The Denver Broncos got a glimpse at what their offense would look like without Devaughn Vele during minicamp in June.
For three days, Vele was sidelined. Pat Bryant, then still getting the basics down as he stepped into the NFL, saw his workload increase as he handled more work on the offense with Bo Nix. So did Troy Franklin, looking to continue his progress of the previous fortnight of practices during OTAs.
If you’re looking for a crucial fork in the road that led the Broncos to Wednesday’s trade of Vele to the New Orleans Saints, that minicamp provides it.
Bryant flourished. Franklin continued his progress. And when training camp commenced, both continued their ascent.
There were wobbles, to be certain — Franklin dropped a sure touchdown during a move-the-ball period in the quasi-scrimmage on Aug. 2; Bryant didn’t align properly as part of a spate of pre-snap penalties that plagued the offense one week into camp. But the general trajectory of the two mid-round wide receivers was undeniable.
And both are 22 years old. Vele is 27.
Fair or not, in the frigid calculus of the NFL, such matters can be relevant. The factor that dropped Vele to the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft despite his skills, ability to make plays in traffic and catch radius — age — could be a tiebreaker to work against him if deadlocked on all counts against comparable players.
Age is cruel, and every one of us hopes to live long enough to learn that. But in sports, sometimes you get that lesson with a distressingly small number.
Vele has plenty of upside as a second-year wide receiver, and in New Orleans, he’ll probably get opportunities that might have been limited with the presence of Franklin and Bryant. Thus, one might look up in three months and see a decent stat line for Vele — perhaps one that might lead some hot-take artists and proclaim that the Broncos should have kept him.
But barring a tsunami of injuries, Vele wouldn’t have achieved such numbers in Denver, not with Franklin, Bryant and Marvin Mims Jr. around. Those are likely to be a product of opportunities that wouldn’t have existed here, along with a Saints offense likely to be in pass-heavy mode when facing deficits almost certain to come with a potential campaign that is likely to be defined by trying to avoid finishing at the cellar of the NFC South.
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BUT IT’S MORE THAN JUST FRANKLIN AND BRYANT IN THE BRONCOS’ WIDE-RECEIVER ROOM
It’s also veteran Trent Sherfield, who is a virtual lock to make the team as a core-four special-teams contributor. Sherfield has also been a consistent contributor on offense in practice, showing a fearless quality going across the middle as a trustworthy target. In limited opportunities last year, he had an 89-percent success rate; as recently as 2022, he caught 30 passes.
And the undrafted receivers also have an impact, too. There could be a window now for at least one of Joaquin Davis, Courtney Jackson, Jerjuan Newton and Kyrese Rowan to stick on the 53-player roster — if the Broncos keep six wide receivers; they could use the sixth spot on another position.
But these undrafted rookies have been among the standouts of camp; each has turned in some distinguishing moments during training camp and the preseason.
Jackson and Davis could be the most intriguing of the bunch. Davis has an astounding collection of measurables: a 42 inch vertical leap, a 40-yard dash time that has been clocked at 4.36 seconds with a 6-foot-4 frame and an impressive catch radius. And while there was concern about drops in college, he has displayed a knack for holding onto the ball with the Broncos; he catches the ball with his hands, often outstretched, and rarely uses his body.
As for Jackson, he appears to be the Broncos’ second-best returner — and there’s no shame in that, given that there’s an All-Pro in Mims in their midst, with good change of direction and a natural feel for navigating through traffic on returns.
The wild card is A.T. Perry, a member of the Broncos’ practice squad last year who returned from the PUP list last week. He has some ground to make up, but he’s been in this system for nearly his entire career, working in it with New Orleans as a rookie under then-offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, who is now on the Broncos’ staff.
When the Saints tried to pass him through waivers to their practice squad early in the 2024 regular season, the Broncos pounced and convinced him to join their practice squad, with Carmichael having joined Sean Payton’s staff. Perry noted that they even gave him some reps with Bo Nix as part of his practice work last year. But offseason injury waylaid him and put him behind schedule.
The last time Perry played in this scheme, he averaged 20.5 yards per catch on 12 receptions, scoring four times over the back half of the 2023 season with the Saints.
As was the case with last year’s trade of Baron Browning, the Broncos made the deal not just because they felt good about the options at the top of the depth chart, but what they had in reserve just in case, too.
That’s why they were willing to make a deal that brought back no return for the present that could help them with a potential 2025 Super Bowl run; the only way the draft picks they received from New Orleans aids that cause is if they flip them in a trade in the next two-and-a-half months. But it’s more likely the Broncos reap the benefits in future years.
But because of the quality of receivers on hand, the Broncos aren’t any worse today than they were yesterday, even though a promising second-year receiver who caught 41 passes for them last year is now New Orleans-bound.
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