Good morning, Broncos Country. April has officially arrived and you know what that means\u2014it\u2019s NFL Draft month. Over the coming weeks, we will keep churning out our scouting reports and any tidbits of information about anything and everything related to the Broncos and the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
In case you missed it, there was a bit of Denver Broncos news that made the airwaves over the past few days at the NFL\u2019s annual league meetings. Head Coach Sean Payton offered his thoughts on the direction of the franchise and where they are at with this month\u2019s draft festivities just a little more than three weeks. And he may have ruffled a few feathers along the way.<\/p>\n
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After what was perceived to be a slow start to free agency, the Broncos made their big move trading multiple picks to land standout wide receiver Jaylen Waddle from the Miami Dolphins. A major critique from analysts and fans from across Broncos Country is that the team didn\u2019t do enough to solidify their status as contenders for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
But were the Broncos\u2019 brass at all concerned with all that? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tune out the angst. There was a lot of angst when we selected Bo where we selected him. There was a lot of angst when we made quite a few of these decisions. You have to tune that out,\u201d stated Payton in front of reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot chase what others outside of the building feel like you should be doing. We spent a lot of time on this free agency class. We had a pecking order of what we thought was most important, and we were able to accomplish that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Coming off a fourteen-win season, the Broncos didn\u2019t have many major holes to address. The state of the roster was strong entering the offseason\u2014and it\u2019s even better now\u2014even with limited outside additions. Quite honestly, had the injury to Nix not happened in the AFC Divisional Round matchup versus the Buffalo Bills, there\u2019s a good chance the ultimate ending to Denver\u2019s \u201825 season was significantly different. And the dominant view of Denver\u2019s lack of ambition to upgrade it may have very well not come to pass.<\/p>\n
Most were hoping for potential upgrades at running back, tight end, or inside linebacker\u2014positional groups that didn\u2019t seemingly perform to expectations in 2025 or even in years prior. Nevertheless, the Broncos felt good about the players they had\u2014even when the majority of outside sentiment felt differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw the stories and I don\u2019t believe that. So, it\u2019s not, \u2018Let\u2019s run it back.\u2019 I hate that term. It\u2019s not, \u2018Let\u2019s run it back.\u2019 Let\u2019s understand one thing: it is anything but that. When you win 11 of 13 one-score games, like you saw the flip in just one season with Kansas City. It\u2019s how do you improve your team. The better you get, the harder it is to improve your team,\u201d Payton added.<\/p>\n
By adding Waddle, the Broncos certainly improved their team. I remain optimistic about the potential of the wide receivers they\u2019ve taken the past three season. With respect to Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant\u2014here is still room for improvement and growth.<\/p>\n
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However, adding a player of Waddle\u2019s caliber was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Could the Broncos have gotten a player late in the first round that could amplify their chances for another Lombardi Trophy as much as his? Probably not, and a good enough reason to push the chips all in gearing up for another Super Bowl push in \u201826.<\/p>\n
All last season, Broncos Country was hoping for more consistency and explosive plays from their receiving corps. With Waddle added into the starting lineup, that will put a lot of pressure on opposing defenses. And in turn\u2014make third year quarterback Bo Nix\u2019s life a little bit easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s played everywhere. I\u2019ve seen him outside as a tremendous route runner, inside. The route tree is pretty expansive. The best thing that I think he does is he\u2019s explosive; he\u2019s dynamic. A lot of times, the guys run fast, but I think he sends his hips in transition. I think you\u2019ll see him play inside in the slot; you\u2019ll see him outside,\u201d Payton spoke in glowing praise of the team\u2019s big offseason addition.<\/p>\n
But the additions aren\u2019t done yet. With seven picks on deck in late April, the Broncos will have the opportunity to round out their roster and fill any last remaining holes or needs before the start of their offseason program. Payton remarked he doesn\u2019t feel comfortable yet, but believes the team has the right plan and strategy in place to have the best 53-man roster compete for another title run this season\u2014even if a lot of folks don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have the draft coming up and we are excited about that. The point is though; you have to apply some patience and have a good plan. We recognize where we are at. We understand exactly where we are at with Bo\u2019s contract, our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
As always, thank you for reading. Here is today\u2019s slate of articles for Horse Tracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, Broncos Country. April has officially arrived and you know what that means\u2014it\u2019s NFL Draft month. Over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[925,232,53,231,258,2426,7,14706,7471,251,6,1011,1813,185,1275],"class_list":{"0":"post-849023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-bo-nix","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-broncos","13":"tag-denverbroncos","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-jaylen-waddle","16":"tag-marvin-mims-jr","17":"tag-miami-dolphins","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-pat-bryant","20":"tag-sean-payton","21":"tag-team","22":"tag-troy-franklin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116334688120000358","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}