After the Denver Broncos traded for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, there was speculation about whether that meant they would part ways with any of their wide receivers. George Paton firmly shut that down this week.

Denver Broncos aren’t looking to trade any of their wide receivers after acquiring Jaylen Waddle

Whether it’s been George Paton or Sean Payton, the Denver Broncos have stood firm in their stance that they like their wide receiver room.

Even after acquiring Jaylen Waddle, an option that will be a true threat to opposing defenses alongside Courtland Sutton, Denver loves their younger receivers.

“He is one of the more explosive playmakers in the league, first and foremost,” Paton said. “[He has] great makeup and [is] a great competitor. He will fit in well with our room. We really like our room. I’ve said that on a number of [occasions] with [WR] Courtland [Sutton], [WR] Pat Bryant, [WR] Troy [Franklin] and ‘Mimsy’ (WR Marvin Mims Jr.). We have a great room and he just upgrades—or he just helps the room. He opens up the run game, and he will open it up for the other receivers, so we think he will fit in well with the group.”

Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin, and Pat Bryant are viewed highly in the building, and that’s been backed up by multiple people that I’ve spoken to. The plan for the Broncos is to go into training camp with this unit as one of their strengths.

Mims is entering the last year of his rookie deal, Franklin is continuing to ascend going into his third season, and Bryant was impressive as a rookie.

Sutton, after this season, has no more guaranteed money left on his current deal, and then his cap hit jumps to $28M. There will likely be some sort of contract tweaking or restructuring done with him next offseason.

For Denver, trading one of their players wouldn’t make sense.

“No, we really like those pieces, and they’ll all going to help us,” Paton said. “They’ve all helped us up to now. I’m going to [WR] Lil’Jordan [Humphrey] and [WR Michael] Bandy. We really like—we’re 7-8 deep. We really like it, so why would we build up this room and then trade someone right now?”

It’s unlikely that, come the regular season, Denver has 7-8 on the 53-man roster. More than likely, they’ll have five as they typically have, but players like Humphrey and Bandy could be an extension of that as practice squad players.

Broncos love their RB room, but will keep looking to improve the room

Last year, after the season, Sean Payton said that the team needed to be better at running the football. He said that they’ll look at the run scheme and the personnel.

Ultimately, the Broncos ran it back with J.K. Dobbins, Jaleel McLaughlin, and Tyler Badie, who were free agents. Despite having interest in Breece Hall and Travis Etienne, the stars never aligned for them to land a big-name back. Hall ended up being franchise tagged by the New York Jets, and Etienne wanted to play closer to home in New Orleans.

Even though Denver brought Dobbins back to pair up again with RJ Harvey, Paton said the team will continue to look at options to improve the room.

“We like the backs,” Paton said. “[RB] RJ [Harvey] is just going to keep getting better. What did he have, 12 touchdowns? He’s an explosive player and an explosive receiver out of the backfield. [He’s] a matchup problem. He is going to get better as a runner. He got better as the year went on. Then you have [RB Tyler] Badie, and you have [RB] Jaleel [McLaughlin] and we have [RB] Cody Schrader who we like. We are going to be looking in the draft, and we are going to be looking after the draft. We are always looking. We didn’t sign [RB] J.K. [Dobbins] until like May or June last year. We feel good with where we are at right now. Last year at this time, we didn’t have J.K. and we didn’t have RJ, and we were OK. We’re going to be fine.”

If Dobbins can stay healthy, the Broncos run game should be better this upcoming season, especially with Harvey continuing to grow going into his second season.

Broncos post-JFM plan seems to be in-house

Losing John Franklin-Myers this offseason created a huge hole defensively for a Broncos pass rush unit that had 68 sacks last season. As of right now, the plan for Paton and the Broncos is to roll with the in-house approach of Eyioma Uwazurike and Sai’vion Jones.

Uwazurike is entering the last year of his contract, and Jones is entering his second season, despite not playing much as a rookie outside of a few snaps.

The Broncos are losing a player in JFM who had 7.5 sacks in under 50% of Denver’s defensive snaps, a pressure player who generated 23 pressures, eight quarterback knockdowns, and 15 quarterback hits.

Uwazurike has been a solid, upward-developing player, but to ask him to have that same impact is difficult. It’s unrealistic to place those expectations on Jones, who should see plenty of time on the field this season.

“Just going into it, we feel pretty good,” Paton said. “We have [DL] Sai’vion [Jones], and we have our four guys coming back. Our starters, and then ‘Enny’ (DL Eyioma Uwazurike) really came on, and then Sai’vion and [DL] Jordan Jackson. We have pretty good depth, but you are always looking for big guys on the offensive and defensive lines.”

Jordan Jackson will be an under-the-radar name to keep an eye on this summer. They could add to the group in the NFL Draft, and they could still explore adding a veteran like Cameron Jordan.

Denver’s brass will now be jumping into their draft meetings early next week, so there might not be much movement with any potential free agents.