The battle to be the Broncos’ WR3 is on!
One of the more interesting positional battles to watch this offseason and into training camp and the preseason is who will be the Broncos’ WR3 behind Jaylen Waddle and Courtland Sutton. The three players competing for that role are Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant, and Marvin Mims Jr. All three players have had their moments during their young careers, but now they will be competing against each other for snaps and a larger role in the offense.
Well, according to head coach Sean Payton, second-year wide receiver Pat Bryant has been an early standout player during the Broncos’ OTA practices.
Payton told reporters on Thursday that Bryant “has a confidence about him” and that you wouldn’t know that he was a second-year player based on how he carries himself.
> “He’s a quick study. He gets it real fast. I think one of his great skill sets is his run after the catch because his feet stay on the ground when he catches it. He has strong hands in traffic. He’s having a good stretch here. He’s healthy. Certainly in Year 2, he knows exactly what to do. There’s a confidence about him, a maturity. You wouldn’t feel like he was a second-year player if you didn’t know it.”
The fact that Payton singled out how Bryant is a quick study is noteworthy. We know that the ability to process information is a trait that he likes in his players, and if Bryant is picking up the offense quickly, that should benefit him in this competition. Add in Bryant’s confidence and maturity on top of him having a good stretch of practices, and we can assume he could be the early favorite for the WR3 job.
Payton was asked about the competition at the wide receiver position after they added Jaylen Waddle to the room. He told reporters that all the guys are working well together and that it’s exciting to see.
> “I think it’s strong, and I don’t want to just talk about three, or five or seven. When you add to a room like that with someone like Jaylen’s skill set, the level of competition and the results of all of them improve immensely. We’re kind of seeing that in practice. Those guys work together well. It’s exciting to see. It’s an area we felt like if we had an opportunity to address before the draft, fortunately we were able to. I’ve said this before: it was going to be difficult at our pick to find someone of that skill set. We feel fortunate it was able to get done.”
Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims Jr. will have something to say about this battle before we get to Week 1, but Bryant felt like the early favorite to me from the beginning. Payton spoke highly of him last season, and he showed real flashes later in the year before injuries derailed his promising-looking rookie season. He is a sure-handed physical player known for his run blocking ability; he can make plays over the middle of the field, and he’s impressing Payton with his processing ability.
It’s still very early, and this battle is just beginning. We won’t get a real idea of how things are shaking out until training camp, especially those padded practices. With that said, this is a promising start for Bryant, and hopefully, he can continue to stack these days together and make a real push to be the Broncos WR3 this upcoming season.
See More: