Schools around the country are letting out.
Sean Payton’s team will be on break by Thursday night at the latest.
The sun baked the Broncos’ practice fields Tuesday as the team kicked off its mandatory minicamp, with temperatures shooting well into the 80s.
Signs of summer are all around.
Still, Payton felt the need to provide a couple of curt calendar-related reminders during his post-practice news conference after Tuesday’s practice.
Don’t start counting heads in a fierce running back battle, he warned, not before training camp starts. Not even as the team signed veteran J.K. Dobbins, all but ensuring that — assuming good health — at least one and likely multiple of Audric Estime, Blake Watson, Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie get left off the 53-man roster at the end of August.
“Don’t start counting,” Payton said. “I’ve heard you guys counting. … Don’t try to figure out the club right now. It’s way too early.”
And let’s not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to talk about whether Vance Joseph’s defense will be the best a Payton team’s ever deployed.
“We’ll see. We’re sitting here in June talking about the best,” Payton said. “We have a chance to be a real good defense and time will tell.”
Noted. It’s only June, and there’s no pads or tackling involved.
Still, the Broncos defense made its presence known in what Payton described as the team’s first red zone day of the offseason program.
Quarterback Bo Nix was nearly picked by Talanoa Hufanga and then Riley Moss on a deflection. Nik Bonitto showed quicks blasting around Mike McGlinchey for what likely would have been a sack. Rookie Que Robinson continued to flash athleticism and length off the edge, too.
Hufanga’s shown the kind of smarts and playmaking ability over recent weeks already since signing a three-year free agent deal back in March.
“You’d have thought we’d been friends for all our life, just his vibe and how smart he is,” fellow safety Brandon Jones said of Hufanga. “We shared the same position coach (Todd Orlando) in college, so we came in knowing each other. It’s been really fun. His football IQ, always asking questions, flying around the ball.”
Practice eventually ended when inside linebacker Levelle Bailey trailed down the goal line and picked off a Jarrett Stidham pass.
Other observations and notes from Tuesday’s practice:
• One regular happening at Broncos practice: Nix will mix it up with defensive players on his way back to the huddle between plays. Tuesday, he took off and ran in a 7-on-7 situation and heard about it from a group including Jones and nickel Ja’Quan McMillian — who later picked off Nix when a ball bounded off of receiver Courtney Jackson’s pads.
Nix, naturally, gave it back.
“I love that,” Jones said. “I never want to be somewhere where a quarterback is kind of shy or to himself. If the quarterback can kind of show that dog mentality, that goes a long way for me. It keeps us battling, keeps the competition super healthy and very competitive. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him from that standpoint.”
• The Broncos had good attendance Tuesday, though they did have a couple of notable absences, including second-year receiver Devaughn Vele. Payton didn’t provide a reason for Vele’s absence but said he had no injury concerns and that Vele is “all good.” Running back Blake Watson, who didn’t practice last week during the OTA session open to reporters, wasn’t spotted, nor was receiver A.T. Perry.
Safety P.J. Locke, inside linebackers Dre Greenlaw (quad) and Karene Reid, and long-snapper Mitchell Fraboni (back) were in attendance but didn’t do much work besides on the side field. Defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers was on hand as expected after skipping the voluntary portion of the offseason program. He didn’t do much in team settings, but did individual work.
• The Broncos have at least seven tryout players in town for minicamp, including former Colorado wide receiver Will Sheppard.
“If they have a helmet and a jersey on, we’re looking closely,” Payton said. “Can they help us? What’s the vision? What can they do? History has told me — personally, I’ve found guys in this camp that weren’t on the 90 (-man roster) then later were on the 90 and then made the team the next year.”
• Defensive tackle Zach Allen won’t get many special teams reps, but he doesn’t get much rest during those practice periods. On Tuesday, he spent at least one special team session behind the action, working the finer points of pass-rush moves with pass-rush specialist BT Jordan.
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Originally Published: June 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM MDT