Broncos’ rookie class, which Sean Payton predicted could be special, is starting to make its presence felt

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Even before the NFL draft dust settled, Sean Payton felt good about the Broncos’ seven-man rookie class.

By the time training camp rolled around, he wasn’t afraid to say so publicly.

The calendar hadn’t yet turned to August when Payton told NFL Network, “I think you’ll see this as the season unfolds with this draft class: It’s been an impressive group. We all root for our draft classes and yet you go by what you see. I was talking with (owner and CEO) Greg Penner the other day and I said, ‘You just mark my words: Three or four years from now, we’ll look back on this draft class and it will be significant as to what we’re able to accomplish.”

Behind closed doors, he told his group of rookies the same thing.

“Coach Payton said it right when we got here that he believes this class is special,” fifth-round running back Audric Estime told The Denver Post this week.

Of course, the linchpin and player who will ultimately decide how the class is viewed in total is quarterback Bo Nix, the No. 12 overall selection.

After Nix came edge rusher Jonah Elliss in the third round, receiver Troy Franklin in the fourth, cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine and running back Audric Estime in the fifth, and wide receiver Devaughn Vele and offensive lineman Nick Gargiulo in the seventh.

“Let’s get past Bo,” Payton said Wednesday. “… With each player, when we drafted them we probably had a grade two rounds earlier. That doesn’t happen often.”

Payton hasn’t out-and-out compared this to the 2006 New Orleans draft class that became the bedrock of so much of his success with the Saints, but he often ends up talking about that class after talking about this one.

That 2006 class featured running back Reggie Bush, safety Roman Harper, offensive linemen Jahri Evans and Zach Strief, and wide receiver Marques Colston. All of them played 10 or more years in the NFL, as did Rob Ninkovich, though he did so almost exclusively with other teams.

There is so much road to travel before the story of the Broncos’ 2024 class is written, but 11 games into their collective tenure, their impact on this Denver team only continues to grow. It may well take years to get a complete grade, but five of them are contributing already. The extent to which they can continue to do so will weigh heavily into whether the Broncos can stay ahead of schedule in their rebuild and crack the playoff field.

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“The talent of a player is important to us, but also what kind of worker he is, how he is in the locker room — those things carry a lot of weight with us,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Thursday. “It’s hard in the draft process for us, as coaches, to get all that information. The way our scouts and personnel department does, that is fantastic.

“Obviously they were spot on with a lot of these guys. … You ask about the commonalities: They love football, they’re not afraid to work and they’ve got the stamina to sit in the meetings and practices and not lose focus.”

The cornerstone

Nix will define how most think about this draft class. That’s the reality of drafting a quarterback early.

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“We did know it would be measured, certainly, with the first selection, and I understand that,” Payton said this week. “We felt real good about those other selections as well.”

Nix, though, is by far the biggest bet.

So far, the progress is encouraging.

Players in the locker room have graduated from believing the Broncos can win with Nix to believing they can win because of him.

The last several weeks, he’s played like a top-10 quarterback. Sunday against Atlanta, he completed 28 of 33 passes and set career highs with 307 yards and four touchdown passes.

This week, he nonchalantly noted that “you can learn a lot in 10 games.”

Bo Nix (10) of the Denver Broncos prepares to take a snap against the Atlanta Falcons during the fourth quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Asked to expand, Nix showed the kind of demeanor that’s allowed him to go from a rough start to 13 touchdowns and two interceptions over his past five games.

“At the beginning, you kind of make the NFL bigger than what it actually is,” he said. “These players are really good but, at the same time, you have really good players on your (side). I think (it’s) simplifying the game, trying to play as fast as possible and finding a completion, which is what we’ve been able to do here recently.

“As we’ve gone, (Payton) and I have found a good rhythm of what we both like, what we can put out there on the field and what we can execute. Then, the guys have kind of adapted to it, found our roles within the offense and executed at a high level. It’s just all about slowing the game down, and processing things in a manner that you can handle: Just kind of see one or two things and let those guys take you to where the ball is supposed to be.”

Nix’s challenge down the stretch will be continuing to do more without trying to do too much.

The more Payton and the offensive coaches can expand with Nix running the show, the more versatile the Broncos will be.

As the stakes rise, though, he can’t find himself pressing the way he did in his first handful of starts.

As the stakes raise, more likely than not Nix will be relying on the trio of rookie skill position players he arrived in Denver with this spring.

Currently, they combine to represent four of the top nine Broncos in combined carries and receptions.

Estime has pulled into a week-to-week job share at the top of the running back room. Vele has ascended to essentially Denver’s second receiving option after Courtland Sutton. Franklin is third or fourth, depending on the week and the game plan.

On the other side of the ball, Elliss has settled into regular work in the Broncos’ talented outside linebacker rotation. He logged a sack against Atlanta and is steadily playing between 40-50% for one of the NFL’s top units.

“It’s really cool just to see guys grow,” Estime said. “… (Payton said) they had higher grades on all of us than where we actually went in the draft. That means a lot and we’re seeing it play out right now, which is a great feeling.”

Elliss’ steady rise

Elliss spent most of the offseason getting all the way healthy after a shoulder injury last fall and has provided steady work through his rookie campaign.

He’s played 38.5% of the Broncos’ defensive snaps, right in the range that Nik Bonitto (34.8%) and Jonathon Cooper (45.2%) played in their respective rookie seasons.

Elliss’ sack against the Falcons was his third of the season. That’s not a huge number but playing in the front seven as a rookie is no easy task. Three sacks is tied for third with Indianapolis first-rounder Laiatu Latu among rookies, behind only Los Angeles Rams teammates Braden Fiske (5.0) and Jared Verse (4.5).

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Jonah Elliss (52) of the Denver Broncos comes in for a sack on Kirk Cousins (18) of the Atlanta Falcons during the third quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. (Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)

“The first few weeks I was out there scrambled, thinking too much, just not fully locked into the game,” Elliss told The Post. “Thinking more about the game plan than the game. Now I’m just out there playing and having fun. Coach makes a call and I’ve got it.”

Elliss thought maybe he’d be just a special teams player this year and didn’t expect this much defensive run.

“I didn’t, to be honest,” he said. “We’ve got guys in this room that I think are really good and I was just out there trying to do the best job for the team that I could. If that was just on special teams, then it was just on special teams.

“Thankfully I’ve been blessed enough to play a little bit on defense and make a little bit of an impact.”

Receiver duo coming on

Denver traded up to No. 102 to draft Franklin but knew early he might take time to develop.

To his credit, he’s done that and now has a pair of touchdowns after an 8-yard score on a screen against the Falcons.

Franklin’s settled into about 40% playing time and hasn’t broken out with a big game so far, but he’s shown the ability to make defenses respect his speed.

Troy Franklin (16) of the Denver Broncos celebrates his touchdown reception with Devaughn Vele (17) during the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Chargers’ 23-16 win at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Vele, meanwhile, has been perhaps the revelation of the class.

Entering Week 12, he was seventh among rookie wide receivers in catches with 26. The six ahead of him are five first-rounders and No. 34 overall pick Ladd McConkey. Vele was taken No. 235 overall, the 33rd receiver to hear his name called.

The nine receivers with more yards than his 281 were all selected in the top 34 picks. And Vele was inactive for four straight games during the early part of the season. His yards and catches per game rank seventh and fourth, respectively, among rookie receivers.

“I’ve always seen him practice, seen him work out in the winters and I’ve always just thought he was a freak athlete,” Elliss said of Vele, his former college teammate at Utah. “Not only that, but he’s doing what he does and then he catches everything. That’s something that I noticed at Utah, too, and it’s something I’m sad we couldn’t utilize more at Utah. But you can see the ability to make the plays that he has and it’s super impressive to me.

“I’m sure if the scouts saw it how I did, he would have gone a lot higher.”

Vele is one of the oldest players in the rookie class at 26, but he’s turned heads since rookie minicamp in May and now has turned himself into a reliable third-down and middle-of-the-field target for Nix.

Estime in the wings

A crowd gathered around Estime’s locker Thursday to ask about a play that didn’t count.

Estime hurdled a Falcons defender clean on Sunday, only to have the play called back because of a penalty on Garett Bolles.
Bolles and veteran John Franklin-Myers noticed the pack of reporters and stopped in to ask a few questions of their own: Does he like leaving his feet better than running people over? Is he actually a finesse back?

“I just like making plays,” Estime responded with a smile.

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He’s had the chance to recently.

The former Notre Dame running back is one of the youngest players in the class and carried his heaviest workload yet Week 10 at Kansas City with 14 carries.

“I feel like the game is definitely slowing down for me,” he told The Post. “The big difference is thinking less on the field. You know more, you’re more prepared for the situation that you’re going to be in. Then it’s just time to react.”

Payton called the running back rotation going forward “the $6 million question,” but there’s no doubt Estime’s hard-charging style and fresh legs will be counted on at times over the final six games.

None of the three offensive skill position players have stat lines that would blow the casual observer away. Each, though, has made an impact in recent weeks and it would not be surprising at all if there are games with playoff implications in which Estime leads the Broncos in carries and Vele and Franklin are second and third in some order behind Sutton among receivers.

Denver Broncos running back Audric Estime (23) drives the ball down the field at Geha Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Nov. 10, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

That’s real pressure and real responsibility.

“They’re all contributing in a huge way. Especially as of late,” veteran tight end Adam Trautman said. “It’s great for this year and everything, but obviously it looks good for the future as well.”

Future is now

Is Nix a true franchise-changer? Are there multiple decade-plus careers waiting from this group? Can they really help lift the Broncos not only out of an eight-year playoff drought but into a prolonged period of success?

Those questions could all remain for quite a while still.

“Three years from now, we’ll know for sure, like, where this draft panned out,” Payton said.

For a team hamstrung by a league-high $83 million-plus in dead cap charges, the Broncos’ best hope for surprising people this year was to be savvy in free agency, stay healthy and also hope that some young players could handle early roles. Live with early ups and downs and hope the experience pays off down the stretch.

So far, so good.

They’ve been so healthy in the secondary they haven’t needed to throw Abrams-Draine into the mix yet. He had a strong camp, but the Broncos are currently fielding one of the best cornerback trios in football and have depth, too, so the fifth-round pick has been inactive for every game. Gargiulo is now on the practice squad and part of a young, developmental group of linemen.

The other five, though, have combined for few disappointments and considerable promise already.

The Broncos are going to continue to need more.

“You’re definitely banking on it,” Trautman said. “Sean always says that confidence comes from demonstrated ability and that couldn’t be more real.

“With a lot of the rookies — Audric, Bo, Troy, Jonah, Devaughn — they’ve all done great.”