Broncos’ Riley Moss ready to take on bigger receivers with added weight from offseason

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Denver Broncos’ defense looks stronger on the field. On paper, it appears stronger with its free-agent additions from the San Francisco 49ers and the return of Alex Singleton from a torn ACL.

And on an individual basis, Riley Moss IS stronger. Literally.

“At the end of the season, I was 193, 194 (pounds),” Moss said. “Weighed in the first day of camp at 200 pounds. I’ve put on some good muscle. Body-fat percentage, I only put on .4 percent body fat, so it was good.”

This was a decision based on a review of his season, and wanting to increase his mass so that he could hold up better against the NFL’s larger, more physical receivers.

Where he wanted to improve was at “the point of attack,” Moss explained.

“When the ball’s up in the air, some of those 50-50 balls, being stronger, not getting pushed off,” he said, “and that was a big thing for me this offseason, was getting bigger, getting stronger, being able to push against the receiver and be a little bit more physical.”

The first test of that came against Courtland Sutton, the Broncos’ 216-pound, returning No. 1 wide receiver.

“Court’s a strong receiver at the top. He likes to kind of push off. They’re not going to call that; it’s an offensive game, right?” Moss said. “You’ve gotta be able to play into him and play strong and that’s been the best work that I’ve gotten, especially one-on-one, is against Court, and going against the top of the route.”

Coming off of a knee injury last December, Moss struggled against Cincinnati’s 219-pound Tee Higgins. If all goes well, he’ll get the chance to test his offseason changes out in Week 4 when the Bengals visit.

For now, he’ll just keep putting in the work — and responding to the challenge put forth when the Broncos invested a first-round pick at his position, in Jahdae Barron.

“It’s good to have depth, especially at that position,” Moss said, “and it’s making us better.”

PLAY OF THE DAY

Second-year wide receiver Troy Franklin seems to be making one big play a day, and on Thursday, that came during the one-on-one period against Barron. With the first-round pick on him step for step on a go route, Franklin made an over-the-shoulder catch despite Barron’s blanket coverage for the touchdown.

ATTENDANCE REPORT

Edge rusher Que Robinson, wide receiver Devaughn Vele and inside linebackers Drew Sanders (foot) and Alex Singleton (thumb) did not take part in the Broncos’ practice.

BRONCOS CAMP NOTES

• Third down was a major point of emphasis during the practice. The final two periods saw the Broncos work on third downs — first, on third-and-short-to-intermediate yardage, then on third-and-long yardage. In the third-and-short period, the No. 1 defense dominated, as pressure from Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and Zach Allen defused three pass plays, with Allen logging a sack. Brandon Allen also read a developing screen pass well to get a stop on a third-and-3 snap.
• Bonitto also recorded a sack during an earlier team period, whipping around the left side of the line on a first-and-10 play.
• Third-and-longer yardage saw the Broncos offense counterpunch. Quarterback Bo Nix opened the period by stepping up to find Courtland Sutton past Dre Greenlaw for a 13-yard gain on third-and-7. Cooper subsequently pressured Nix to flush him out of the pocket for a stop on the next play, and then the defense again generated pressure to force a completion short of the sticks. But on a third-and-13, Nix and Trent Sherfield came up big across the middle, with the veteran receiver just beating Moss for a catch at the sticks to move the chains. It was the sort of punch-counterpunch back-and-forth that has come to define this camp.
• Edge rushers Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman continued to make plays. Tillman broke up a pass in the backfield and generated pressures, and Elliss logged a sack, as his continues to have a strong camp in his second season.
• Broncos coach Sean Payton has long had his teams drill specific end-game situations during the offseason, training camp and regular season. Late in practice, the Broncos focused on the fair-catch free kick, which they faced last December against the Chargers. The team also worked on this during a 2023 OTA session.
• Jeremy Crawshaw displayed his placement-punting skills during a special-teams period that saw all punts set up with a line of scrimmage inside defensive territory — between the 44- and 48-yard lines. All but two of his 10 punts were either caught or downed inside the 20-yard line; one took a sidewinder bounce bounced into the end zone and another hooked out of bounds. But after that hook, Crawshaw responded with his best punt of the day, a perfectly-placed punt that was downed inside the 5-yard line.
• It had been a quiet training camp for Blake Watson so far, but he ripped off two long gains on consecutive snaps in practice. But he also found himself on the business end of a huge hit from linebacker Jordan Turner. For Turner, that play came one snap after Audric Estimé ran over him. Again, you see the punch-counterpunch nature of this training camp.
• Linebacker Levelle Bailey flourished against the run, taking advantage of the defensive line’s surge up front to fill two holes and stuff Estimé and RJ Harvey.
• Cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine defused a screen pass by working under a block from Sherfield and getting to tight end Evan Engram, stopping the play from advancing.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Broncos return to the practice field at 10 a.m. Thursday.

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