Talk of a deep wide receiver room in Denver is overblown
Aug 28, 2024, 12:40 PM
Throughout training camp and the preseason, there was a lot of talk about how loaded the Broncos were at wide receiver. When cutdown day arrived, this notion was reiterated, especially after Denver made some surprising moves.
Cutting Tim Patrick was the biggest news. The veteran shined in August, but he couldn’t make the final 53.
Lil’Jordan Humphrey made a lot of plays in camp. Brandon Johnson had a dazzling touchdown in the preseason finale. David Sills and Michael Bandy seemed to shine on a daily basis. They all got cut.
This led a lot of people ot continue the narrative that the Broncos are loaded at wideout. Given who didn’t make the team, they suggested that the remaining five must be a tough group to crack.
Not everyone is buying this idea. On Wednesday morning’s edition of “Schlereth and Evans” on Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, Mike Evans provided a reality check for Broncos Country.
“I’m going to have to push back on the idea of the depth of the wide receiver crew,” the co-host said to Mat Smith, who was filling in for Mark Schlereth. “You’ve got no clear-cut No. 1. Courtland Sutton, on a good football team, is a (No.) 2 or 3. You have two rookies in Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele. You’ve got Marvin Mims, who spent most of the preseason on a milk carton. And you’ve got Josh Reynolds, a journeyman last seen dropping a big pass for Detroit in a playoff game.”
To some extent, Evans has a point. After all, the numbers back him up.
Sutton had just 772 receiving yards last season. That was 44th in the league, just ahead of Josh Downs and Darius Slayton; no one would consider those two wideouts a No. 1 on any team.
Franklin was a fourth-round pick and Vele was taken in the seventh. Neither has ever caught an NFL pass.
Mims had just two catches for a total of 17 yards during the preseason. He did get into the endzone in the opener at Indianapolis, however.
And Reynolds has never had a season during his first seven years in the NFL where he had as many receiving yards as Jerry Jeudy did last year (758). He also had two crucial drops in the NFC title game in January.
That’s not exactly a cast of superstars surrounding Bo Nix. The rookie quarterback isn’t going to be lifted to great heights because of the talent around him; he’s going to have to help them shine.
Do the Broncos have some talent in their wide receiver room? Of course. But it’s mostly unproven and untapped at this point.
Mike Evans is right. The talk about Denver’s depth at wideout is way overblow.
