Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton sold everyone on the decision to trade Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns this offseason by talking about second-year wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. getting more involvement in the offense than we saw in his rookie year.
This is exactly what he said back at the Scouting Combine in February:
"I really think the only thing that really stopped his progress as a receiver was us and trying to find roles. He's playing the same position as Jerry . I've said this a number of times, I think you're going to see a lot of growth with this player. He's tough, he can run and we're certainly excited that we have him. I think the key is for us—and I say us as coaches in game planning—is evolving. Every time we've kind of put his name on a certain play, he hasn't disappointed. That doesn't mean the ball always went to him but the point I'm making is I think his progress was hampered a little bit more with the depth in the room, in what we were able to do and sometimes trying to balance that out. I think we'll see that expand."
- Broncos HC Sean Payton (via team PR)
Now, Sean Payton doesn't owe it to any of us to make good on that statement, it's just odd that we saw so little of Mims in the preseason playing wide receiver and we saw even less of him in the Week 1 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, which was a massive letdown.
Mims played just 12 snaps offensively against the Seahawks in a game where Broncos receivers struggled to gain separation, no one threatened the Seahawks' defense deep downfield, and nobody was really making plays after the catch.
So what does Payton have to say to explain the lack of Mims usage and his potential of increased snaps going forward?
“It’s part of the challenges when we have multiple receiver groups. Obviously we anticipated him getting more than just 12 . A lot of it depends on how much of the game we’re playing in nickel on offense, three receiver sets or base sets. That can vary, but I think you’ll see his pitch count week-to-week, depending on the team we’re playing, go up.“
- Sean Payton (on September 11
So here we have Payton saying the obvious, which is that Mims's snap counts will obviously go up over the course of the season. But his explanation here is still indefensible when you consider the fact that Bo Nix threw over 40 passes in his NFL starting debut. So what "sets" were the Broncos in that didn't allow for Mims to be on the field?
Lil'Jordan Humphrey, with all due respect, played 21 snaps offensively. He is on the practice squad. Mims was a second-round pick last year who is one of the only guys at that position group to bring a variance in skill set (speed).
Frankly, the way the Broncos deployed their receivers against the Seahawks felt a little bit more like hubris on the part of Sean Payton than anything else. We know he likes the size at wide receiver, but after cutting Tim Patrick rather inexplicably and using Marvin Mims on 12 snaps while also deactivating Troy Franklin, it's no wonder this position group was one of the most embarrassingly bad in Week 1.
This needs to be fixed going forward, even if Mims struggles out there.