Men, women and children spilled out from the living room to the patio, bodies clogging the Airbnb in Lakeway, Texas, some forced to watch the biggest moment of Jahdae Barron’s life on a television wheeled out by the pool.
The guest list didn’t end. A pastor from Shoreline Church was there, leading a pre-draft Bible study. Toronto Raptors point guard Jamal Shead, Barron’s childhood friend, stopped by. Barron’s former counselor at John B. Connally High in Austin, Marlexa Phillips, was shocked to get an invite — but of course she did. Texas teammates Michael Taaffe and Andrew Mukuba walked in and were stunned to see two Texas equipment managers chilling there.
It still wasn’t enough. Barron wanted more. Everyone who’d meant anything in this life.
“It was no coincidence that that was all for supporting Jahdae, because I tell everybody this, but Jahdae’s a realist,” Taaffe reflected Thursday. “And he supports everybody else before himself.”
The reason for this eclectic assembly, for the young man whom former coach Brennan Marion called the “heartbeat” of Texas, rested on a couch next to Barron on Thursday night. Techonia Davis was a beautician who sold life insurance, worked late nights and early mornings, and reared six children by force of will. She went hungry some nights so her kids did not. She didn’t miss a game. His mother, those who know Barron say, is his world.
When a teenage Barron declared he wanted a Mercedes-Benz for his first car, Techonia got a look in her eyes, Barron’s longtime trainer Bernard “Bam” Blake remembered.
Barron got a Mercedes-Benz.
And just how did Techonia pull that off?
“Work,” Blake said. “Work, work, work, work, work.”
Work had gotten them to this point, waiting on a first-round call. At some point, Blake realized, everything Techonia did for her son was a calculated move for him to pay it back. At some point, when Barron headed off to Texas, he realized it, too. Before big-time SEC showcase games in his senior year, Blake would FaceTime Barron, asking how he was feeling.
“My mom’s still working,” Barron would respond, like he always did.
“Strongest woman in the world,” Barron said of Techonia on Friday. “Even on Father’s Day, I tell her Happy Mother’s Day. She gets two.”
As picks went by Thursday, anticipation flowing in a flooded room — not San Francisco at No. 11, not Miami at No. 13, not Cincinnati at No. 17 — Barron finally put a phone to one ear and a finger in the other with five minutes left on the Broncos’ timer at No. 20. A group of trainers, friends and educators jostled Barron’s shoulders, screaming at the back of his head.
As the room began to settle, Blake leaned in enough to hear Barron gushing into his phone on the couch, telling Broncos owner Greg Penner to put him on speakerphone.
“Thank you, man,” Barron told the Broncos’ brass after a hug from Techonia that never quite ended. “Now I’m able to retire my mom.”
•••
In the summer of 2020, Texas assistant director of player development Michael Huff — a former Bronco and perhaps the best defensive back in Texas history — ventured out to a workout to get a glimpse of an impressive rookie group. At some point, Barron wandered over, a four-star kid from Austin.
“I’m gonna be better than you,” Barron told Huff.
Barron talked like that to everyone, Marion recalled, Texas’s passing-game coordinator in 2022 and now the head coach at Sacramento State. Huff figured out the reason in a conversation where he asked Barron his why. The first thing the kid brought up was Techonia.
“If he was down to his last dollar,” Huff told The Denver Post, “he would give that dollar to his mom.”
Techonia, alongside values of education and respect, had long drilled into Barron the importance of manifestation. He was a “big goal guy,” Barron told media upon his introduction to Denver. That undersold it. He’d scribble every goal he had on his bathroom mirror, gazing at himself as he read them, stamping them to his soul.
“He interacts with that mirror,” Blake said, “as if it talks back to him.”
Broncos first-round pick Jahdae Barron poses with his family at team headquarters in Centennial on Friday. Denver selected the Texas defensive back with the 20th overall pick on Thursday. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Barron stayed after full practices at Texas his junior year to run routes with Marion, asking him how to earn NIL money so he could take care of his mom. After one unsatisfactory practice, Barron FaceTimed Blake at Texas’s indoor facility, set his phone down on the turf, and went through a 45-minute virtual workout as the lights shut off on him. And before his final year at Texas, he sat down for another pivotal conversation with Huff.
He told Huff he wanted to win the Jim Thorpe Award, bestowed on the best defensive back in the nation. And he wanted to don Huff’s No. 7 jersey, a cherished number in Texas halls. Huff was stunned for a moment. But he said he’d be honored.
It wasn’t braggadocio. Barron wanted to buy Techonia a house. He wanted to leave a legacy at Texas. So he would wear his goals every day.
Five interceptions, 11 pass deflections and an All-America nod later, Barron walked away with a Thorpe statue.
“He spoke it into existence,” Marion reflected.
•••
On the other end of that speakerphone call Thursday night, Broncos head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton were floored as Barron thanked everyone in the room, telling them the story of him and Techonia.
“I’ve never had that happen,” Payton told media.
A massive cloud of smoke billowed around the Broncos’ first-round plans, as a window of contention has cracked open behind second-year quarterback Bo Nix. Denver was connected to a dizzying array of running backs, receivers, trade-ups and trade-backs.
Nobody thought that smoke would clear on Barron at No. 20. Not even anyone in that Airbnb in Lakeway.
“I don’t think he was expecting going to Denver, coming into this,” his buddy Taaffe reflected.
Shortly after the call from Denver, though, an excited Barron started yapping with Kansas City Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy, the cornerback’s close friend and former Texas teammate in attendance. Worthy, as Taaffe recalled, reminded Barron the Chiefs would see him twice a year in the AFC West.
“It’s only been 10 hours,” Taaffe said, “and they’re already talking a lot of trash about how the matchup’s going to look.”
Texas defensive back Jahdae Barron wears the Golden Hat Trophy as he celebrates the team’s win against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry Oct. 12 in Dallas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
Quietly, the Broncos’ entire collective liked Barron, as one team source told The Post. He’d been turned loose as a defensive mind by former Texas secondary coach Terry Joseph — defensive coordinator Vance Joseph’s cousin. He played in virtually every spot and every alignment as a Longhorn his senior season. He could supplant Ja’Quan McMillian his rookie year for snaps in the slot. He could earn an outside-corner spot next to Pat Surtain II.
“He’s kind of like a little chess piece,” Huff reflected.
He’ll bring an NFL-ready personality to Denver, too, a mixture of God-fearing maturity and self-assuredness. He won over the fan base in the span of 15 minutes in his Denver introduction Friday. Techonia and his siblings sat nearby as he described being “best friends” with actor and Texas superfan Matthew McConaughey.
That wasn’t braggadocio, either. Take it from McConaughey.
“You’re getting a stud on and off the field,” McConaughey told The Post. “His focus, his commitment, is top shelf. He’s someone you want representing his position and your team.”
Barron, undoubtedly, will face a heap of pressure in Denver. To live up to his first-round slot. To live up to a potential corner alignment next to Defensive Player of the Year Surtain.
None of it will ever compare to the pressure the 23-year-old has put on himself to take care of Techonia.
“The thing that’s different about Jahdae, and why I’m more than positive he’ll pan out to be everything that we know he can be and that he says he will be, is because of the relationship between him and his mom,” Blake reflected.
“That’s the fuel to his fire.”
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Originally Published: April 27, 2025 at 5:45 AM MDT