Five players who helped themselves the most during Broncos offseason work

The Denver Broncos don’t do offseasons like most teams.

Until the last three weeks, they didn’t have team and positional meetings like other clubs to begin ingesting the playbook. They didn’t go through a “Phase Two” ramp-up period of OTAs. Their first weeks were spent focusing solely on conditioning and lifting.

This year was slightly different, because the quick-arriving projected start to training camp — necessitated by the regular season beginning at the earliest possible date, thanks to Labor Day falling on Sept. 1, also the earliest possible date — meant that Sean Payton prioritized getting his players five full weeks away from football.

But the idea of trimming the offseason to its essentials and keeping a focus distilled to workouts for as long as possible — that is a constant.

Payton explained that this philosophy goes back to Bill Parcells, under whom he worked from 2003-05 with the Dallas Cowboys.

“I remember, I had the quarterbacks and receivers. First week, they’re lifting, and I got them out on the field,” Payton recalled. “Now, they’d been with us four days. [Parcells] walks to the door outside the practice field, and he’s just looking at me.

“He says, ‘If one of these receivers gets a hamstring [injury], I’m going to have another quarterback/receiver coach.’ And he was right.

“In other words, we don’t know at that moment where they’re at from a conditioning and strength standpoint.”

The last three weeks gave the Broncos a chance to find out where they stood from a football standpoint. And some players showed quite a bit.

YOUNG BRONCOS SEIZED THE DAY

1. WR PAT BRYANT

The third-round pick is already a polished route-runner, and used his size effectively at all areas of the field throughout the last three weeks.

He also shows signs of being a potent red-zone threat, punctuating a red-zone period Wednesday with a third-down touchdown catch on a fade route, beating Ja’Quan McMillian for the score.

“[There are] little things we’re coaching up, but you like what you see,” Payton said. “I like what I see. He’s tough … It’s important to him.”

2. EDGE RUSHERS QUE ROBINSON AND DONDREA TILLMAN

OK, maybe it’s a cop-out to pick two players here, thus naming six Broncos, not five. But it’s hard to discuss one without the other, as they seemed to be a package deal.

Arguably the most disruptive defenders in the practices open to media observation were Robinson, a fourth-round pick, and Tillman, perhaps the most unexpected contributor on the team as a rookie last season, who repeatedly generated pressure on the quarterbacks off the edges, logging a slew of plays that would have potentially been sacks in game situations.

For Tillman, it carried over his work from last season, when he ranked among the NFL’s top 20 edge rushers in pressure rate and hit rate among those with at least 112 pass-rush snaps, joining Nik Bonitto with that distinction.

Robinson, who had relatively few defensive snaps at Alabama because he didn’t emerge as a starter until last season — and then he suffered an elbow injury — flourished at using his length and speed to wreak havoc. If he carries over his work to when pads go on, the Broncos might have the personnel for a five-man edge rotation to keep Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper fresh.

3. WR TROY FRANKLIN

To be certain, Devaughn Vele looked outstanding during the open OTAs before sitting out this week; Payton indicated Thursday that Vele would be full-go when training camp begins next month.

But Vele, a 2024 seventh-round choice, built off a season in which he ranked second among Broncos wide receivers in receptions. Franklin’s rookie season was flummoxing and frustrating; defined by almosts and maybes until he finally hauled in the long-awaited deep shot the team had been trying to hit in the postseason loss at Buffalo.

Franklin proved adept at accumulating yardage after the catch during offseason work, turning several short passes into lengthy gains.

“You haven’t been able to see all the plays, but there have been a number of explosive plays. He can run, and I would say a strength of his is ball in hand after the catch,” Payton said last week. “He can run after the catch. He’s doing well.”

 

 

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4. TE CALEB LOHNER

The raw seventh-round pick still has a long path yet to traverse after catching just four passes in his college career at Utah — all for touchdowns.

But the flashes are there, and he closed minicamp on a high note by using his length to pluck a pass from Jarrett Stidham after the backup quarterback escaped the pocket on the final snap of offseason work before it was time for food trucks and shaved ice.

“There are some things that are new to him, and then there are some things that he gravitates to that I think he’s further along with,” said Payton, who added that he would put Lohner in touch with Jimmy Graham, a former college-basketball player who became a prolific tight end in Payton’s New Orleans Saints offense.

5. RB RJ HARVEY

The arrival of J.K. Dobbins into the Broncos backfield won’t prevent Harvey from having a massive role in the offense, as Payton’s best offenses have usually had prolific ground duos, most prominently the late-2010s Saints combination of Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram.

Harvey’s burst between the tackles was breathtaking at times during offseason work, and there were some tantalizing glimpses of the pass-catching potential that saw occasional use in Central Florida’s attack, including one play that resulted in a touchdown late in last week’s OTA.

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