Broncos’ top priority heading into NFL draft? Outfitting Bo Nix with more playmakers ...Middle East

Sean Payton sat down and reached for a label-free water bottle.

As he cracked it open to take a sip, just before starting Thursday’s remote, predraft news conference, George Paton extended a half-full Smart Water.

“Is this your water bottle?” the Broncos general manager wryly asked the head coach.

Payton smiled, shook his head and carried on with his own.

In the midst of the ensuing 25 minutes with reporters, Payton copped to the mishap that precipitated the light-hearted exchange.

“I drank out of his water bottle accidentally the other day,” Payton said.

Yeah, it’s that time of year.

The late winter and early spring weeks when Payton and Paton spend hours per day sitting next to each other watching film, driving to the University of Colorado’s pro day, flying to work out a prospect or hosting 30 draft hopefuls on visits to Broncos headquarters.

It’s the time when they pore over hundreds of prospects and reams of digitized film to meld their football minds — all while mostly keeping their drinks to themselves.

Thursday marks the start of their third draft together in Denver.

Two years ago, they were just getting to know each other and entered draft weekend hamstrung, their draft capital depleted by trades for Russell Wilson and the right to hire Payton.

A year ago, they picked quarterback Bo Nix with the No. 12 overall selection and appeared to have at long last settled the game’s most important position.

Now they enter their third go-round coming off the franchise’s first run to the playoffs since 2015, quarterback in place and roster healthier than it’s been in years. They’re in sync, almost relaxed, and sensing opportunity.

“We’re aligned in how we want to build this team,” Paton said. “We both have a clear vision with what kinds of players and what types of people we want to bring into that building.”

They’re not saying it outright, but after building out from the line of scrimmage over the past two years and finding a quarterback last spring, the Broncos are in prime position to outfit Nix with at least a couple of skill position players who they hope can help elevate Denver’s offense for years to come.

Build around Bo

Among the best places a franchise in today’s NFL can be is competitive and led by a quarterback on a rookie contract.

That’s now the Broncos, with the caveat that they still will carry $32 million in dead salary cap charges for Wilson through this season.

Nix, though, unlocks a world of possibilities in Denver. The Broncos brass just doesn’t typically put that kind of weight on him publicly.

Over his rookie year, one of Payton’s common refrains was the need to paint the picture around the young quarterback.

Translation: There’s enough pressure on him, and plenty is going to be asked of him. Others have to pull their weight, too.

Well, Thursday through Saturday represent a prime opportunity to grab some watercolor brushes and get to work.

Payton indicated he thought that was best done by upgrading the roster in general rather than tailoring draft picks and approach specifically to Nix’s game.

“When we talk about painting the picture for Bo, it’s like painting the picture for quarterbacks (generally),” Payton said. “What’s the vision for players we might add on offense or we might add on defense? When you help your defense, you help your quarterback as well. There are a lot of runners in this draft. Certainly, it’s an opportunity, but they are different types of runners. Some of them are physical, downhill runners, and some of them are guys who can take a misdirection, scissors-type run and go the other direction with it. It just depends on what you are looking for.

“We love Bo, but we’re not talking about Bo in these meetings a lot. It’s more about, ‘How do they add to what we do offensively?’”

What Denver did offensively in 2024 was rely heavily on its rookie quarterback.

Nix finished his first pro season sixth in the league in drop-backs. He was fifth among quarterbacks in rushing attempts and third on the Broncos in both attempts and yards while tying for the team lead with four rushing touchdowns.

He got plenty of help from Denver’s receivers, from its veteran offensive line — the club hasn’t lost a substantial contributor from either of those groups — and from a defense that was near the top of the league in metrics across the board.

Denver, though, got far less production from its running backs and tight ends.

It just so happens those are two of the deepest position groups in this draft.

Quarterback friendly

When it comes to helping a quarterback, Payton likes to say, two of the best ways are with a good defense and a good run game.

The Broncos had the former in 2024. They did not have the latter.

They spent real money in free agency, largely aimed at bolstering an already-good defense and attempting to make it regression-proof. Maybe even elite.

“When we sign a good football player in free agency, like (linebacker) Dre Greenlaw, we feel like we’ve helped our team, and in turn our defense, and then in turn the quarterback position,” Payton said.

They also added tight end Evan Engram, another position that can take heat off a quarterback of any experience level and caliber.

“It’s helpful for the entire offense,” Paton said of Engram last month at the NFL owners meetings. “It just opens up the middle of the field a little more. That’s something that we lacked — the explosive element that we’ve lacked in the middle of the field. As we’ve talked about, he’s a mismatch-type player, so that only helps the quarterback.”

Helpful to the quarterback and every other offensive skill player.

“You add someone of Evan Engram’s caliber inside the slot and at the tight end position and add those mismatches for the nickel and the safeties and linebackers, it only is going to open up the field for the rest of us,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton told The Post recently. “You put (Marvin Mims Jr.’s) speed in there, the guys coming out of the backfield and I think that we’ll have a lot of weapons we can work with.

“We saw what Bo did last year and you add some more weapons on top of that and I think it’s only going to take off even more from there.”

What they have not yet addressed in a real way this offseason is the run game.

Skill to win

Even as Payton tried to downplay the idea that this draft is about outfitting Nix with upgraded skill talent, the coach couldn’t quite get away from the running back conversation.

“I appreciate that term ‘weapons’ and yet,” Payton started to protest, before pausing.

“There will be focus on the running back position,” he allowed. “It’s a pretty good draft for running backs.”

They don’t have to take one in the first round. They don’t have to take a tight end, either. They’ll likely dip into a deep defensive line group at some point, perhaps as early as No. 20 overall. They’d be justified in bolstering depth at cornerback, edge and receiver later in the draft.

“It’s a starter’s draft is how I would phrase it,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said earlier this spring. “Going through and watching all these guys for the combine and talking to a bunch of people around the league, OK, some positions maybe don’t have that superstar that we’ve had in years past, but we do have a boatload of starters.”

Teams can always use more of those, even those with rosters like Denver’s, where there aren’t a ton of glaring needs.

“One of the things that we did a good job of in free agency is put ourselves in a position to really look at — again, three years out — how do we like this player?” Payton said. “Fortunately, there are some deep positions in this draft that I think can help, not only us, but a number of teams.”

In the end, however, this draft class is first and foremost about skill talent for the Broncos.

They have a quarterback they believe in. They have a defense that should keep them in games. They have receivers they like and offensive line continuity that’s the envy of the NFL.

What they don’t have is enough field-tilting talent on offense. The kind of players who strike fear into coordinators week in and week out.

That doesn’t mean that whoever they find at running back and tight end should be expected to produce at that level from Week 1.

Payton and Paton know how the board looks, though, and they know what their roster needs.

They’ll perhaps draft on some strengths and take care of some spots that could be needs down the road. That’s good roster hygiene.

Payton said Thursday that, for as often as all 32 teams talk about staying true to their draft board, everybody targets specific players to some level or another.

“We’re all guilty of really liking a player and then trying to (get him),” Payton said. “… I think you’re still looking at value, but it’s the value-need discussion, and I think that exists in every draft room today.”

The Broncos’ needs are clear as draft week arrives. Now it’s on Payton and Paton to fill them.

“Both of us enjoy when we sit in that room and we are right next to each other,” Payton said. “I think the most enjoyable part for me is the board is stacked, but we’re beginning to start — we’re in the fourth and fifth round now and wiggling through. There are two things that you’re looking for: Somehow or another, are we undervaluing a player? Because you’re dying to fall in love with guys. That’s a good thing.

“Then you are also just as anxious to look at it and say, ‘Is it going to be easy to make our roster?’ These two weeks or week-and-a-half prior are fantastic. It’s something we enjoy doing. It’s thorough.”

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