Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag periodically during the season. Click here to submit a question.
Hey Parker! Tim Patrick getting hurt again is terrible, but the silver lining is that it opens up a potential opportunity for one of the other guys on the squad. How much do you think Marvin Mims will contribute for us this year?
— Matthew K., Denver
Hey Matthew, thanks for writing in and getting this thing started this week. I appreciate your optimistic disposition, but if you’re the Broncos, there’s nothing good about Tim Patrick getting hurt. And it’s totally brutal if you’re Tim Patrick. I do see where you’re going with the question, though, and injury does lead to opportunity in the NFL.
Mims is one of the guys who could be counted on more with Patrick out. One of the interesting things about Mims will be how quickly he finds a role and what coach Sean Payton, receivers coach Keary Colbert and company think it is. Particularly, where does he play? He’s built like a slot receiver, but his skill set is geared more toward down-the-field speed. Not that he can’t play in the slot — he almost certainly will — but it’s still to be determined if that’s a really natural position for him.
Patrick was going to be a big, physical presence in the slot and so far the next man up for that opportunity has been second-year man Brandon Johnson, who dropped out of practice Tuesday but does not appear to be seriously injured. Payton likes that his speed, likes his disposition in the middle of the field and likes that he’s 6-foot-2. While every receiver’s outlook changed when Patrick got hurt and KJ Hamler waived on the same day, Johnson, Marquez Callaway and Mims are the ones who seem most directly impacted at this juncture. Let’s see how the preseason games play out.
What ever happened to Paxton Lynch? Last I saw he got benched in the XFL. Is he still trying to make it as a quarterback somewhere?
— Phil, Grand Junction
Hey Phil, good question. If there’s a football league out there, Paxton Lynch has probably played in it in the past few years. He spent a year — but didn’t play — in the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Early in 2022 he was in the USFL, then played parts of the 2023 XFL season with a pair of teams — the Orlando Guardians and then the San Antonio Brahmas. That team is coached by Hines Ward, while Orlando is coached by one-time Bronco Terrell Buckley.
The more you know.
Not the football career Lynch was expecting or what the Broncos brass hoped for when he was drafted in 2016, but good on him for continuing to find ways to play.
Anyone making decent noise in training camp so far? And who do you think could be on the roster that’s an UDFA?
— Mike, Denver
Hey Mike, I’d say there are several contenders and we’ll definitely cover more of them between now and the preseason opener Friday night at Arizona.
One group I’m interested in are the 2022 Day 3 draft picks — obviously not including Eyioma Uwazurike, who is suspended for at least the next year and facing criminal charges related to gambling in Iowa.
Among the many side effects of having so much coaching turnover in recent seasons is that each coach likes slightly different types of players. That means general manager George Paton and his staff are constantly trying to stay true to their process but also modifying for what the next coach wants. And that also means players end up on the team that the next coach isn’t as high on — differences that can get more pronounced once you’re beyond the consensus top-of-the-draft type of players and into the later rounds where roster depth is won or lost.
“It’s like the worst position you can possibly be put in (as a general manager). It’s starting from scratch every single frickin’ time,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick told The Post just before the draft in April.
It’s pretty clear Matt Henningsen is going to be asked to play a big role. But Montrell Washington, Delarrin Turner-Yell and Luke Wattenberg all have roster fights on their hands. Washington has to earn trust as a return man and probably needs to show he can be at least a threat in the passing game, too. He quietly has had a pretty decent training camp so far, but that’s a crowded room. He needs to show out in the preseason.
Turner-Yell and Wattenberg both saw players drafted on Day 3 in 2023 at their positions by Paton and Payton in JL Skinner and Alex Forsyth, respectively. But neither looks like he’s going down without a fight. Wattenberg is playing stronger than a year ago and Turner-Yell has had a nice camp all around. If he can make himself a guy Mike Westhoff and Ben Kotwica want on all four special teams units, that’s a roster ticket right there.
As far as undrafted guys, running back Jaleel McLaughlin’s the buzziest name. We’ll see where the Broncos’ health lands by the end of camp, but I’m interested in watching edge guys Thomas Incoom and Marcus Haynes on Friday night. We’ll get into more on those guys and others later in the week.
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