Russell Wilson’s cap hit means the Broncos need young players to step up

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — With a salary cap that will now fit like a proverbial smedium T-shirt, the Denver Broncos worked through last week’s scouting combine with the knowledge the 2024 draft class will need to play a larger role than the 2023 class did in its first season.

And that 2023 class, especially wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr., will have step up as well if the Broncos are to succeed in the post-Russell Wilson era with the $85 million in dead money against the cap over the next two years. The five 2023 draft picks played a combined 666 snaps as rookies or, to put it in perspective, 406 fewer snaps than left tackle Garett Bolles played on his own.

Even Broncos coach Sean Payton, who has often outlined the hurdles young players must clear to get on the field, knows what the future holds. When asked at the combine last week about Mims’ rookie year, Payton said: “I really think the only thing that really stopped his progress as a receiver was us and trying to find roles … the key is for us, and I say us as coaches in game planning, is evolving … We’ll see [Mims’ role] expand.”

When the Broncos made the expected official with the announcement Wilson would be released at the start of the new league year Wednesday, it ratcheted up the importance of the youngest players already on the roster and the ones on the way.

The Broncos have six picks in the April draft, with no second-rounder and no sixth-rounder, because of the trades to acquire Wilson and Payton as coach. That is in addition to the fact general manager George Paton has said the Broncos will not be that active in the first wave of free agency.

Paton used the buzzword of “strategic,” a far cry from a year ago when the Broncos handed out three of the biggest non-quarterback contracts to players who switched teams — tackle Mike McGlinchey, guard Ben Powers and defensive end Zach Allen. It will also impact how active the Broncos are in attempts to re-sign their own free agents like linebacker Josey Jewell and center Lloyd Cushenberry.

Paton, when asked about Cushenberry, in particular, at the combine, was already pointing toward the team’s younger players.

“We really value Lloyd and thought he had one of his best seasons,” Paton said. “We’d love to have Lloyd back but then what’s behind Lloyd? We feel we feel good about [Luke] Wattenberg. We feel really good about [Alex] Forsyth. We feel like there’s depth. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to sign Lloyd. We’d love to sign him, but we do feel like that’s a position we do have the depth and one of those guys could be a starter eventually.”

Forsyth was one of the Broncos’ 2023 draft class, a seventh-round pick (257th player selected overall) who was inactive for all 17 of the team’s games. That was to go with sixth-round pick, safety JL Skinner, who played one snap on defense all season and cornerback Riley Moss, a third-round pick last April, who played 23 snaps on defense. Skinner will likely compete for more time this season given the Broncos release of safety Justin Simmons on Thursday, for a cap savings of $14.5 million.

The only two 2023 draft picks who played over 20% of the snaps were Mims (38% of the offense’s snaps) and linebacker Drew Sanders, a third-round pick who played 23% of the defense’s snaps. The third most active rookie, running back Jaleel McLaughlin with 18% of the offense’s snaps, was an undrafted player.

Mims, who was selected to the Pro Bowl as a returner, was the biggest riddle in terms of play time given he had two of the team’s four pass plays for the season of at least 50 yards — in Week 2 — and four of the team’s 12 pass plays of at least 40 yards for the season.

“Every time we’ve kind of put his name on a certain play, he hasn’t disappointed,” Payton said. “That doesn’t mean the ball always went to him but the point I’m making is I think his progress was hampered a little bit more with the depth in the room, in what we were able to do and sometimes trying to balance that out.”

Sanders’ playing time was impacted by a position switch during the season. He worked through the offseason program and in training camp at inside linebacker.

But due to injuries, and trading outside linebacker Randy Gregory and releasing outside linebacker Frank Clark during season, Sanders was moved to outside linebacker. He showed promised with his movement skills and athleticism down the stretch.

“[Sanders] is a work in progress,” Paton said. “We thought he finished well on the edge … he’ll probably end up on the edge, but he has the flexibility. He’s so talented. It’s hard [to decide] … It’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a curse because he can’t get settled in at one position. Once we left Drew at outside, he finished strong and so we feel good about Drew moving forward.”

In the end the Broncos, who opened the 2023 season with the 24th youngest team in the league — in the bottom third — will likely be forced to take a different tack this time around. And they’ll do it in a draft, because of players staying in school with NIL deals, many personnel executives in the league believe is a thin one in Day 3.

“We’re still working through it,” Paton said. “I’ve heard that later rounds maybe not as deep. I haven’t really seen that in our meetings as of yet … we’ll just kind of see how that comes together. I do think especially in the early rounds, it’s a good draft.”