In today's NFL, having good play-makers is more important than ever, but the Denver Broncos simply do not have the play-making personnel on offense. In the offseason, the team made a few moves at wide receiver. They traded Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns, drafted Troy Franklin in the NFL Draft, and also signed Josh Reynolds.
On paper, the Broncos, at the time, seemed to have a deep WR room with Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick, Marvin Mims Jr, Josh Reynolds, Troy Franklin, and Devaughn Vele. Well, the team shockingly cut Tim Patrick and have already seen Devaughn Vele get hurt.
Moreover, guys like Sutton and Mims have underperformed through two weeks, but to be fair to Mims, he's just not getting the snap counts that we have expected. That has left the team's WR in shambles to be honest, and through two games, the team's leading WR is Josh Reynolds, who signed extremely late in free agency this past offseason.
Nothing against Reynolds, but it's just insane that he's the team's leading receiver. It's not who he was signed to be, and unless something changes, it'll end with Reynolds leading the way. Through two games, he leads the Broncos in receptions with nine and yards with 138.
He's caught 69.2% of his targets, which is a very good number. Thus far, if Reynolds could keep this pace up for an entire 17-game season, he'd be on pace for 77 catches and 1,173 yards. This would be great for Reynolds and a great value for the Denver Broncos, but this team needs to see someone like Marvin Mims Jr explode and become the no. 1 wide receiver.
Josh Reynolds is an aging player who has bounced around several teams and has never really been more than a third option in the passing game. He'd be a perfect no. 3 target if the Broncos found a stud WR next offseason and also had one of their younger guys in Mims or Franklin develop.
Reynolds being the Denver Broncos best wide receiver through two games paints an ugly and deep picture. The trade for Russell Wilson sent a ton of high-valued draft capital out the door, which Denver could have used to draft some much-needed play-makers. The team also had to trade more capital to acquire Sean Payton.
This should all fall on the shoulders of George Paton, and with the Sean Payton era well underway, it does feel like a large part of Broncos Country has just forgotten how disastrous of a tenure Paton has had.
Denver does have their first and second-round picks in the coming NFL Draft for the first time since 2021. There are a number of things the Broncos could do with these draft picks, including trading for a stud WR who could become available next offseason or simply drafting and developing, which is the way the team should do things.