5 Denver Broncos who badly needed a good training camp

Every NFL team carries question marks into training camp, no matter how good your roster is. For the Denver Broncos, coming off of a wildly disappointing 5-12 season, there are more question marks than many other teams.

Specifically, there are individual players who entered training camp very much under the microscope, and they have responded by having really strong camp performances. The Broncos are now less than a week from their first preseason game of 2023 (against the Cardinals) and everyone will be excited to see this roster on display. Which players have delivered strong training camp performances so far that desperately needed to do so?

Let's take a look at the top 5.

5 Denver Broncos players who badly needed a good training camp

1. Courtland Sutton, wide receiver

Maybe a little bit on the low key, Courtland Sutton needed to have a huge training camp for the Denver Broncos in 2023. Not a lot of people were talking about it because there have been plenty of other areas of focus for this particular position group in 2023. But there was a decent amount of pressure on Sutton going into training camp given the fact that the Broncos perhaps listened to trade offers over the course of the offseason but ultimately decided to stay with their group.

Sutton was a Pro Bowl player in 2019 and hasn't been able to return to that level of plays in the years following. In 2020, he suffered a torn ACL early in the season. In 2021 and 2022, the Broncos' offense was horrible in general, but Sutton produced at a Pro Bowl level in 2019 with Joe Flacco, Brandon Allen, and Drew Lock throwing the passes. People have expected him to be "quarterback-proof", as it were.

Sutton has been outstanding thus far in Denver Broncos training camp, but the big plays he's making have been overshadowed by the defense largely playing better than the offense throughout training camp as well as people making a bigger deal about Russell Wilson's struggles early on when the pads went on.

Although Jerry Jeudy was the best offensive player on the team last season, Sutton is, at this point, arguably the most underrated player on the team. A big camp from him leading to a big 2023 season could be one of the biggest developments of the Broncos' offseason.

2. Nik Bonitto, edge/outside linebacker

Not everyone shares the same level of expectations for players going into training camp, but I thought that Nik Bonitto might be in danger of losing his roster spot at the beginning of training camp. If Bonitto didn't have a strong training camp, I thought there was a possibility the Broncos would just move on from him.

Bonitto didn't play a ton as a rookie. They went out and signed Frank Clark right at the end of OTAs. The edge position group is relatively deep at least with some intriguing players. The injury status of Baron Browning certainly made cutting Bonitto outright less likely, but I wasn't sold that the Broncos were going to keep him or just throw him into the rotation without a good training camp.

And Bonitto has had a great training camp so far. He's consistently popping up in daily updates, putting pressure on the quarterbacks and showing off that explosiveness off the edge.

Bonitto was a second-round pick in 2022 for the Broncos. Despite being picked 64th overall, people are going to heap expectations on a guy who carries the second-round label and Bonitto certainly didn't meet or exceed expectations in 2022 as a rookie. Now, entering year two, he kind of gets a clean slate. His having a big training camp is outstanding news for the Broncos' defense, which struggled badly with injuries last season (and frankly, the last handful of seasons).

3. The candidates for RB3

Alright, so let's cheat a little bit here and talk about three players at the same time.

The talk for the Denver Broncos this offseason at the running back position has been all over the map. Even as recently as this past weekend, there have been rumors of the Broncos being interested in Josh Jacobs should he become available. The reasoning for the high variance in opinions of what the team will do at the running back position is very understandable.

1. Sean Payton has stated this team is going to run the ball a lot.

2. Both Sean Payton and GM George Paton share a philosophy of investing in running backs (both in the NFL Draft and financially).

3. This offseason featured a ton of talented backs in free agency and the NFL Draft.

4. There was some question about Javonte Williams' potential availability.

The Broncos ultimately made a rather mild move, all things considered, by signing Samaje Perine. Perine will play a key role in the offense this coming season, and Williams has answered questions about his knee by being basically a full participant in training camp other than the team monitoring him on certain (planned) days.

Without a major addition up to this point, including the Broncos passing on every back in the 2023 NFL Draft, three players really needed to step up in training camp and they are the three guys competing for the RB3 position: Tony Jones Jr., Tyler Badie, and Jaleel McLaughlin.

The majority of the training camp headlines have been dominated by Badie and McLaughlin up to this point, but Jones has been making some waves in recent days. These three players are gearing up for an absolutely epic battle during the preseason games and the fact that they have all performed well throughout the course of training camp bodes really well for that particular position battle.

4. Montrell Washington, wide receiver

The 2022 season was a huge disappointment, for the most part, for wide receiver/punt returner Montrell Washington.

Washington was a training camp superstar for the Denver Broncos last year, making jaw-dropping plays daily in practice and proving consistency as a punt returner as well. The Broncos brought him in as a 5th-round pick believing that he could really be the team's long-term solution in the return game, but Washington was so good offensively throughout training camp that you kind of started to wonder how quickly he could solidify a role with the top offense in the regular season.

Unfortunately, even with some flashes in the first couple of weeks, the season did not go as planned for Washington. He did not carve out a full-time role in the offense. He had just two yards on four receptions.

That's not a misprint.

On top of not having a role in the offense, Washington had five fumbles last season and was benched over the final two weeks by interim head coach Jerry Rosburg. That was particularly concerning because Rosburg is a special teams guy, and he was actively trying to give guys opportunities.

Needless to say, Washington needed to have a good training camp for the Broncos to even have a shot at making the team, and he's done just that. We actually highlighted Washington in a recent post about some surprise camp standouts. He's been making plays for the offense and with the season-ending injury suffered by Tim Patrick as well as KJ Hamler being waived, Washington's roster chances are given new life.

5. Brandon Johnson, wide receiver

This post has gone extremely heavy on the wide receiver position, but quite frankly, that is very fitting given the topic at hand.

Here's the thing: The Broncos' wide receiver position has been extremely overrated by fans and even some analysts in recent years. That would include me at times. I bought into the hype that the quartet of Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, Tim Patrick, and KJ Hamler could be the best the Broncos have had in my lifetime. Unfortunately, there was no Last Dance for that group. There was barely a first dance. Those guys may have played a couple of games together in total.

Instead of seeing that group, the Denver Broncos are going to have to regroup at receiver. Sutton and Jeudy are still around, obviously, but Patrick and Hamler are no longer in the picture, at least for this season. Although that's TBD with Hamler...

The point is, other guys are going to need to step up at the wide receiver position to be consistent options for the Broncos, and one of the guys that is doing exactly that is second-year player Brandon Johnson.

I'm not sure if you can put Johnson up there as WR3 definitively just yet, but he's undoubtedly getting a lot of reps with the top offense since Patrick went down with the Achilles injury. Even before Patrick's injury, Johnson was making waves at training camp. He did the exact same last year and carried that into the preseason.

If not for an ankle injury in the team's final preseason game last year, Johnson would have likely had a role all regular season for the Broncos. Unfortunately, the ankle injury limited him significantly. This is a guy who has been putting in tons of work building rapport with Russell Wilson since he was picked up as an undrafted player last year.

That has continued into year two. The growth from Johnson could end up being a game-changer for this position group overall.