Things are changing in Dove Valley as the Denver Broncos embark further into the offseason with Sean Payton manning the ship. Things will be drastically different in 2023 from an operations standpoint and that could help propel the team further.
Sean Payton puts his fist down at annual league meeting
2022 was a disaster for the Denver Broncos under Nathaniel Hackett. Without coming out and saying it directly, new Broncos head coach Sean Payton agrees that it was disastrous.
Trade rumors have impacted the Broncos for the past two weeks surrounding wide receivers Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy. Payton spoke with NFL Network’s Tom Peliserro on Sunday and squashed the rumors, and reaffirmed his comments on Monday morning.
“I think it’s pretty common every offseason,” Payton noted about trade rumors. “[There is a] new coach [and it’s] not a real deep receiver draft. You read a bunch of these things that are written now. I would say a number of teams have called on those players. I said it yesterday—it’s not something that we’re interested in doing. You would have to do your homework and you would have to figure out how it all got started. Obviously in the offseason, everyone wants to be on top of any type of transaction, and I understand that. It will continue, I’m sure, as we get closer to the draft. If you really look at the draft and you really look at the receiver depth in the draft, it’s not a real deep draft. If you’re a team that’s looking for receivers—we’re not the only team people called. I’m sure Houston with [Cowboys WR] Brandin Cooks and other players like that. It’s pretty common in the offseason, I think.”
It never made sense for the Broncos to trade away Sutton or Jeudy who have had their fair share of ups and downs throughout their careers, but when utilized the right way, and when healthy — they can have a massive impact as it pertains to offensive production.
Injuries have plagued the position in each of the last three seasons with Sutton, Jeudy, KJ Hamler, and Tim Patrick each suffering significant injuries.
“Well, we haven’t been healthy,” Payton noted about the current outlook on the WR room. “I can’t count how many snaps that all three of those guys—obviously [WR Tim] Patrick got injured. From a team standpoint, we weren’t healthy. None of the starters played in any of the preseason games and there wasn’t any nine-on-seven, one-on-one [drills during training camp]. The approach was much, much different than what I’m used to. I know that we battled a lot of injuries a year ago. I like the receiver depth. We’ll continue to look at—look, we’re not a team that’s going to be, ‘This is the X [receiver], this is the Z [receiver] and then this is our sub-slot receiver.’ That’s just not going to be us. If you’ve ever followed what we did in New Orleans, that was never us.”
This is great news and here’s why; Jeudy, Sutton, Patrick, Hamler, Marquez Callaway each possess the ability to impact the position in various ways, but having them move around will benefit personnel usage and production.
How do the Broncos build toward that? Reps, reps, reps.
Last season, Broncos starters didn’t play a single snap in the preseason. This year will be entirely different under Payton who believes in playing starters.
“We are going to play all of them,” Payton said regarding preseason play with starters. “In the preseason? Absolutely we are. That’s the preseason.”
Payton’s approach is much needed after last year’s Mile High debacle. It will be interesting to see how different things are once players get to the team facility ahead of the offseason program.