The Denver Broncos have gotten their first good look at wide receiver Jaylen Waddle since making the blockbuster trade to acquire him from the Miami Dolphins earlier this offseason and suffice to say, the commentary has been quite positive.
A big part of what he has brought to the wide receiver room has been competition. Which is something head coach Sean Payton has noted after OTAs this week.
“I think it’s strong, and I don’t want to just talk about three, or five or seven,” Payton said. “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.”
More than that, however, has been the impact Waddle the player has made in the locker room. He has the potential to make the kind of impact that could put this team over the top in 2026. New Broncos’ offensive coordinator Davis Webb has taken notice of Waddle’s impact.
“He’s good. (Laughs) He’s a really good player,“ Webb said. ”There are some similarities. When I was with Josh Allen going into Year 3, similar to Bo [Nix] going into Year 3, and we traded for Stefon Diggs, and that was a good year. That was a good two year run in ’20 and ’21 when I was together with them. Just seeing the growth from both players that time, there’s some similarities of what started to happen here. It doesn’t mean it’s going to, we got a long way to go, but man, he’s good. I’ve just enjoyed the person and just watching him work. He is a blessing to be around. He’s a multiplier. He’s a thermostat. Very, very good.”
He provided an interesting correlation to Josh Allen’s third season and a blockbuster trade for a big time receiver to Bo Nix and Waddle’s pairing. That sparked a solid two-year run in Buffalo and there is no reason to see why that couldn’t happen in Denver now with Nix/Waddle on the same level.
It’s the offseason, though, and the hype will carry us through to September. However, I can confidently say that this roster feels like a championship roster. They just have to go out and seize the moment.