Sean Payton and George Paton directly address if Marvin Mims’ addition impacts Jerry Jeudy’s future with the Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — This offseason, for months, there’s been a constant buzz surrounding the future of the Broncos’ wide receiver room.

Will the Broncos trade Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton or K.J. Hamler? That was the question, with multiple reports fueling those questions.

On Friday, that buzz appeared to grow louder, for a moment, as Sean Payton and George Paton didn’t just use their first pick in the draft to select a wide receiver, but they traded up to the final pick of the second round to select speedy receiver Marvin Mims.

But before the buzz could grow to a roar, Payton and Paton squashed it.

When the general manager was asked if drafting Mims had anything to do with the team’s decision to pick up or not pick up Jeudy’s fifty-year option, he and Sean immediately shut it down.

“No. Absolutely not,” Paton said, with Payton chiming in with a “no” at the same time. “I think Mims is going to compliment what we have. He’ll be a great compliment. He’s going to compete. But it has nothing to do with any of our receivers.”

With that being said, the Broncos still have not made a decision regarding Jeudy’s fifth-year option.

“You know, we haven’t even—we’ve just been focused on the draft,” Paton said, when asked where the team is at deciding on Jeudy’s fifth-year option. The team has until Tuesday, May 2 to make that decision.

Denver’s second-round pick brings speed and playmaking ability to the Broncos’ offense.

“There’s a clear vision for the receiver. His traits. He’s got return skills. Character make-up. He’s smart. He’s someone that can play at Z, can play at X,” Payton said on Friday night, shortly after drafting Mims with the 63rd pick in the draft. “He brings an element of speed you can feel on tape. That vision around the room, there was no gray area relative to what we saw.”

During his final year at Oklahoma, the 5-foot-11, 183-pound receiver averaged over 20 yards per catch. At the NFL Combine, he ran a blazing 4.38 40-yard dash. That speed stood out to Payton like a car in the express lane.

“The one thing that I think we found that was different—a lot of these receivers you felt were in rush-hour traffic Monday through Friday. And this was one that looked like he was driving on Saturday and Sunday. He was open. And it was cleaner,” Payton said, making a fascinating analogy. “And that’s because of his speed.”

That speed also helped him separate himself in the return game as well. In a big way.

“Every year you look at the return game and you try and find who do we feel is the best punt returner in college football and then who do we feel is the second best and—we felt like there were two elite punt returners. The young man in Houston… and this was another,” Payton said, giving insight to another role Mims will play on the team.

After years of needing a spark in the return game, the Broncos are confident Mims has a chance to be the answer.

“Captain. Face of the program. Make-up is fantastic. Extremely intelligent. You feel the top-end speed… There are so many things that he provides that we were excited about,” Payton added, with his enthusiasm bleeding into the microphone late Friday night. “That’s one where you know at a school like Oklahoma, it’s not like this player might slide. Everyone knows who this player is and everyone’s going to value the same things. eVeryone’s looking for a punt returner. And when you have a guy like [Ben] Kotwica and Mike Westhoff. We feel like he’s one of the best return coaches that’s every coached in the NFL. To have a prospect to come in and compete was exciting for us… We feel really good about the guy we got.”

The Broncos sacrificed a fifth-round pick in order to jump up five spots to grab Mims. In Payton’s eyes it was well worth it as Mims was a player the team deemed they “didn’t want to lose.”

“All week, we just had some players that we had targeted. If they fell close enough to us, we’d go get,” Payton explained. “And that was the case with Mims.”

Despite a loaded receiver room entering the draft, Payton and Paton invested even more into the room with their first pick in the draft. But, according to Broncos’ management, the pick has nothing to do with the other receivers on the roster.