\u201cWe spent a lot of time looking at that selection and trying to determine [who would be an option],\u201d Head Coach Sean Payton said Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting. \u201cWe could safely say that pick would\u2019ve been one of these seven or eight players. We didn\u2019t feel like that [pick] would help us as much as Jaylen Waddle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Remember the Broncos explored a deal for Waddle back at the trade deadline, and the Dolphins reportedly still wanted a first-round pick, then, too. But Denver didn\u2019t know where in the first round their pick would land. After losing in the AFC Championship Game, it was clear that No. 30 pick was worth it for Waddle.<\/p>\n
What did Denver\u2019s decision-makers like from Waddle?<\/p>\n
Both Payton and Payton liked how Waddle fits with the Broncos; he\u2019s versatile, dynamic, and explosive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s played everywhere,\u201d Payton explained. \u201cI\u2019ve seen him outside as a tremendous route runner, inside. The route tree is pretty expansive. I\u2019d say\u2014I just said it. 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. We\u2019ll have speed packages that will feature\u2026 We\u2019re not just going to have, and I know someone\u2019s getting ready to ask me, \u2018Is he receiver [No.] 1 or 2?\u2019 So we don\u2019t have [that]. We just play different packages and try to give those guys the things that they do well.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can hear Payton basically salivating when thinking about how he\u2019s going to use the veteran playmaker in the Broncos offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just helps the room,\u201d Paton said. \u201cOpens up the run game, he\u2019ll open it up for the other receivers. We think he\u2019ll fit in well with the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Paton makes a great point here.<\/p>\n
Not only will Waddle help open things up for other receivers\u2014from Sutton to Marvin Mims and Troy Franklin\u2014but he\u2019ll help open up the team\u2019s run game as well. Denver was a decently well-balanced offense for the first half of the season until J.K. Dobbins went down with an injury in Week 10. The Broncos brought Dobbins back and are hoping he stays fully healthy this season.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see how improved Denver\u2019s offense is in 2026. Not only from Waddle\u2019s playmaking abilities, but how much more open guys like Sutton and Co. can get, and even how much that affects the run game.<\/p>\n
If the Broncos defense can stay elite\u2014and that seems likely\u2014they\u2019ll find help from a new and improved offense as well.<\/p>\n
Denver will find themselves back in the postseason for a third straight year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe spent a lot of time looking at that selection and trying to determine [who would be an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,1272,14706,6,1813],"class_list":{"0":"post-854823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denverbroncos","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-george-paton","14":"tag-jaylen-waddle","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sean-payton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116351301982463788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854823","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=854823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}