ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When the New Orleans Saints were preparing to draft USC running back Reggie Bush with the No. 2 pick in the 2006 NFL Draft, team owner Tom Benson approached his new head coach, Sean Payton, with a question: Why draft another running back when we already have Deuce McAllister?
“I said, ‘Mr. Benson, this running back is different,’” Payton replied. “‘He can do these things.’ We talked about it and it was a good question, but that was the first exposure, at this level as a head coach … with a Joker-type player.”
They kept coming in Payton’s offense after that. Jeremy Shockey. Jimmy Graham. Darren Sproles. Alvin Kamara. As the Saints built one explosive offense after another, Payton almost always had a mismatch-creating tight end or running back to utilize in gameplans. He almost took it for granted.
“You have a stretch of 15 or 16 seasons with real high-end offenses that maybe didn’t have a receiver get to a Pro Bowl, but those other spots did,” Payton said during his end-of-season news conference Wednesday. “In our league, when you look around and reference some of the top teams, you’ll always remember (Travis) Kelce with the Chiefs. I don’t know that you remember the receivers sometimes.”
#BroncosCountry LIVE: HC Sean Payton meets the media at our end-of-season press conference https://t.co/Nd2bM7N0Si
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) January 15, 2025
Payton was overlooking the wide receiver, Michael Thomas, who made three Pro Bowls, but the point was clear. The Broncos since Payton arrived haven’t been able to acquire or develop a player who can consistently create mismatches in the middle of the field. Payton has often referenced the 2023 draft for the Detroit Lions — coached by former Payton assistant Dan Campbell — to highlight the impact of adding that kind of player to your offense. The Lions took running back Jahmyr Gibbs with the 12th pick and then got tight end Sam LaPorta early in the second round. Detroit across the past two seasons ranks first in total yards, passing yards and offensive points per game, and those two draft picks have played a significant role.
Finding that player, of course, is easier said than done. During his first training camp in 2023, Payton labeled tight end Greg Dulcich as a player who could potentially fill a Joker role, but injuries made him unavailable for most of that season and he was released midway through 2024. Running back Jaleel McLaughlin has flirted with that role at times, but his usage ebbed and flowed throughout the season.
“Do I think we have some candidates? Yeah,” Payton said. “But that inner triangle of (the field when) attacking defenses is real important.”
Broncos general manager George Paton, who spoke after the coach Wednesday, said he is operating with the assumption the team has roughly $52 million in cap space this offseason. Denver has its own picks in each of the first four rounds for the first time since 2021. There are multiple paths to potentially acquiring a new central figure in the offense, and finding one is critical if the Broncos are going to achieve the vision they laid out Wednesday.
“Our absolute goal next year is to win our division,” Broncos owner Greg Penner said.
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It was a decidedly different tone than the one struck this time last year as Penner, Payton and Paton turned their eyes toward an uncertain horizon. The team was in quarterback limbo with Russell Wilson soon to be released with a $85 million dead-money hit left behind. Payton said the team was still “putting the friggin’ pilings in,” while coming off an 8-9 season.
“We’re not there yet, and yet we’re a lot closer than we were at this time a year ago,” Payton said Wednesday. “That was misery, sorrow, drudgery — give me some other adjectives. That was brutal.”
Much of the reason the Broncos are publicly talking about challenging the Kansas City Chiefs’ near-decade-long hold on the AFC West centers on Bo Nix. Penner, Paton and Payton all voiced confidence that the young quarterback, coming off the most productive season at the position in Broncos history, is the long-term answer at the position.
“We’re all searching for that rookie quarterback who has franchise skills,” Paton said of Nix, whose 34 total touchdowns last season were the third-most for a rookie in NFL history. “So what do we do? We just keep building. We draft and we develop. We’re selective in free agency. We’re fortunate that we think we have our guy in Bo. Now we just keep building and bringing in the right guys with the right makeup.”
Other takeaways from Wednesday’s new conferences:
A ‘measured’ free agency approach
Denver will still be accounting for $32 million in dead money from Wilson in 2025, but they will have much more room to work with as they approach free agency. But that doesn’t mean their approach will ultimately look much different than last year when they sat out the blockbuster wave of free agency and limited their moves to targeted, economical signings.
“I think we’ll be measured,” Paton said. “It worked out for us last year. We were very measured, picked our spots. We were very strategic and it worked out. You can’t go crazy every year. (Payton’s) first year here, we wanted to set a tone. So we addressed the O-line, the Zach Allens of the world. We were measured last year and still got some really good players like Brandon Jones and Malcolm Roach, made a few trades we really liked. So we’ll see.”
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Penner likes that the Broncos are in a spot where they’ll have options. Their high-dollar players at positions of need — Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins; Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton are examples — the Broncos could swing at if they determined the fit was too good to ignore. But their offseason last year showed they could improve significant areas of the operation, like the turn they made as a run defense, while being patient and intentional on the free-agency margins.
“We have more cap space and our needs are different,” Penner said. “We have a young nucleus and a great quarterback to build around. We haven’t set what our approach to free agency will be. If it’s appropriate we’ll be aggressive. But I’m not sure we’ll need to do that.”
Practice facility/stadium updates
Penner said about 10 to 15 percent of construction and 90 percent of the design work have been completed on the team’s new practice facility. The goal is to have this summer’s training camp be the only one interrupted by the construction, with completion targeted ahead of camp in 2026.
“Everything’s going according to plan,” he said. “We have had some snow days baked in and only had two days off so far, so things are progressing as we planned and we couldn’t be any more excited about how that’s coming together.”
#BroncosCountry LIVE: Owner & CEO Greg Penner meets the media at our end-of-season press conference https://t.co/JUUfpoG3cO
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) January 15, 2025
Penner also gave an update on the ownership group’s ongoing exploration of stadium options. Empower Field at Mile High just completed its 24th season, the second following the $100 million in upgrades put into the venue in 2023. Building a new stadium in the near future is not a foregone conclusion, but the group has explored various possible sites for a new, state-of-the-art venue. He confirmed a report last week from 9News that the group has talked to city leaders in the Denver suburb of Lone Tree about options there.
“It is a complex question and decision of what we decide to do,” Penner said. “We haven’t ruled out anything at this point. We’re still looking at options on the current site, around Denver. We’ve visited other places like Lone Tree. We still have more steps to take there.”
Penner also said it’s “very possible” the Broncos will play an international game next season. Two of Denver’s road opponents are playing overseas in 2025 — the Jets in London; the Colts in Berlin.
“I think Sean has a great approach to this things, which is, ‘Hey, that’s an opportunity for the team to have some time to bond in a different way,’” Penner said. “You saw that with the team at the Greenbriar (Resort in West Virginia in September), which was helpful for the team while really building a young group and a culture. We’d welcome that if we have the opportunity to do that.”
(Photo: Ric Tapia / Getty Images)
