The writer of Denver Post Broncos, Parker Gabriel, displays his broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question.
Drew Sanders was a five-star recruit from Texas, a winner of the Butkus Award and a first All-American team at Arkansas and a third round of the Broncos. But during his first two NFL seasons, he barely saw the ground. Broncos have a great need for the interior seconds during the offseason. Could it be the answer?
– Jeff Bear, Loveland
Hey Jeff, thank you for writing. Indeed, Drew Sanders is one of the most interesting figures on the broncos list while he is preparing for his third professional season. He played inside and on the edge as a recruit – he moved outside when the broncos needed help there – then had his second season major by a tear in the spring of Achilles. On his return, he first seemed to return to the outside secondary. But as Sanders was ready to play, Denver’s Edge Group had become a force and the group of interior seconds struggled and had lost Alex Singleton for the season with a torn ACL.
This offseason, the head coach Sean Payton and the director general George Paton hired Sanders inside the second. This is the opposite of the period last year.
Sanders is a great athlete, having the size type and the range that Denver has missed in the middle of the field. However, he did not show that he could play full time. With regard to the Libre Agency, the three interior seconds on the list are Sanders, Singleton (still months to be allowed to return) and 2024 Recruit non -recovered, Leelele Bailey. Could Singleton and Sanders be the regular twinning of the Broncos in 2025? Certainly. But it is far from being sure. This is why it will be fascinating to see if Denver is aggressively an interior assistant in a free agency. Payton was part of the group that wrote Philadelphia All-Pro Zach Baun in New Orleans in 2020. Denver has seen a lot of Nick Bolton in the past four years in Kansas City. There are also other quality options that will reach a free agency next week. They could also address the position in the project.
It doesn’t matter that Denver adds in the next two months, Sanders will be one of the most watched players on the list.
How is it that Bo Nix does not use a wrist bracelet with games on it like most other quarters? Does he know the parts that Sean Payton wants to execute? Does he have a photographic memory? Anyway, it’s impressive for a recruit.
– Mike, Omaha, Neb.
Hey Mike, thank you for the question. Nix certainly had a good mastery of the offensive by the end of the season, but he had a group most of the time. At the end of the year, he wore him on his belt rather than on his wrist. Payton said, both with Nix and Russell Wilson before, that the main point of the group is to shorten some of the most loose game calls. Payton has game names that could make a auctioneer blush. Thus, instead of relaying a 19-words call in Nix, then having relayed it to the section, it is easier to shorten the call entering the quarter. It is not really an indication of the game call order or something like that.
At Denver’s credit, however, Nix, Payton and the Brain Trust offensive found a good pace as the season progressed to reach more things with which the recruit was comfortable. The work of the coaches is to give things to Nix with whom it can succeed. And Nix’s work is to ensure that the list is still expanding. This is part of what is fascinating in this offseason. Nix and Payton will benefit from their first year together and will be able to go much further in the bag. But the rest of the League will also devote means to make life more difficult in the quarter-tree in its second season. Is it still in September?
Sean Payton and the Broncos surprised pre-season experts with this year’s success. With more than a third of the broncos opponents in 2025 in this year’s qualifying series, do you expect that our boys show everyone that the 2024 season was not a stroke of luck and heads for the playoffs?
– Curt Hanlen, Bosque Farms, Nm
Hey Curt, good question. Well, well, far too early for this type of prediction, but you know that broncos will say that their standard has been established and that they do not intend to make the back.
To your question, 43% of the NFL manufactures the playoffs each year, so you will have a good number of qualifying teams on your schedule, even if you are one of the 14 that makes it. Broncos are still playing a third place calendar this fall, so this is not the glove to which division champions are generally confronted. However, to be fair, Green Bay and Cincinnati are not to be outdone as third -place finishers. They probably say the same thing about Broncos.
This part cannot be said enough: the AFC will be a beast for the years to come. You know the quarters of the conference: Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, CJ Stroud and forward.
Chemistry: A term overused or misunderstood? How do you assess the chemistry of the Broncos team? You are in the team much more than fans, what do you see and do you hear in the locker room?
– David Brown, Silverthorne
Hey David, yeah, interesting question. Even from our positions, I would warn against everything that is too categorical. But the Broncos 2024 certainly seemed to be a group that had good chemistry and a good locker room. The defense was tight and the addition of Malcolm Roach – a great personality among a group that has guys in the form of a business – has really helped consolidate the group’s culture. In a way, they took the idea that Pat SURINE II was the only choice in the first round among them and that they were a group that was to fight, individually and collectively. Obviously, the offensive line played a role in fixing the tone offensively, but the addition of Nix and the way in which the unit bought it has become palpable quickly.
Broncos have shown resilience several times – after the start of 0-2, after the overwhelming loss for Kansas City and after losing in weeks 16 and 17 in a frustrating way. This is usually a sign of good chemistry. Now, the task is to build this with what will be a 2025 team built on a similar basis but, as every year in the NFL, with many new faces.
I heard and read references to teams who wish Zach Wilson next season. Should the Broncos sign it, play it in pre-season and try to exchange it, or simply allow it to walk as a free agent? Also, which seems more likely: Denver selects a tight end or a ball carrier at the start of the project?
– Fred Wiss, dog meadow, wis.
Hey Fred, thank you as always for the note. More about it later in the week, but yes, broncos need a quarter-backing for Bo Nix and it is unlikely that they will recover Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson.
Wilson clearly increases and you could simply say how the Payton coach and Davis Webb quarters talked about him that they loved the trajectory on which he was. Another season that works with him – or the possibility of signing him, of letting him play a lot in the pre -season and then exchanging it – would be an exciting perspective. One of the highlights of the arrival at the stadium 3.5 hours before the start of each weekend was to watch Webb take Wilson throughout the training on the field before Stidham and Nix warm up. Talent is obvious.
But when the free agency starts next week, Wilson will undoubtedly look for a place where he can compete for a starting job. Not that there is no one else who could be an appropriate backup, but the worst case for Denver would likely try to recover Wilson, to fail and while waiting for Stidham against another team. We will see how quickly they approach the position in the coming days.
Not a question, but a suggestion. Troy met asked for a new name for the hybrid position in the Broncos offensive, out of respect for the only real joker of Denver. My vote is for Mustang. He alludes to the generic nature of the position, and he also finds herself to stick to the Ford Equestrian theme. Let’s make Mustang!
– Patrick, Denver
Mustang, Joker, call him as you want. If broncos find this type in draft this spring, it has the potential to make a difference for Nix in the year 2.
Do you want more broncos news? Register for Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analyzes.
