton with the Saints. Strief understood what McGlinchey needed to do to reach his potential. But McGlinchey was not initially ready for the advice.

“We butted heads at practice, on the sideline, in the meeting rooms,” McGlinchey said.

McGlinchey cared about football too much, his passion blending into obsession. It led to unintended consequences of selfishness and doubt.

“I just think I wanted it so bad. I was told by somebody that if your greatest strengths aren’t disciplined, they very easily can become your greatest weakness. So my love for this was getting channeled in ways that were not helping me. It was becoming too pressurized. The expectations were externally focused instead of inwardly focused,” McGlinchey said. “At some point, you have to just let yourself play football. And Zach and I have done a lot of work on that. He has such a unique ability to connect, teach and make you believe.”

Standing a few pointy strands of hair shy of 6-foot-8 and weighing 315 pounds, McGlinchey fills the doorway to the Broncos locker room. His voice straddles somewhere between Alan Roach and Barry White, deep, unmistakable. It is difficult to imagine him wavering at anything.

Creative tension with Strief ultimately became his compass direction. McGlinchey listened, let go. He also let himself relax, realizing there were things more important than a three-point stance with two kids — 2-year-old son Tripp, 4-month-old daughter Rosie — and a loving wife, Brooke, at home.

“Being a dad has helped. It’s the first time there was something more important than what I was doing on the field. It has given me freedom,” McGlinchey said. “Even if I stink out here, my kids don’t care. Nor will my wife. It really puts things in proper perspective.”

Entering his fourth season in Denver, the focus has narrowed. The buy-in is a given. McGlinchey remains a critical piece in a Broncos offensive line that ranks among the NFL’s best. Pro Football Focus graded them seventh in run blocking and first in pass blocking.

The linemen play with violence and technique. McGlinchey said he has never been around someone who coaches pass protection better.

“It’s all based on, can you stop power? Can you stop bull-rushes?” Strief said.

Bo Nix might as well have been behind a paywall last season. The Broncos’ 23 sacks allowed were tied for the fewest in the league.

“The entire offensive line is solid,” said Matt Ryan when he was a CBS analyst before becoming the Atlanta Falcons president of football this offseason. “I think Mike played some of his best football. And there’s no one tougher than him.”

Ryan would know. He is McGlinchey’s cousin and has followed his football journey for two decades.

What makes McGlinchey’s renaissance fascinating is how it ties into the group.

When Payton took over in February of 2023, rebuilding upfront was a top priority. He signed left guard Ben Powers and McGlinchey in the first hours of free agency. With camp six weeks out, the Broncos boast two All-Pros — left tackle Garett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz — as well as a steady center in Luke Wattenberg, the powerful Powers and ascending McGlinchey.

They are committed. Invested. Protective.

It’s not just the bodyguard stuff that teammates appreciate. It is the effort, the edge, the mentality created that permeates the building.

“When we first got together that first year, we said to each other: ‘This team won’t change unless this room changes.’ And if this room can be the strength of this organization, then this team is going places. And Zach has put that at the forefront of everything we do,” McGlinchey said. “It is not about being great individually. It’s about being great together.”

The best groups function like five fingers forming a fist. But while expectations in the building center on a Super Bowl, outsiders revel in punching the Broncos in the throat. Their over-under for wins is 9.5 in most shops — a prediction that, if it comes true, would leave the Broncos out of the playoffs after losing in the AFC Championship Game last season.

“I don’t really care that Vegas has us with the third best odds to win the AFC West. Whatever. What we have is self-belief and proof. And our head coach won’t allow us to worry about that. He has a great message every morning in the team meeting,” McGlinchey said. “He knows how to channel our focus.”

While the roster retention raised external concerns, it is clear that the players see it as a strength. They were a failed fourth down, one dreadful turnover and an ill-timed snowstorm from reaching the Super Bowl.

These are not the Broncos of four years ago. This is definitely not the Mike McGlinchey of 2023.

He is driven to help the O-line become the reason the Broncos cross the finish line.

“If you are right in the slot where you want to play with the mindset you want to play with, there is nobody out there can mess with you and nobody out there that can mess with our group. That is the belief that Zach gives us,” McGlinchey said. “We are going to play six teams in the first six weeks who are all going to be among the favorites to win the Super Bowl. You want the opportunity to compete against the best in the world. Myles Garrett, T.J. Watt, Maxx Crosby, they should feel the same way about our line. T.J. Watt has to get past me, Myles Garrett has to get past Garett Bolles, Chris Jones has to get past Quinn Meinerz. I would say, ‘Good luck.’ If you don’t have that mindset, you have no chance to be successful in this league.”

The Broncos offensive lineman showed enough during training camp to make the 53-man roster despite going undrafted in the spring of 2023.

He was placed on injured reserve after the roster cutdown, and remained there for the entire year and didn’t appear in a game.

Palczewski would work out on Denver’s rehab field on a daily basis, wondering what the future might hold.

In November that year, the Broncos announced plans for a new, cutting-edge $175 million training facility and headquarters project. The next summer, they broke ground on it.

Now the building is nearly complete. Team employees are set to be moved over in less than two weeks. Broncos players will be in their new locker room and digs for training camp next month.

Palczewski last week leaned against a bench after wrapping up the first week of OTAs and looked across at the gleaming new building and smiled, recalling “vividly,” he said, when he first heard about the plans.

“I was like, ‘Oh, it����ap going to be open in 2026?,’” he recalled. “That’ll be pretty nice. I hope those guys enjoy it.”

Turns out, ‘Palcho’ is going to enjoy it, too. Perhaps for many years to come.

The versatile offensive lineman got his biggest opportunity yet in 2025, starting 10 games for injured Ben Powers at left guard — a position he’d never played before — and excelled. This spring, the Broncos rewarded him with a two-year, $9.5 million contract. It came with a $2.5 million signing bonus, $5.75 million in guarantees and can be worth up to $11 million based on incentives.

It also came with a clear message from the club: We may not have a starting job for you at the moment, but you’re a big part of the plan going forward.

‘I’m thankful every single day’

Palczewski was an offseason priority for Denver’s coaching staff and front office. His deal was finalized on March 5 and had been in the works for about a week before that. That meant it was done before the club’s retention run of four more signings closer to the start of free agency, plus Palczewski was a restricted free agent, so the team could have taken more time had it wanted to.

To Palczewski, the wait from the crushing end of Denver’s 2025 season to hearing a deal was on the table felt long enough. It started with exit meetings, when he asked head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton what his future looked like in Denver.

“It����ap so weird, you go from thinking you could go to the Super Bowl, we get our hearts ripped out and then you’ve got to do that,” he said.

They told him they’d get to him. There’s a timeline for these things.

“Then it����ap just silence. We’ll get to it when we get to it,” Palczewski said. “But when it happened? I mean, I’m ecstatic. Looking back at the road, especially being an undrafted guy, I’m thankful every single day.”

Even more rewarding for the Mount Prospect, Illinois native: Since he went undrafted, he chose the Broncos in the first place. He saw Denver generally and offensive line coach Zach Strief specifically as a place where he would get good coaching and development.

Three years later, Palcho has started games at two different positions, earned the staff’s trust and landed a quality contract.

He’s done it, he said, by consciously paring down what he puts thought and energy into.

“When I first got here my rookie year, I was just like, ‘How do I stay here the longest?’” Palczewski said. “And I kind of got into a mental, like, I don’t know how to say it without swearing. I just was, like, I just thought about the big picture too much. ‘What about this and this and this?’ A week or a week and a half in, I was just like, ‘screw that.’ I’m just going to focus on what can I get better at today? Today, today, today. I’ve got 24 hours, what can I do? And then, that way, it felt a lot more manageable.

“I didn’t have to worry about the anxiety of, what����ap going to happen at the end of camp with cuts? Well, if I worry about it and I’m too scared to play free, guess what����ap going to happen? I’m getting cut. 100% chance.”

Finding a future fit

Now the next question: Where will Palcho play in 2026 and beyond? He’s shown he can handle left guard, where Powers is back but entering the final year of his contract. Palcho can play right tackle, where Mike McGlinchey has two years remaining and is coming off one of his best pro seasons, though he turns 32 during training camp.

The Broncos brass knows it can’t have five premium-paid starters forever. They’re wary of getting old across the board at the same time. They’ve got enviable depth and versatility behind their high-priced starting quintet.

All of that means Palczewski’s time is coming. It’s a matter of when.

In the meantime, the soon-to-be 27-year-old is willing to acknowledge that starting is a goal, but he also continues to be adamant about the benefits of playing in a group that����ap been largely intact the past three seasons.

He also knows the career arc of his position coach well. Strief, a seventh-round pick in Sean Payton’s first New Orleans draft class, spent five seasons as a reserve. Then he started 85 games over six years as the Saints’ right tackle.

Palcho? Undrafted in Payton’s first Denver class. Now going into Year 4 still perhaps ticketed for reserve duty, but with a future and a contract that suggests he’ll crack the lineup at some point.

“I think Palcho is in position to be a starter for a long time,” defensive tackle Malcolm Roach said recently.

Until then, Palczewski will keep focusing on small things and trusting they’ll lead to big ones. For himself and for his team.

“It����ap simple for anyone to say, ‘I want to be a Super Bowl champion,’’ Palczewski said, using a high-pitched kid’s voice for emphasis. “OK, well can you (freakin’) back-side cutoff? Can you hit your target on a guy when his shoulders are down on a bull rush? How do you just work it and focus on the process each day?

“If you take care of that, it’ll go on further.”

“Everything we’re doing is hard to accomplish,” Payton said in June of last year, “when that group is not what it needs to be.”

It has been, in Denver. Under offensive-line shepherd Zach Strief, the Broncos have spent handsomely to build one of the most stable fronts in the NFL. The franchise has committed over $341 million in total contract value for starters Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz and Mike McGlinchey since 2023. And the front office has had its faith rewarded for choosing to preserve that group, rather than splinter it for cheaper options.

That investment has suddenly never been more important heading into 2026.

On Monday, the NFL world erupted as the Los Angeles Rams tossed in Pro Bowler Jared Verse and several draft picks for Cleveland Browns titan Myles Garrett. If this were any previous season in Payton’s tenure, this would’ve meant little to Denver. But the league’s rotating schedule ensures the Broncos will face the Rams in Week 3, and now have to mark up a protection plan for the man who .

The Garrett trade, now, only adds another layer to a brutal early-season stretch for Denver — and specifically for the Broncos’ offensive front. Strief, in truth, might not be able to take an actual breath until late October. Consider this run of pass-rushers:

• Week 2 vs. Jacksonville and OLB Josh Hines-Allen, who tied with Nik Bonitto for the fourth-most quarterback pressures in the NFL in 2025 (80)
• Week 3 vs. the Rams and Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year
• Week 4: at San Francisco and former Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa, healthy again after missing all but three games in 2025
• Week 5 at Chargers, who recorded the two highest pressure rates on Bo Nix of any game on Denver’s regular-season schedule last year
• Week 6: vs. reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle, who recorded the fourth-highest pressure rate of any team in 2025

Such a gauntlet of a schedule is ultimately a major reason Denver has so much money tied up in its offensive front. In fact, the Broncos have the third-highest percentage of 2026 cap room tied up in their top seven offensive linemen, according to Spotrac cap-space data assembled by The Post.

This has been Denver’s philosophy since Payton arrived in 2023, as the Broncos’ rebuild began with the signing of McGlinchey and Powers to big-money free-agent deals.

“When Strief first came here and we brought in Mike, brought in Ben, the very foundation of our offensive line is being able to be ready for the biggest moment on the biggest stage,” Meinerz said in late January before the AFC Championship game against New England. “And so, as we’re continuing to play in these bigger and bigger games — our entire philosophy since they got here, for years at this point — that����ap how we treat every single two-minute we work on in training camp. That����ap how we work every single third-down period is, we want to be perfect.”

They were not, in that season-ending 10-7 loss to the Patriots. New England shook free to shake up backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham one too many times, and Patriots defensive lineman Christian Barmore made clear postgame that .

“First-team All-Pro,” Barmore said, after Meinerz was tagged by Pro Football Focus with surrendering five pressures in New England’s win. “Our coach tells us all the time that All-Pro don’t mean (expletive), excuse my language. Doesn’t matter. Our coaches tell us every time, ‘They All-Pros, they the targets.’ So that’s the mission. He’s a hell of a player, but this is for us.”

On the whole, though, Denver’s offensive front largely met the moment in pass protection in 2025. According to a film review by The Denver Post, Broncos offensive linemen were only directly responsible for 14 sacks surrendered to players they were blocking in the 17-game regular season. And the Broncos held five of seven winning defenses they faced last year under their overall quarterback pressure rate in the regular season, according to data collected from Next Gen Stats.

They’ll need more in 2026, and their collection of opponents helps explain the Broncos’ offseason approach to their offensive line. As the calendar has now flipped past June 1, Denver could save itself over $30 million in cap space by cutting or trading McGlinchey and Powers. But the organization has long avoided cutting productive players solely to take money off the books, and would likely only consider moving Powers if reserve Alex Palczewski or fourth-round rookie Kage Casey clearly outplays him at left guard come training camp.

The gang is all back, then, for a third straight year with the exact same starting offensive line. And the Broncos will need all five pieces to topple a Thanos-level threat in Garrett.

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

Jonah Coleman does not need a Peloton.

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

Not terribly hard, as he’s shown before.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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