For months, NFL evaluators have lamented the lack of top-end talent in this 2025 draft class. The pro: There’s an overwhelming amount of depth at tight end and running back, the playmaking spots head coach Sean Payton has targeted since taking a podium back at February’s NFL combine. The con: There’s a clear top tier at both positions that could be gone by the time Denver’s No. 20 first-round pick rolls around April 24.

Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty is a fever dream at this point, a candidate to be snapped up by the Las Vegas Raiders at pick No. 6. Denver’s gone mostly quiet on Penn State TE Tyler Warren, who the New York Jets are high on at No. 7, a source told The Denver Post. Even North Carolina back Omarion Hampton, widely connected to Denver, is seeing his public stock rise well into the first round.

The Broncos are stuck looking for a fit somewhere between their No. 20 and No. 51 slots. Their first-round pick is likely too low to land a top-graded RB or TE. Their second-round pick is likely too low to wait for the next tier to roll around.

The crop of receivers available in the first round, though, could be just right.

Arizona’s 6-foot-4 gamebreaker Tetairoa McMillan is the type of big-bodied receiver Payton loves. Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka possesses toughness over the middle and as a blocker, that would be perfect for Payton’s system. The Broncos have done due diligence on Texas’ projected first-round pick Matthew Golden, a burner who the Broncos hosted on a top-30 visit recently, according to a source.

“Those are guys that I’m thinking, okay, right there at 20, would be in the conversation, ‘Are we going to take them or not?'” said CBS draft analyst Charles Davis.

Even after gambling significant resources to trade up and nab Troy Franklin in the fourth round last year, there’s ample reason for the Broncos to reach high on a wideout next week in Green Bay. They poked around at the available free-agent crop last month but didn’t sign anyone and also lost Payton favorite Lil’Jordan Humphrey to the New York Giants. There’s little WR1 production or potential in the room besides veteran Courtland Sutton, whose contract situation dangles in the balance.

On the flip side, though, Sutton told The Post Saturday he believed extension talks were “working in the right direction,” and he hoped to be in Denver the rest of his career. The organization, too, is high on the development of youngsters Franklin and Marvin Mims Jr. And the Broncos are looking extensively, well beyond prioritizing the first round, at a slew of potential mid-to-late-round fits at receiver.

The Post has reported Denver’s held post-combine conversations with Maryland’s Tai Felton, Georgia’s Arian Smith and Arkansas’ Isaac TeSlaa. Here are a few other sleeper names that the Broncos have checked in on.

Traeshon Holden, Oregon: Another former teammate of quarterback Bo Nix, the Broncos met with Holden at Oregon’s pro day in mid-March, a source told The Post. The 6-foot-2 Holden doesn’t have blazing speed, but he’s a solid red-zone threat.

Kobe Hudson, UCF: Hudson would bring proven production, with three straight years of 600-plus yards at UCF. He was excellent, too, at intermediate routes over the middle in 2024, a solid fit for Payton. Hudson did a Zoom with the Broncos on March 31, a source said.

Brennan Presley, Oklahoma State: A ready-made slot receiver who could fall undrafted because of his stature (5-foot-8), the sure-handed Presley caught 190 passes across the past two years at Oklahoma State. A source told The Post that a Broncos scout contacted Presley on Monday and told him the organization sees him as a late-round or priority free agent (PFA) talent.

Giles Jackson, Washington: A six-year veteran in collegiate football, Jackson’s another potential PFA option in the slot and is an extremely sure-handed target. He’s dropped exactly three passes in 205 collegiate targets, according to Pro Football Focus. The Broncos have had a video conference with Jackson.

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Broncos’ in-house offseason moves: Tendered Dondrea Tillman.

Under contract: Jonathon Cooper (four years), Nik Bonitto (one year), Andrew Farmer (one year), Dondrea Tillman (one year)

Need scale (1-10): 4. Really depends on what Denver’s plan is here. The Broncos have one of the best defensive-line and sack-artist cores in the league … but Bonitto, Zach Allen, John Franklin-Myers, and even Tillman (five sacks in 2024!) will be free agents after this year. Re-signing all of them would be a heck of a pretty penny, and it’s quite possible George Paton and company looks to this year’s draft to find a couple of faces who can wait in the wings. This isn’t a position of need in the short term, per se. But if the Broncos are planning to replace any of the above names, look for them to look to the edges in April.

Top five

Abdul Carter, Penn State: If this league weren’t so quarterback-driven, Carter would probably be the No. 1 pick. He rampaged with 13 sacks last year for the Nittany Lions and led the FBS in tackles for loss, a bona fide run-stuffer. His size doesn’t exactly blow you out of the water — not exactly the biggest dude at 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds — but the natural talent is special.

Jalon Walker, Georgia: As versatile as they come. Walker spent about 40% of his snaps last year at Georgia against the run, about 31% in pass-rush and 29% in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus. He lined up everywhere from mike linebacker to will to the outside, and is solid both as a tackler and in the pass-rush. The size, at 6-foot-1 and 243 pounds, is a concern as a full-time edge rusher, but Walker will play in a variety of packages.

Mykel Williams, Georgia: Let’s just toss both the Georgia boys in here. Williams was a consistent force racking up pressures for the last three seasons at Georgia, and is a powerful 6-foot-5 and 265 pounds. The raw production, though, doesn’t exactly leap off the page, with 14 sacks total in three years. He’s an upside guy.

Mike Green, Marshall: Green led the FBS with 17 sacks in 2024 at Marshall but faces a slew of character questions after confirming to reporters at the NFL combine that he’s been accused of sexual assault twice. He denies any wrongdoing.

James Pearce Jr., Tennessee: A lightning rod off the edge, Pearce Jr. racked up 43 quarterback hurries last year at Tennessee and is scary quick at a 4.47 40-yard dash. Once thought of as a blue-chip stock, though, Pearce’s status has fallen somewhat across the past couple of years after a December 2023 arrest where he was charged for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Other Broncos options

Josaiah Stewart, Michigan: Yeah, fine, there are size concerns here. Stewart stands 6-foot-1, and doesn’t project as a typical starting edge rusher. But the motor popped last year at Michigan, with 8.5 sacks, and Stewart’s capable of simply overwhelming overmatched enemy tackles.

Shemar Stewart, Texas A&M: If the Broncos wanted to reach higher, Stewart is a high-upside swing. He had exactly 1.5 sacks last year at A&M in 521 snaps; toss that out the window. Beneath that, quietly, he racked up 33 quarterback hurries, according to Pro Football Focus — and the sheer athleticism shows signs of dominance, clocked at a 4.59 40-yard dash and a 40-inch vertical at the NFL combine.

Jordan Burch, Oregon: Beyond the Bo Nix tree, Burch could be a fit for another key reason: The Broncos’ only classic power-rush guy at edge in sheer body type is Tillman. Burch could fit as an OLB in a 3-4 scheme or a DE in a 4-3, at 6-foot-4 and 279 pounds, and racked up 8.5 sacks last year at Oregon.

Bradyn Swinson, LSU: In a pretty deep edge class, Swinson’s going rather underdiscussed relative to his profile. He’s got size at 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, and he was a monster last year at LSU, showing year-over-year improvement and finishing with a whopping 60 pressures, tied for sixth in the FBS, per PFF. He’s currently ranked pretty far down on most evaluators’ big boards, and could be a massive value play in middle rounds for Denver.

Jack Sawyer, Ohio State: Again, let’s contend it’s never a bad thing to select four-year guys from national-championship-winning programs. Sawyer improved every year with the Buckeyes, has great size at 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds, and was consistently praised for his leadership on Ohio State’s run to a natty.

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A long way, truly, from Cherry Creek — in Indianapolis, a thousand miles and several years removed. A long way from the kid who couldn’t crack varsity for a couple of years, who was a stone’s throw away from calling his playing career over. He dug his hands into the turf and released a deep breath, mouth forming an O as he exhaled. But the jitters still shook him, a false-start whistle blowing on his first 40-yard attempt at February’s NFL combine.

Helm slowed. He braced to turn back to the start line on his right foot. And his ankle popped.

It was only afterward, when Helm took his shoe off in a conversation with agent Jack Bechta, that the damage revealed itself. The thing had ballooned. Purple splotches spread. There was no long-term danger, but this hurt in the short term, a handful of NFL teams wanting to get a time on the 6-foot-5 tight end from Texas.

In the moment, though, Helm barely grimaced, back for a second try. No one noticed. He didn’t want them to. And so it was, a few seconds later, that the kid from Cherry Creek ended up running his official 40-yard dash on a sprained ankle.

“Being able to be on that stage, on national TV, and being able to have these Colorado kids and all these Creek kids and all the kids that want to be where I’m at — to be that guy,” Helm recalled, “there was no way I was pulling myself out of any of those drills. No matter how bad the injury was.”

Helm finished with a time of 4.84 seconds, 12th out of 14 TEs at the combine. His draft fate teetered somewhere in the middle rounds, and Helm was crushed. I just killed my stock, he lamented to Bechta. Perhaps, the agent reflected, it would indeed knock Helm down a round in April.

But within 24 hours, as pictures of Helm’s ankle inconspicuously made their way to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Bechta realized he could sell this. Well, it sold itself.

This was Gunnar Helm. Never any excuses. Never any fuss. He waited his turn back at Cherry Creek, and waited his turn at Texas, and grew in the shadows of weight rooms and practice fields into a player few could’ve ever quite anticipated. He played every single game at Texas for four years, through swollen knees, swollen shoulders and swollen ankles.

He wouldn’t pull himself out on a sprained ankle, he’s told teams since, in predraft meetings. He would tape it up. He did it at the combine, after all. He has the eyes of Colorado to live up to.

“That’s who he is,” Texas tight ends coach Jeff Banks said of Helm. “He ain’t gonna miss anything. That dude’s not missing anything.”

•••

Back in his day, Blake Helm played football at Cherry Creek with a kid named Gunnar. Something about the name stuck in his head for years. And when he and wife, Patti, were preparing to welcome their son, Blake tried rolling the name Gunnar Helm around out loud, bellowing as if he was manning the Cherry Creek loudspeakers.

On the reception for the Bruins, Gunnar Helm! 

Two decades later, Helm’s parents sat in the stands at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium and rarely heard their son’s name called early on. Helm caught 19 passes his first three years as a Longhorn. The Helms went, for years, to cheer Gunnar’s blocking.

Then, in Week 2 last fall, on a trip to Michigan, his parents watched in Ann Arbor as Gunnar caught a ball. And another. And another. Each subsequent grab prompted a look in the stands from his parents, Blake and Patti, turning to each other incredulously.

“‘Did he just catch another one?'” Blake recalled thinking. “We weren’t used to that.”

Nobody was, really. Nobody expected this. Banks and Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian believed in Helm, sure; they didn’t expect him to catch 60 balls. One Texas writer, Helm recalled, predicted he would catch nine passes his senior year.

“I mean, I had nine catches after my second game, so,” Helm said. “It was a little bit of, like, a gotcha.”

Despite being deployed every game as a blocker, Helm had been stuck behind future Panthers TE Ja’Tavion Sanders for three years at Texas. Sure, he was frustrated. But he didn’t rail at his program; he railed at himself. After Sanders declared for the NFL draft following the 2023 season, Helm went to Banks and demanded that he hold up a mirror at him.

“I said, ‘I want to win the SEC. I want to win a national championship. And I want to play in the National Football League. What do I have to do to get there?’” Helm recalled.

“And he said, ‘You’ve gotta be stronger. You’ve gotta be faster. And you need to be a lot better in the vertical passing game, and you need to be a lot better after the catch.’”

Helm trained in triple-digit heat in Nashville, Tenn., with TE guru Jeremy Holt for a week in the offseason. He ran routes religiously with quarterback Quinn Ewers, preparing himself as a safety valve. He drilled his explosiveness in weight room one-on-ones with Texas strength coach Torre Becton.

Months later, he finished with 786 yards and seven touchdowns in 2024, rounding into one of the better tight ends in the nation. He hurdled multiple guys in multiple games. He averaged 7 yards after the catch, Texas’ tight-end room long drilling a concept Sanders called “YAC Season.”

There was no secret here. There was only a chip that Helm had slapped on his own 6-foot-5 shoulder pads, ever since his days at Creek. It took until his junior year to make varsity, when coaches Dave Logan and Det Betti saw a glut at wide receiver and decided to shift Helm to tight end. He entered Texas as an “underdeveloped” — as Banks put it — 220-pound baby face, the lowest-rated member of Texas’ 2021 class beyond punter Isaac Pearson.

And he wore Colorado on his sleeve, a region Logan says is “severely under-recruited.”

Helm wanted to leave another standard for the Denver region that molded him.

“Just to show people … who may have been in my position coming out of high school, that, you can still do this and you can still be a great, and you can still play to the highest of your ability at the highest level, no matter where you’re from,” Helm said.

“If you’re good enough, they’re gonna find you.”

•••

In early April, Helm sits in a locker room at Landow Performance in Centennial, reflecting. He’s long proven to himself that he’s good enough. But he didn’t necessarily expect to be here, a few weeks away from a potential Day 2 or early Day 3 selection in the NFL draft.

But the cart had been pushed this far. He doesn’t intend to stop. He rattles off the names of idols he wants to be peers: Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, Rob Gronkowski.

“I want to be on that level,” Helm says, firm. “I want to leave a blueprint on football. I want to leave a stamp on whatever community I get brought into. And I want to be known as someone who helped change and develop the tight end position in the NFL.”

The 40 time hurt. The combine results paint a shoddy picture. The tape illustrates something else. Holt, who’s trained TE stars Kittle and T.J. Hockenson, compares Helm to fellow client and Pro Bowler Zach Ertz. Coaches point to his ability to check every box after playing in a pro-style offense at Texas — vertical game, yards after the catch, blocking, football IQ, durability. The only true question is whether he’s got 4.60- to 4.70-second speed rather than the 4.84 time he posted at the combine.

“We get less calls on him,” said Banks, whose Texas program has roughly 15 draftable prospects in 2025, “just because everybody’s like, ‘Yep, that’s what we thought.'”

Helm will likely end up picked somewhere in the middle rounds, with a handful of potential destinations. The Rams, for one, are so interested that they sent a scout to Creek for a background check. The Broncos, too, hosted Helm on a local visit. He was teammates at Texas with special-teams coordinator Darren Rizzi’s son Christian and is roommates with a family friend of new Denver QB3 and former Longhorn Sam Ehlinger.

“They call it the Denver Longhorns,” Helm said, “so if I could be that next Longhorn to come in and help the Broncos win games, it’d be a great honor.”

Whether or not he ends up with the Broncos, Denver can still claim Helm, a prospect who claims the city right back. He didn’t tap out at the combine, he told his father, because that wasn’t who he was. He also didn’t tap out, he said, because he never saw many Colorado kids at the NFL combine growing up.

“I think for this area,” Cherry Creek coach Logan said, “it’s a real feather in the cap of high school football in Colorado, right?”

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They held six Colorado Eagles season tickets at Blue Arena — sick seats, as Kevin put it. And suddenly, those seats they’d renewed for 14 years had become the most coveted cushions in town. Ticket resale prices for a simple AHL game between the Eagles and Henderson Silver Knights broke the stratosphere.

Selling them, though, never once crossed their mind. For this was the return of the Captain.

“You can’t put money,” Kevin said, simply, “on top of seeing Landeskog.”

Not just seeing Gabriel Landeskog. Seeing history. Seeing a man who’d waited exactly 1,020 days since he climbed the mountaintop to a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2022 and then free-fell into a nightmare of knee injuries return to the game he loved. And they packed a tiny arena in Loveland on Friday night as Avalanche teammates Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar and more watched from box seats, unified with a group of Avalanche faithful all hanging onto every twist of Landeskog’s skate.

And the hero’s welcome came, perhaps, in the unlikeliest of places: the penalty box. On his third shift, after chants of LAN-DY had long rained upon the golden-haired forward, Landeskog hooked a Silver Knight and was banished for two minutes.

As he sat, though, the in-arena announcer declared it time for a standing ovation for No. 92. And Landeskog raised a hand, smiling sheepishly, as a roar built in Blue.

“I was talking to the gentleman that was sitting in the penalty box,” Landeskog recalled, postgame, with a grin. “And I mentioned to him that I do, somehow, even though it’s been a long time, I remember this feeling of sitting in the penalty box. And it’s still not a great feeling.”

“But, people made it special tonight.”

Much felt fresh again Friday, on a conditioning assignment to the AHL that represented Landeskog’s first professional action in nearly three years. The bench. The locker room. The ice. Landeskog, as he cracked postgame, forgot his pregame routine. But the knee felt “great,” as he declared to the crowd in a postgame on-ice interview, and flashes of the old Landy permeated Friday.

He was limited to less than 15 minutes of ice time in a period-by-period conversation with Eagles head coach Aaron Schneekloth. He missed a couple of makeable shots on goal and got “a little frustrated” with himself on the bench amid a slight lack of involvement, as Landeskog recounted postgame.

But after several knee procedures, including a cartilage surgery no NHL player has ever returned from, Landeskog’s unbridled aggressiveness was encouraging both to the public and himself. He drove a Henderson player into the glass on his fourth shift. He launched into an all-out dive to poke the puck away shortly after. And he joined a first-period dustup, grabbing Henderson’s Ben Hemmerling and delivering a headlock so nonchalant he looked like an older brother.

“Been thinking about this for a long time, and envisioning this, and envisioning being in a competitive hockey game again,” Landeskog said postgame. “And obviously, there were times when I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen. So it felt great being in the battle again.”

Through those low points, Landeskog waxed postgame, the support he’d felt had been incredible. From his wife. From teammates. From players across the league. And roughly 2,000 miles away, on a vacation in the Cayman Islands, former Pittsburgh Penguins center Eric Tangradi called himself “probably his biggest fan.”

Tangradi, once, had his NHL career virtually ended by the same knee surgery Landeskog had undergone to return to the ice. He knew the exact setbacks Landeskog had faced. He knew “rock bottom,” as Tangradi put it. And he’s followed the Avalanche forward’s journey from the edge of his seat, all the way through Friday’s triumph.

“Just to see him out there is a victory,” Tangradi said of Landeskog. “If he has one shift — and I hope he plays the whole game, but if he has even one shift — like, this is like, massive success story.”

Landeskog had 13 shifts, actually. And the forward didn’t specifically pinpoint a timetable or plan for his return to the Avalanche, as the playoffs loom, but repeatedly emphasized postgame that he felt “good” and that he’d “see what the future looks like.”

Landeskog was later scheduled to play another game for the Eagles on Saturday night.

And as he made his way off the ice Friday night, the chants of LAN-DY lingered long in Blue Arena, serenading a new chapter for the Captain.

“I never thought this was ever going to get to this point and get this big and get this much attention,” Landeskog said. “And that was never my intention. I just — trying to fight my way back.”

“And here we are.”

Broncos’ in-house offseason moves: Signed Evan Engram; tendered Lucas Krull

Under contract: Evan Engram (two years), Adam Trautman (one year), Nate Adkins (one year), Lucas Krull (one year), Thomas Yassmin (one year)

Need scale (1-10): 5. Yes, the Broncos shelled out the most money on the TE market this offseason to land Engram, the Joker Sean Payton hath promised. But Engram is more of a hybrid pass-catching threat than a true tight end, despite his ability to block, and the Broncos ran multiple-tight-end stats on about 25% of their total offensive plays in 2024, according to data compiled from the NFL’s Game Statistics and Information System. Denver’s room has been one of the worst groups — purely by receiving — in the league in two years under head coach Payton, and this draft is teeming with versatile athletes.

Top five

Tyler Warren, Penn State: About as far-and-away a top prospect as you can get of any position group. 6-foot-5, 256 pounds of pure terror. Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki tossed Warren in about every alignment possible in a shapeshifting Nittany Lions attack, and Warren racked up 1,233 yards through the air and ran for 218 more on the ground. Theoretically, Payton would drool over his film, and the Broncos had a Zoom with Warren earlier in March — but there’s simply no way he falls to Denver at No. 20.

Colston Loveland, Michigan: Loveland’s college stats don’t jump off the page, but he was a key part of a national championship at Michigan in 2023 and racked up 582 yards and five touchdowns in 10 games this past season. He stands 6-foot-6 and is a solid route-runner at a variety of levels, with the ascribed potential to become a high-volume receiver. He’s also a pretty clear first-round option.

Mason Taylor, LSU: There’s a sub-tier of a few guys after Warren and Loveland, and Taylor’s as sure a bet as any of them. Let’s start with this: Dad, Jason, is in the Hall of Fame as one of the most productive sack artists ever. Taylor’s uncle Zach Thomas, meanwhile, is in the Hall of Fame as one of the best linebackers ever. Taylor’s got pedigree. He also stands 6-foot-5, weighs 256 pounds, and dropped one pass across 79 targets in 2024.

Elijah Arroyo, Miami: A high-risk, high-upside option, as Arroyo’s college career was marred by a knee injury before he exploded with a seven-touchdown season in 2024. If healthy, he’s a legitimate athlete at 6-5 who averaged a whopping 8.9 yards after the catch in 2024, per Pro Football Focus.

Harold Fannin Jr., Bowling Green: Don’t be fooled by thinking Fannin Jr.’s 2024 (117 catches for 1,555 yards) was due to Bowling Green’s schedule. He racked up over 135 yards in back-to-back games against ranked Penn State and Texas A&M, and the production is as legitimate as any tight end on the board. The athleticism doesn’t pop off the page, though, as much as the top names in the class.

More Broncos options

Terrance Ferguson, Oregon: The connections here are obvious. For one, Ferguson is a native of Littleton and has taken a local visit with the Broncos. For two, he played two seasons with Bo Nix at Oregon. For three, he stands 6-foot-5 and ran a 4.63 40-yard dash. He has more upside as a receiver than he showed at Oregon and could be a Day 2 fit for Denver.

Gunnar Helm, Texas: Another local guy! Helm was a standout at Cherry Creek High School before playing at Texas, breaking out with a 786-yard season in 2024. His stock dipped with a rough showing at the NFL combine, though, and he could be a value pick for the Broncos in the middle rounds.

Thomas Fidone II, Nebraska: Fidone would be a solid Day Three option for the Broncos if they looked elsewhere in earlier rounds. The potential is readily apparent, as he tied for fourth amongst all TEs in the 40-yard dash at the combine with a time of 4.70 seconds. Fidone doesn’t have a ton of proven tape as a pass-catcher, though, and finished 2024 with 36 catches but zero touchdowns. The Broncos saw Fidone at Nebraska’s pro day.

Oronde Gadsden II: Gadsden isn’t widely discussed in the top tiers of tight ends in this draft, which is somewhat curious but likely hinges on his profile as a tweener — he’s more of a receiver-to-TE convert. The production is there, at 73 catches for 934 yards and seven touchdowns. Gasden has pedigree, too, as dad, Oronde, played receiver for the Miami Dolphins. Could be a Baby Joker here.

Mitchell Evans, Notre Dame: Plucking guys from proven programs is usually a safe bet, and Evans was a main piece of a Notre Dame passing attack that didn’t really pass much in 2024, giving him more upside than his 2024 stats (43 catches, 418 yards) might indicate.

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Malone had steered the Nuggets through the days of Emmanuel Mudiay and Will Barton, overseen the development of franchise stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, and taken Denver to the mountaintop with the organization’s first title run in 2022-23. Here’s a timeline of his career with the Nuggets.

Dec. 15, 2014: Sacramento Kings fire Malone

Malone’s first head-coaching gig in Sacramento came to an abrupt end, fired just 24 games into 2014-15, his second year with the franchise. It was never easy going through coaching change as a family, Malone reflected, a decade later. “But,” Malone said before a Nuggets win over the Jazz in late March, “it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

June 15, 2015: Nuggets hire Malone

It took all of a few months for Malone to earn a second chance on an NBA sideline, the Nuggets inking him after two interviews. Then-general manager Tim Connelly said in a statement that Malone “knows the game as well as anybody.” The move received mixed reviews, including from former Denver Post columnist Woody Paige.

Dec. 15, 2016: Malone cements Jokic as starting center

The Nuggets tried and failed to play Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic together in the starting lineup, then briefly turned to Nurkic as their starting center. On this night, though, Malone started Jokic over Nurkic, the Nuggets beat the Trail Blazers 132-120, and nothing was ever the same.

April 27, 2019: Malone wins first playoff series

After improving from 40-42 to 46-36 in Malone’s third year but missing the playoffs, the Nuggets roared to the second seed in the Western Conference in 2018-19 and knocked off the veteran San Antonio Spurs in seven games. “We never lost our composure,” Malone said after a thrilling 90-86 win in which point guard Jamal Murray hit one of the first of a career of clutch shots.

July 7, 2020: Nuggets name Calvin Booth GM

A former assistant to ex-GM Arturas Karnisovas, the Nuggets officially tabbed Booth in the summer of 2020 after advancing to the Western Conference Finals, the move that’d both take Denver to the mountaintop and eventually crumble Malone’s tenure.

May 22, 2023: Nuggets earn franchise’s first sweep

After a lost 2021-22 marred by a season-ending injury to Murray, a juggernaut Nuggets team smoked the L.A. Lakers in four games in the Western Conference finals, leading Malone to stoke a rivalry with comments on the Lakers’ national media attention a few days later: “They’ve gone fishing. We’re still playing.”

June 13, 2023: Nuggets clinch first NBA title

In a defining moment in Denver sports history, the Nuggets downed the Miami Heat in five games, Malone’s eight-year tenure coming to fruition in Ball Arena. “We’re not satisfied with one,” Malone told the crowd, postgame, at center court.

June 15, 2023: Malone steals the show at Nuggets’ parade

Shoulder-shimmies. Iced-out necklace. Shades. On top of the world.

Nov. 14, 2023: Nuggets ink Malone to multi-year extension

A year after the Nuggets’ NBA Finals run, Denver rewarded Malone handsomely with an extension that would’ve taken him through the 2026-27 season, a year after he’d already earned a previous multiyear extension.

May 19, 2024: Nuggets blow 20-point lead in season-ending loss

In one of the most painful moments of Malone’s tenure, Denver fell to Minnesota in Game 7, ending any attempt at a championship encore. Whispers started to bubble that Malone and Booth weren’t on the same page.

Nov. 23, 2024: Malone becomes winningest coach in Nuggets history

Malone clinched his 433rd victory, in 56 fewer games than previous wins leader Doug Moe, with a 127-102 win over the Lakers. This was this season, by the way.

March 21, 2024: Malone rips into Nuggets’ locker room

Amid a slide into mediocrity after the All-Star break, Malone ripped into the Nuggets both privately and publicly following a March loss to Portland. “Nobody watches film,” he said then. “So we’ll have to show them the film.”

April 8, 2025: Nuggets fire Malone

Malone finished his career in Denver with a record of 471-324, one NBA title, and the greatest extended iteration of the Nuggets franchise the NBA has seen to date.

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Denver is signing former Carolina Panthers safety Sam Franklin Jr. to a one-year deal worth up to $1.5 million, Franklin’s agent Harold Lewis confirmed to The Denver Post. Franklin’s been a key special-teamer for the Panthers for five years and profiles as another piece for new special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi.

After going undrafted out of Temple in 2020, Franklin latched on with Carolina and embedded with the organization, despite seeing his defensive snaps fluctuate from one season to the next. In 2023, seeing his best opportunity at safety, Franklin racked up 30 tackles on a combination of ST snaps and defensive alignments. He played just three defensive snaps in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus, seeing a majority of his action on special teams.

In addition to helping Rizzi’s unit, the signing gives the Broncos some needed depth in the secondary. Franklin was solid in coverage in 2023, starting four games and recording a pick-six against the Minnesota Vikings, and Denver’s top-heavy at safety at the moment. Beyond new signee Talanoa Hufanga and returners P.J. Locke and Brandon Jones, the Broncos’ depth at safety has started a total of four games. The 29-year-old Franklin adds a veteran name.

The Broncos still have roughly $17 million in cap space in 2025, from estimations pulled from OverTheCap and Spotrac. Running back JK Dobbins, who was solid in 2024 for the Los Angeles Chargers, still remains on the market. But the Broncos’ brass was expressively firm on drafting a running back in April and have remained largely quiet since a spending spree in March.

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Two years ago, amid an otherwise-meaningless January night, Denver assistant David Adelman assumed the reins for a sidelined Michael Malone in captaining the Nuggets to a win over Portland. And afterward, Jokic sung Adelman’s praises to the heavens — about as glowingly as the center ever has of anyone.

“I really think that DA’s a guy,” Jokic said then, “who’s gonna be (a) next head coach.”

Adelman’s name has floated around NBA coaching ranks for years, the son of former longtime NBA coach Rick Adelman.

Few, though, could’ve ever expected it to happen like this, as the Nuggets have fired Malone in a move tied for the latest coaching change in NBA history with just three games remaining in their regular season, according to ESPN. Adelman has been named the interim HC in Malone’s stead, attempting to prop up infrastructure blown up by dynamite Tuesday.

As Denver looks beyond 2024-25, though, ownership will face major organizational questions about maximizing Jokic’s future in a Nuggets jersey. With that in mind, here’s 10 possible candidates the franchise could consider to fill Malone’s shoes.

David Adelman

The most obvious candidate, and perhaps the best. Adelman has Jokic’s blessing on the record and has served in the wings in the Nuggets’ organization since being hired from Orlando’s staff in 2017. He’s got tenure, familiarity and the locker room’s public backing. But Adelman also has zero head-coaching experience at the collegiate or NBA levels (he did helm powerhouse Lincoln High in Portland for five years), and the Nuggets have no margin for error.

Frank Vogel

Know who Adelman was coaching with in Orlando? Vogel. It’s probable Adelman stays on staff in Denver in any event, and the coaching-tree tie is a point in favor here. Importantly, too, Vogel has championship pedigree, after leading the Lakers to a title in the 2019-20 season. His tenure since hasn’t been pretty, canned in Los Angeles two years after that title and fired after coaching Phoenix in 2023-24. But Vogel could bring a strong defensive focus — the Nuggets’ Achilles heel throughout 2024-25.

Mike Budenholzer

Let’s just assume, for a second, that the Suns jettison Budenholzer after a disastrous 2024-25 season that’ll likely see them missing the play-in tournament. A likely outcome give that star Kevin Durant and Budenholzer haven’t seen eye-to-eye this year. In that sense, Budenholzer’s stock isn’t booming. But he’s coming off a title with Milwaukee just three years ago, and his reputation as an offensive savant is as cemented as any in the league.

Jordi Fernandez

Fernandez is also still active as an NBA head coach, currently in Brooklyn. But the Denver ties are obvious — spending six years on Malone’s staff from 2016-17 to 2021-22 — and surely he still has ties within the Nuggets’ building. The Nets have actually been plucky beyond a 25-53 record this year and have young talent, so it’s less likely Fernandez will be fired. Still, if they move in a different direction, the Nuggets could look here.

Taylor Jenkins

Exactly a week and a half ago, Malone called Memphis’ late-season firing of Jenkins “shocking and odd,” considering the Grizzlies then stood fifth in the Western Conference. The Nuggets, in a cruel twist of fate, have now somehow one-upped Memphis.

Going from one late-season firing to another might not seem ideal, and Jenkins and Malone do have the same agent, as Malone told media before a win over the Jazz on March 28. The 40-year-old Jenkins is a younger mind who molded a young Memphis team into a Western Conference contender, and could be a solid hire for any team looking to develop younger talent. Unclear, though, how Denver might fit into that, beyond Peyton Watson and Christian Braun.

Sam Cassell

Somehow, Cassell has never had an NBA head-coaching gig, despite a former All-Star career as a heady guard and over 15 years of assistant-coaching experience in the league. His time is coming, though, after an NBA title on Joe Mazzulla’s staff with the Boston Celtics in 2023-24. The 55-year-old would likely be a widely-respected pick.

Mike D’Antoni

How about Seven Seconds or Less in Denver? This is a flier, as D’Antoni hasn’t served as an NBA head coach since his final year with the Houston Rockets in 2019-20. His style, too, is more predicated on guard initiation than a center like Nikola Jokic. But the offensive potential here is off the charts, if the 73-year-old D’Antoni wants a return to full-time coaching — or return to a franchise that once fired him back in 1999.

Quin Snyder

This is unlikely. Snyder is in the second year of a five-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks, and despite two middling seasons in Atlanta, the Hawks have a young core who Snyder is developing. That said, if Atlanta did go AWOL and fire him, he’d be one of the best options on the market — a veteran who build a small-market contender for close to a decade with the Utah Jazz. Oh, and he also happened to coach Nuggets team president and owner Josh Kroenke at Mizzou.

Becky Hammon

It’s only a matter of time before Hammon, a former longtime assistant with the Spurs under Gregg Popovich, becomes an NBA head coach. Maybe that time is in Denver. Now leading a powerhouse with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, Hammon could have plenty of interest in the Nuggets job, as she’s in Colorado State’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

Brad Stevens

Nuggets fans might want this to happen, but consider it highly improbable. Stevens is entrenched in Boston.

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Broncos’ in-house offseason moves: Re-signed backup QB Jarrett Stidham; added QB Sam Ehlinger in free agency.

Under contract: Bo Nix (three years + club option), Stidham (two years), Ehlinger (one year)

Need scale (1-10): 2. This time last year, head coach Sean Payton’s staff was facing “a lot of pressure” to hit on a QB of the future. They made out like bandits with Nix at pick No. 12 after an initial heap of post-draft questions. Now, with Nix cemented heading into Year Two and steady backup Stidham returning, there’s little reason for Denver to look especially hard at a QB in the draft. They could still look at a late-round guy or UDFA to push Ehlinger for QB3.

Top five

Cam Ward, Miami: Our lackadaisical king. At his best, behind a behemoth offensive line last year at Miami, Heisman finalist Ward operated in the pocket like he’d just woken up from a two-hour nap. He’s got aura; he could be the NFL’s answer to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s also a pretty solid quarterback who threw for 39 touchdowns last year and has the arm talent to hit on throws of all kinds, even when his feet are topsy-turvy. It’ll be fascinating to see how the presumptive No. 1 overall pick’s style will translate to the NFL.

Shedeur Sanders, Colorado: Sanders is polarizing, partly (okay, mostly) because of the name on the back of his jersey. His pro day tape from Friday set off Twitter arguments between players currently in the league. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said recently Sanders was the toughest QB he’d ever evaluated since a majority of his snaps involved either dinky throws or line protection so terrible it defied logical explanation. That sliver of remaining tape, though, shows a live-armed QB who’s comfortable in the pocket. Lightning rod or not, he’s almost assuredly a top-five pick.

Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss: Pretty fascinating collegiate career here. Dart was a top recruit who battled for a year at USC, transferred out when Lincoln Riley brought Caleb Williams with him from Oklahoma, then rocketed up draft boards in three seasons playing under former USC coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss. He’s big (6-foot-2, 223 pounds) and could eventually profile as a solid NFL starter. In a fairly weak QB class, he has risen high into the first round in most draft projections.

Jalen Milroe, Alabama: There’s some disagreement beyond a pretty clear top three of Ward-Sanders-Dart, but Milroe has as much upside as anyone. Dual-threat QBs are all the rage, and Milroe ran for 20 touchdowns last year at Alabama and can bowl people over at 217 pounds. The problem: he threw five touchdowns against 10 picks in SEC play. There’s a lot of room for growth.

Will Howard, Ohio State: You could throw a few names here to round out a top-five, from Syracuse’s Kyle McCord to Texas’ Quinn Ewers to Louisville’s Tyler Shough. Let’s go with Howard, who might not have the mechanical quickness to become an NFL stud but at the very least will be a plus backup for however long his body lets him. He stands 6-foot-4, is tough, and showed he can make every throw in Ohio State’s run to a national championship. His leadership might be his best NFL projectable.

More Broncos options

Cam Miller, North Dakota State: Miller’s done a 30 visit with Denver, and could catch Payton’s eye as a UDFA. He’s got pedigree from five years at FCS power North Dakota State.

Riley Leonard, Notre Dame: If the Broncos wanted to reach a little higher for another young quarterback in their room, Leonard could be a good developmental guy. He’s got great size at 6-foot-4 and ran for 906 yards and 17 touchdowns last year as a dual-threat standout at Notre Dame. The arm might not profile as a consistent NFL starter, though.

Max Brosmer, Minnesota: Brosmer’s had multiple Zoom chats with Denver QBs coach Davis Webb, and could be another late-round or UDFA fit. He’s a smart, accurate processor with a solid arm, completing 66.5% of his passes last year at Minnesota. He just doesn’t carry a ton of upside.

Taylor Elgersma, Wilfrid Laurier (Canada): Hey, this would just be cool. Elgersma’s aiming to become the first player to ever be drafted who hasn’t played a snap for an American college. He was a standout in Canada, and has drawn interest from NFL teams for his size (6-foot-5, 227 pounds) and pedigree. The Elgersma Bandwagon is accepting all comers.

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“He’s like, ‘Damn,'” Lieberman recalled to The Denver Post, “‘that dude Herbert is a gunslinger.'”

The choice was there a few weeks ago for Engram if he wanted it. He’d seen Justin Herbert on tape. He’d felt the Chargers quarterback, widely considered one of the best in the league, was “superhuman,” as Lieberman put it. Los Angeles wanted Engram, and there’s an alternate world in which Denver’s new Joker chooses to fly farther west, the opportunity to catch passes from Herbert right there.

He chose the Broncos instead because of the system. And quarterbacks coach Davis Webb. And head coach Sean Payton.

And quarterback Bo Nix, in one way or another.

“I think it was looking at all that, and then saying, ‘Is this quarterback good enough to fulfill this and allow me to maximize my potential in this offense?’” Lieberman said of Engram’s decision. “And then, I think, when you turn Bo on, (Evan) was like, ‘Oh, not only is he good enough, like, he’s really good. Like, he’s really tough, he can make all the throws, he’s athletic.'”

The Broncos, of course, nabbed Engram, filling a matchup-nightmare need Payton has searched for since arriving in Colorado. And Denver made out in free agency as somewhat of a destination, with Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga both coming from San Francisco. The Broncos were armed with a well-known HC, a widely respected ownership group and cap flexibility — and they used it to their advantage.

That free-agent haul, though, likely wouldn’t have happened without Nix’s development as a rookie. Payton essentially said as much at the NFL owners meetings in Florida this past week.

“I think we’re a team players want to play for; I think certainly we’re a city that that’s very appealing to athletes to want to live,” the coach said, speaking on Denver’s draw in free agency.

“I think a lot of that is a result of maybe some of the early success we had last year with the young quarterback.”

Take linebacker Greenlaw, who specifically went into free agency wanting to land with a franchise with an established quarterback, as his agent J.R. Carroll told The Post. The logic was simple: Have a good quarterback and you’ve got a chance to consistently play in the postseason.

“All of the teams that were vying, that were in the top of Dre’s list, all had really strong quarterbacks,” Carroll said.

Engram, who’d made the playoffs exactly once in eight NFL seasons with the New York Giants and Jacksonville Jaguars, wasn’t looking for a rebuilding situation. And Nix actively played recruiter with him, meeting the tight end in the Broncos’ facility on his visit to Denver. The quarterback’s maturity, Lieberman recalled, stuck out to Engram.

“(Evan) was like, ‘Yeah, like, this dude walks around like he knows what he’s doing,'” Lieberman said. “‘Like, he started six years in college, he walks around like he’s been around the block.’”

Nix has become a true ambassador, in free agency and otherwise, ahead of his second season in a Broncos uniform. He made a courtside appearance at a Nuggets-Lakers game in mid-March, then went to an Avalanche game two days later and launched signed footballs into the crowd. He’s always been the face, as Nix’s personal QB coach David Morris pointed out — Alabama’s Mr. Football in high school, a leader for two collegiate football powers in Auburn and Oregon.

Fitting into that role in Denver, Morris said, is just natural for him.

“This,” Morris said of Nix, “is kind of who he is.”

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