Courtland Sutton is Denver’s unquestioned top receiver.
In 2024, the next man up in the pecking order changed several times over the course of the season.
Early in the fall, that designation would have likely belonged to Josh Reynolds. Then came a surge from Devaughn Vele. Then a strong finishing kick from Marvin Mims Jr. The receiver who played the second-most snaps after Sutton? Lil’Jordan Humphrey.
As the 2025 season approaches, the group vying for time at receiver for Sean Payton’s team is getting more buzz than last year’s set, but there remains an open question about who will be the No. 2 man behind Sutton.
Denver’s head coach doesn’t quite think about it that way.
“Some teams are more predictable with where the ‘X’ is, and the slot and the ‘Z’,” Payton said this week. “Then that term, the No. 1, the No. 2, I get all that. (The Broncos receivers) are all going to play in different roles.
“We probably are a little bit different with our rotation and substitution patterns that you guys can decide who two is, and three is, and four is.”
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It’s perhaps worth pointing out that when Payton and the Broncos kept most of their top guys out of uniform for Saturday’s second preseason game against Arizona, the three receivers from the top group who did not play were Sutton, Mims and Vele.
Mims, the third-year man out of Oklahoma, put together the kind of finishing kick to 2024 that makes him look like a good bet to be on the field a lot and produce consistently in 2025. Over the Broncos’ final seven games, Mims played at a 1,000-plus-yard pace and caught six touchdowns.
Of course, the caveat there is Mims actually played less in 2024 than he did as a rookie, and even down the stretch he never played more than 30 snaps. The No. 61 overall pick in the 2023 draft has only played 30-plus snaps three times in 33 career games.
Then there’s second-year man Troy Franklin, who has been a near-unanimous pick during training camp as a breakout candidate for the Broncos. His two touchdowns in Saturday’s preseason game only put an exclamation point on what’s been a strong August.
Payton, after the game, said categorically of Franklin’s rise, “It’s happening.”
Vele, Denver’s other second-year receiver, actually finished second among the team’s wideouts in catches last year despite missing five games with a fractured rib.
The Broncos brought him along slowly in camp due to what Payton called "maintenance" on Vele’s knee, but he’s been getting up to speed and looking like his usual smooth, efficient self running routes in recent days.
“He’s got a lot of versatility,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Wednesday. “He’s big, he can run, good route-runner. And, so, he’s a guy that you can plug in a lot of spots. Smart, so he can play all the positions, so that’s very helpful.”
Bryant, the third-round rookie, is one of the more interesting players in the mix. He’s been productive in camp and in the preseason games with four catches for 70 yards vs. Arizona.
“What quarterbacks like about me (in the middle of the field) is I come friendly,” Bryant said after the game. “I don’t drift from the ball and I attack it, so they can throw it anywhere in the middle of the field and just based on how I run my route, I’m going to be able to catch the ball.”
Bryant, though, also profiles most similarly to Sutton, who played 85% of snaps.
“We’re always focused on what everybody does well, and try to put 'em in those positions,” Lombardi said. “So, there are times where you want Courtland in on the boundary, other times where you might want him in the field at No. 2. So, we have an extensive — we have a lot of formations, but then we’ve got a lot of different personnel groupings to put people right where we want ‘em.
“We know that each receiver has strengths, and most of ‘em have a weakness or two, and you just want to maximize your strengths and make sure the right people are doing the right thing.”
Then there's veteran Trent Sherfield, Sr., whom Payton consistently raves about and who could end up playing a lot, both in the Lil'Jordan Humphrey mold as a physical blocker but also as a guy who's seen the ball find him regularly in camp.
So, a true No. 2 receiver? The Broncos may not have one to start the season.
“There’s going to be a role if they’re dressing and they’re getting on the field,” Payton said. “They’re not going to line up in the same spot all the time. I think that would be the easiest way to describe it.”
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Originally Published: August 20, 2025 at 1:30 PM MDT