The Broncos have their All-Pro returner back healthy just in time for their Sunday season opener.
A few days ago, Marvin Mims Jr.’s Week 1 status seemed squarely in doubt, the receiver limping off the practice field in Dove Valley with a few trailing trainers. After Mims missed Friday’s practice while being evaluated for a groin injury, though, he was back in action during warm-ups and positional drills Monday.
It’s a dash of good news for the Broncos and Bo Nix, who presently carry a healthy fleet of skill weapons into a Week 1 clash against a Tennessee Titans squad that finished 30th out of 32 teams in opponent points per game (27.1) last season. Mims, for one, looks to carry through the momentum of a 2024 late-season surge in which he caught six scores in his last seven games.
“He looks more assertive,” Mims’ longtime trainer Margin Hooks told The Denver Post in the offseason. “I mean, he looks more sure of what he’s doing. Like, he knows — that assurance, like, ‘I know what I’m doing now.’”
Cornerback Reese Taylor and tight end Nate Adkins (ankle), meanwhile, were still absent, with both players’ statuses in doubt heading into Week 1.
Denver’s quiet WR6: The Broncos not keeping a single member of their undrafted-rookie-wideout corps — Joaquin Davis, Courtney Jackson, Kyrese Rowan, Jerjuan Newton — was one of the biggest surprises of the organization’s roster cutdown last week.
“We looked at the vision with the receivers, and made decisions based on what we felt was best for us,” head coach Sean Payton said last week.
A vision still evidently exists for third-year wideout A.T. Perry, who Denver elected to keep on their practice squad even through an offseason disturbed by a stint on the PUP list. After being activated roughly three weeks ago, the 2023 sixth-round pick had just one target this preseason.
Still, Perry stands 6-foot-5 and racked up 246 yards and four touchdowns in 10 games with Payton’s former New Orleans Saints in 2023. After spending last year on the practice squad, Perry was having a “real good spring” before an ankle injury, Payton said Monday.
“He’s developmental, he’s long, he’s got good, strong hands,” Payton said. “So we’ve been encouraged.”
A number change: After the Broncos’ Week 2 preseason game against the Cardinals, first-round cornerback Jahdae Barron brought up Michael Jordan as an example of superstar development that he’s striving to one day emulate.
Tough task. But the rookie now has the number to hold himself to it. Barron’s switching his jersey to No. 23, which he wore for four years at Texas, after wearing No. 12 for the last few months in Denver.
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