Forgotten Playmakers — Outlook for Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin & Marvin Mims? | Orange & Blue Today

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Thank you, guys, for today's program with Andrew Mason, and Mason, thanks for covering

every thing for me yesterday, and let's talk about these forgotten playmakers because,

hey, listen, water gets a lot of attention for good reason, Portland Sutton got to get

a lot of football thrown his way for good reason.

But how much does there going to be?

And we're going to talk about Pat Bryan and Troy Franklin as well, but let's start with

Marvin Men.

Could there be more from Marvin in a contract year than from just kind of my nose and

around a little bit?

Loves it here, he wants to be here.

And yeah, he'd like to do a little bit more in offense.

So could he do a little bit more on offense, Mason?

Like what's in the cards for Marvin Men's this year, especially because Jalen Waddle

kind of could, and obviously excel at the things that Marvin potentially could be asked

to do?

I mean, Waddle could open things up for him.

I mean, certainly if you've got Waddle and Mims out there, it's pick your poison to use

the phrase that JK Dobbins utilized when he was on NFL network earlier this week.

So you have the two of them out there, oh my goodness.

I mean, what do you do if you're a defense trying to account for both of them?

And the same could be said for anybody else.

But the thing is, it's a zero sum game.

There's only one football to go around.

There's only but so many targets, so many opportunities.

So Waddle coming in, getting his share, courtman Sutton continuing to get his share.

I mean, it's hard to imagine this resulting in a bump for Marvin Men's Jr.

And I mean, to go to just give you a projection, for example, like that Mike Clay at ESPN,

he does his projections periodically through the off season.

Mike Clay's projection for Marvin Men's Jr. right now sees 28 targets, 20 catches, 112 yards,

one touchdown.

Wow.

Wow.

I know.

That in one game against Buffalo when at eight for 93 in a touch.

Yeah.

All right.

Think back to his rookie season.

Remember that gaming as Washington, yeah.

That was like the first half.

Was that the lone 100 yard game for the Broncos receivers?

I think it might have been.

Yeah.

Like, I mean, not the first time he was not, obviously, he didn't match that in the first

half, but I mean, he was pushing toward it.

I mean, that was, I mean, that was in fact like his first quarter of that season when he

was on a thousand yard pace, the first four games against Las Vegas, Washington, Miami,

Chicago.

I believe he exceeded that total that Mike's projecting for him for season-long total

in terms of yardage.

And I mean, that's, it's just a projection, so it's not necessarily what he's going to

do, but it's just part and parcel of what we're talking about here.

Because again, there's only so much to go around.

I mean, it's, you know, you're saying, okay, Wattles is going to open things up for the

tight end position.

Wattles is going to open things up for catches from the running back position.

Wattles is going to open things up.

You know, we were chatting with Chad Ryder, you know, and Chad Ryder, you're going to hear

this on Friday.

Chad talks about, for example, him opening things up for the running game.

So I mean, again, it's zero something.

There's only but so much to go around.

So I'd love to sit here and say it's going to help Marvin Mim's Jr's numbers, but it's

hard to say that it will just, just by the pure calculus of it, sees.

Right.

Well, in my clay, it does a great job with his projections, those numbers you give, mace

for, you know, potential for Marvin Mim's, that's less than two targets per game.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

When you think of a guy that every time you need him, he's come through for you in a big

way.

But again, I personally believe that Marvin Mim's wants to stay.

Could the Broncos get something done with Mim's, honestly, mace like this summer?

Yeah.

We've seen that before with other of their star players, like they just get deals done.

Yeah.

A deal with Marvin might be complicated with his returnability, because you're going to

have to pay for that.

Yes.

That's a lot of money.

So it's like, okay, there's, there's a number there for Marvin that's fair, provided

that he's okay with opportunity as a receiver, maybe being less than he would like.

Well, the interesting thing with Marvin is if he signs a deal this off season, he can

sign it based on his production over the previous three years, which on offense is likely

to exceed what he's going to get this year based on just simple number of opportunities,

right?

Because if Waddle's coming in, I mean, you're three wide receiver set, you're based when

you go 11 personnel, it's, who do you think it's most likely to be when you go 11?

Probably court, Jalen, and you'd think either Pat Brian or Troy Franklin, right?

You would not think Marvin.

Yeah.

I would mind those Pat Brian, but you would not think Marvin.

Just from a skill set perspective, right?

And even though Davis Web is still calling the plays, Sean's indicated he's not completely

seeding the reins.

I mean, when I asked Sean about that, the combine, he made it clear, he was still going

to be involved from time to time.

So I sort of get the sense that it's going to be Davis Web with his hand on the wheel,

but you know how when you have a student in driver's ed and they have three kids how to

drive.

I'm putting my hand on the wheel from the passenger seat right on the time, but you know

how sometimes with the drivers had cars that they have, they have their own pedals and

stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah, their own pedal, their own steering wheel on the other side, it might be a little

something like that.

And if that's the case, you do know how, if you're talking about the, you know, the default

base, you know, for base 11 pack 11 personnel package, Sean does like his big body receivers

is longer receivers.

So that third receiver, you'd think is probably more likely to be Pat or Troy than Marvin,

just because of body type and skill set.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

And we're talking for gotten playmakers on today's edition of Orange Blue today.

And let's just move to Pat Bryant because Pat Bryant, I mean, once Troy Franklin about

halfway through the season, they started to go away from Troy and we'll talk about

Troy in a little bit, but they really started to go for Pat, the concussions knocked off

a bit of his trajectory, but the intent seemed to be there of like, we're going to feature

a lot of Pat Bryant.

It got delayed because of the concussions, but this year provided that he's healthy, even

with Jalen Waddle in town, they still might be going to Pat Bryant a little bit more.

From the Houston game up until the concussion, the first concussion against Jacksonville,

he ascended to wide receiver to behind court when Sutton.

Yes.

Earlier in the season, it was Troy Franklin, Houston to Jacksonville.

It was Pat Bryant, like the baton had been passed in terms of targets and receptions.

So does that end up carrying forward?

Obviously you bring Jalen Waddle in, so you're talking about this becoming wide receiver three,

but that's something interesting to monitor, and I think sort of the thing to look at going

forward. Let's say it's Pat Bryant. Let's say he does become the guy who emerges ahead of

Troy Franklin is at what point does Pat start to nudge in on court when Sutton as the guy

who ends up being your primary move the chains, your bigger target, your

bigger your compliment to Jalen Waddle because you can see something, I mean, if you're looking

over the horizon, I think ideally you want your speed guy and you want your move the chains,

you want Pat Bryant to become your slant god, right?

Yeah. The comp last year was Michael Thomas that Sean Peyton made on draft day.

So that's the vision. I think the vision is still there for him in that regard.

To go, I want pretty exciting.

Yeah. Now, to go to the, I think you can't have the Pat conversation without having the Troy

conversation. Okay. Okay. Because they're competing with each other. No doubt.

So let's go to the Mike Clay con projection. It's just, it's interesting to just put some

numbers on this, right? So Mike's got Pat at 25 to 61 to receptions, yardish and touchdowns

and Pat with 39 targets. He's got Troy Franklin with 28 targets, 17 catches, 203 receptions,

or 203 yards, two touchdowns. So he's got Pat ahead of Troy, kind of reflecting what I just

mentioned that Pat had nice ahead of Troy Franklin in the back half of the season prior to

the first concussion late in that Jaguars game. Yeah. That's interesting to note. I believe,

Mace, correct me if I'm wrong. He had a couple more catches from Marvin than Troy.

That tells you that target competition that's going to be there for these three at Bryant

truly does excel as that number three receiver. And both you and I believe that he could,

man, that doesn't leave a lot for Marvin or Troy, especially if the Titans do a little bit more,

maybe Ingram hits a little bit more. You know, RJ Harvey's going to do his thing as a receiver

out of the nine. One football, what do we just name? Like six guys that can get the ball?

I'm glad you mentioned RJ because in the passing game, he's going to eat.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's his role. Yeah. I think he's going to eat more than he did last year.

Is that how Davis Web is different as a play collar? Maybe a little bit more involvement of the

running backs? Perhaps. And RJ, it was something that they projected and they projected based on

relatively limited work from him at Central Florida, but as a past capture and what he could do with

the ball in his hands, it was all there, especially. I mean, personally, I love what RJ did

in the passing game in the red zone. And that was notable because the ability to get extra yardage

in the compressed area to find gaps to find space to make guys miss to burst through people

in the passing game. That was that was a budding superpower of his. Yes. And that's that's something that

you love. That's that's the ability of his that frankly, when I watch him, I get the most excited

about is what he does with the ball in his hands after the catch. Get especially in the red zone.

These young guys and these young playmakers, the forgotten playmakers as our topic,

Karen Orange, a blue today, drop a comment down below and tell us what you think about these three.

And I guess it's a question that doesn't really have an answer. I personally believe that Pat

Bryant's emergence because you know Pat Bryant's a competitor. He talked to him on a nearly

weekly basis. He loves it. He like eats competition. He wants it. So as Pat Bryant got better,

they started to go away from Troy. I personally believe that Troy can still develop,

but I also think that's not a knock on Troy. It's just that Pat, Pat took to his coaching of Sean

Peyton. You know, here are comments like Evan Ingram did when it came to Pat Bryant. Pat Bryant was

welcoming the coaching, welcoming the journey, welcoming even perhaps some dog cussing at times

from Sean Peyton or whoever. Like he loves hard coaching. He loves competition. So with Franklin

dropping off last year and there was a clear time when he just stopped. I really think it's because

Pat started to do more. I don't think Troy's hit his ceiling. I always ask the question,

have we seen the best of blank? Have we seen the best of Troy Franklin? Maybe we're close to

seeing that best, but I still think there's more there. Pat's got a lot of that kind of midwestern

toughness to him. I mean, he comes from, you know, he comes from Jacksonville, but he went to Illinois.

And he got close with Trent Sherfields who grew up in Illinois. In fact, he and Trent Sherfield,

they've been working out together in the offseason. That was something Trent that mentioned

to be Super Bowl week that they were going to work out together that they, you know, they've

remained close. And there's that kind of, you know, Pat's a blue collar type player. No doubt. Yeah,

that's, and he's got that kind of, that kind of, I don't, you know, sort of that steel mill

eggs to him almost. And Sean Payton's got that to him as well. Like he's got, they get along so

great. I think that, I think that is like they're, they're, they're kind of cut from the same cloth

almost, you know. So it's just, I don't know, there's, there's something about those two. And

the thing is like, I remember in training camp last year, there was a moment where Pat got,

Pat got a pre-snap timing penalty in practice. And it was one of those days where the offense was

just getting a bunch of pre-snap penalties. That was, there were a few days last year in camp

where the offense just bogged down. Yeah, it's kind of ugly. Yeah. Yeah. And like fall

stars, illegal shifts, illegal formations, that sort of thing. And he got one of any, he got one of

them. And, you know, and, and Payton really got on him for it. And, you know, like,

the thing is when Sean gets on you like that, it's because he, he wants something more out of

you. And he knows there's something more in you that he can do it. He's testing. He's testing you.

He's testing, he's testing, he's testing your, he's testing your limits. He's testing your character.

Your medal. Yeah. And, and Pat's, and Pat's talked about like how that went on in practice. He

told, that's what somebody talked with me about during the season, how it continued into the Wednesday

practices and to the Thursday practices as a season went on. And he, he kept, he kept getting

better and better. He got more playing time over the season. And he wouldn't have got that playing

time if he wasn't earning it and improving. Yes. On the practice field. So I think even though

you've got Jalen Waddle coming in, I don't, I don't see his reps going down. And I think the

fascinating thing to watch over the next couple of years is how he develops. And if there is an

eventual kind of passing of the baton from say court, when Sutton to Pat Bryant, I think that's

long term something that Broncos may be hoping to see in terms of, in terms of the roles that

both of them have here as court believe or not courts going into year nine. Crazy. Of his career.

That's, and Pat's only in his second year. So that's something long term. I think to watch

for over the horizon is how Pat develops as he gets into year two, year three, year four. Certainly

having Waddle out there to take some of the attention off him. If he's the guy who's the third

receiver and 11 personnel, Pat's going to have some opportunities. And as we know, as we talk about

in this offense, everything Sean Peyton got here, wide receiver one is sometimes just the guy who's

open. With Bonix, favorite guy, the open guy. Speaking of attention, the number one asset,

we need Joel's attention and help here on our Denver Sports YouTube channel in Andrew Mason.

We appreciate our audience here on Orange of Blue today. But we always ask for a favor here at the

end. So how can folks further help us out on our YouTube journey? Like, comment, share, subscribe,

hit that notification bell. So that you never miss. Oh, then that's right. He is Andrew Mason.

You follow him on all the socials. He's at May, Denver. I am at Cecil Ami, saying OBT is

ABFD. Thank you very much for watching. Remember Chad Ryder interview coming up on Friday

for menifoldnetworkentvel.com. It's going to be awesome. Thanks for our man DC for running the show.

I'm Cease from Mace. Stay frosty, everybody.