Broncos Receivers Must Solve A Big Problem From Last Year

The Denver Broncos have one of the most talented wide receiver groups in the NFL, but they’ve mostly flown under the radar to date. One reason for that is the drops that plagued the group last year, which could be one reason why the Broncos pulled the trigger on the big trade for receiver Jaylen Waddle. 

Coach Sean Payton complained about this extensively down the stretch, and he talked about the root cause in his final press conference of 2025.

“There’s a proper way to catch a football, and most of the time, it’s with your thumbs together, not the other way around,” Payton said in a piece written by Nick Kosmider of The Athletic. “The other way around, I’m serious, only exists when the ball is below your belly button. Even the deep balls should be caught with your thumbs together. So we have to be better at that.”

Payton is a notorious stickler to get the details done right, but in this case he’s right. According to Kosmider via TrueMedia, the Broncos had the second-most drops in the NFL, with 17 from wide receivers, which was tied for fifth-most at that position group. 

The writer added that Denver receivers let six more passes slip through their fingers in the playoffs, which was the most among the 14 teams in the tournament. Even worse, three of those came in Denver’s three-point loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game.

To help solve the problem, Payton fired receivers coach Keary Colbert and hired Ronald Curry, who coached for Payton in New Orleans and is a former NFL receiver as well. The move seemed extreme at the time, but Curry did a ground-up evaluation of the problem and why it’s happening. 

“You always address the issues, no matter what it is,” Curry said. “So if that was an issue getting here, I feel like, knock on wood, these guys caught the ball excellently all camp, all offseason. We work on it in between drills, as far as those guys catching the ball, if they’re not in on special teams. As a receiver, you’ve got to be able to run and you’ve got to be able to catch, and that’s what we harp on.”

Many receivers attack this problem with extra reps on the Jugs machine, but Curry focused on creating game conditions in camp as much as possible. 

“A lot of guys feel like they catch 100 Jugs (machine passes) and they’re good, but the ball is coming right at ’em,” said Curry. “So you want to try to put them in positions where they’re catching the ball without burning their legs up. 

“We sit back there, and I’m a former quarterback, and Kyle (Kempt) has been helping us from the quality-control position in throwing these guys the ball and just coming up with different drills that are better game-like (situations). “

Curry says his methods have been successful, but we won’t know how successful until we see it on the field. It’s one of the more intriguing storylines that hasn’t been talked about much, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

“The more you do that, the better, and then you just harp on it. Just like anything, you coach it. Now, you might not get it the first time, but you try it again, and you try it again until it becomes muscle memory, and then you build that confidence and that callus. I think those guys have done that over the last couple of months.”