Broncos’ high drop rate rankles Sean Payton, but he and Paton still like receiver room

For the Broncos, drops were a thing in the 2025 season, right up until its frigid end.

They finished the season with the NFL’s second-highest drop rate, per data from SportRadar. One of every 9.98 catchable passes hit the ground, including three in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game loss to the New England Patriots.

On a league-wide basis, 6.2 percent of catchable passes in the 2025 season to date were dropped; for the Broncos, it was 10.0 percent. The NFC champion Seattle Seahawks, for example, have the NFL’s second-best drop rate; they drop just one out of every 23.6 catchable passes.

In Sean Payton’s eyes, a problem rests in a catching fundamental.

“The thing with the draft, we’ve invested and I like the players in that room,” he said,

Indeed, the Broncos have taken wide receivers between Rounds 2 and 4 in each of the last three drafts: Marvin Mims Jr. (Round 2, 2023), Troy Franklin (Round 4, 2024) and Pat Bryant (Round 3, 2025).

“We’ve got speed, we’ve got size, we’ve got all the things I’m used to, [that] you’d want to have in a good offense,” Payton said. “But I think that there’s a proper way to catch a football and most of the times it’s with your thumbs together. Not the other way around. And the other way around — I’m serious — only exists when the ball is below your belly button. Even the deep balls should be caught with your thumbs together. So we gotta be better at that.”

Broncos general manager George Paton concurred with the coach about the wide-receiver room:

“Again, we’ll do a deep dive. I like our young players. I like our young receivers. And I think we drafted three and you got Court and Lil’Jordan [Humphrey]. We got a good mix of players and but we’re always looking to add, we’re always looking to improve at every position.”

Sutton’s drop rate of one every 9.1 catchable passes was eighth-worst among 69 NFL players with at least 75 targets, per SportRadar.

But when specifically looking at the drops, the call comes from beyond the wide-receiver room.

BRONCOS DROPS WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE

Among 230 NFL players who were targeted at least 25 times to date during the 2025 season (including playoffs), 40 had a drop rate of more than one every 10 catchable passes. The Broncos had a league-leading players with that soaring drop rate:

• Courtland Sutton: one drop every 9.1 catchable passes
• Lil’Jordan Humphrey: one drop every 9 catchable passes (including his time with the Giants)
• RJ Harvey: one drop every 8 catchable passes
• Evan Engram: one drop every 7.6 catchable passes
• Tyler Badie: one drop every 6 catchable passes

As that reveals, it goes beyond the wide receiver room. Engram’s drop rate was the second-highest in the NFL among tight ends with at least 25 targets, trailing only rookie Mason Taylor of the New York Jets.

The best drop rate in the wide-receiver room — among those with at least 25 targets — belonged to Marvin Mims Jr.; he had one drop in 50 catchable passes. Adam Trautman boasted the best drop rate among tight ends. Troy Franklin also did reasonably well, with one drop every 17.3 catchable passes, he ranked 34th among the 69 heavily-targeted players (75-plus taregets).

They were the bright spots. But for the Broncos’ pass catchers, they were few and far between.

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