Kiz: What does that snake have against the Broncos, and why does it keep taking a bite out of the team’s receiving corps? Without contact, Tim Patrick went down in a heap Monday during training camp and it didn’t look good, with fear of an Achilles injury. That’s four years in a row that injury has taken a serious bite out of a wide receiver room that’s the highest-paid in the NFL. For all that money, do the Broncos have a legit No. 1 passing target for quarterback Russell Wilson?
Gabriel: They might in Jerry Jeudy, who is not on the list of players who have been knocked out for an entire season but who has missed time in his career with ankle issues (six games in 2021, almost three full games in 2022). But we’ve yet to see the 2020 first-round draft pick really put it together. The finishing kick last year (523 yards and five touchdowns over the final five games) was enticing enough that the Broncos picked up his fifth-year option for 2024 at a guaranteed $12.987 million. If he has a big 2023, he’ll be in line for a lucrative extension. If not, it’s just one more question mark.
Kiz: Even before another bummer of an injury to Patrick, a genuinely righteous dude, one of my biggest concerns about this Denver offense was if the team had allocated too much space in the salary cap for too little dangerous production from its pass-catchers. Jeudy and Courtland Sutton combined for only eight touchdown receptions last season. While Nathaniel Hackett made everyone in a disorganized offense look bad, I’m not certain you can entirely blame a knucklehead coach for the failure of either Sutton or Jeudy to play like a premier NFL receiver.
Gabriel: Perhaps that’s true, though it’s interesting that Jeudy took off last season when Sutton hurt his hamstring and started playing more in the role Hackett originally devised for Sutton. Your point is a good one, though, in that the Broncos have, according to Over the Cap, the single most expensive receiver room in the NFL — $44-plus million against the cap this fall — and don’t have a proven No. 1 target. Wilson arrived from Seattle, where he had DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and probably relatively quickly realized what a luxury that was.
Kiz: I think Wilson has a real shot at being the NFL’s comeback player of the year. But it’s hard to envision my optimistic take becoming reality without Jeudy finally fulfilling the expectations he brought to Denver as a first-round draft choice in 2020. New coach Sean Payton insists he’s going to be ticked off if this Denver team doesn’t make the playoffs. Well, Payton is going to be a grouchy old man and won’t help Wilson return to anywhere near Pro Bowl form if he also can’t coach up Jeudy.
Gabriel: Payton marveled at Jeudy’s loose hips and his ability to create separation earlier this offseason. That should make an offensive-minded head coach’s wheel spin with ways to get Jeudy the football. None of these core guys in Denver’s receiver room have ever played for a position coach other than Zach Azzanni, either, until Keary Colbert arrived in town from the University of Florida this offseason. Perhaps the combination of Payton and a new voice at the front of the position room provides a spark. Denver had better hope so.
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