Denver Post Broncos writer Parker Gabriel posts his Broncos Mailbag weekly during the season and periodically during the offseason. Click here to submit a question. Who would you like to see us pick up in the offseason? I think we need more weapons for Bo Nix. We need a legit WR1 — I love Courtlan d Sutton, but he’s a WR2 — and a tight end because Evan Engram was underwhelming this year. Who’s out there that you’d like to see us get? — Mark, Arvada Hey Mark, thanks for writing in and getting us going for an offseason rendition of the mailbag. The Broncos have a nearly full complement of draft picks — plus an extra fourth-rounder from New Orleans, which should hover just outside the top 100 — and a good amount of cap space to work with this offseason. They can create quite a bit more space based on extension decisions, potential roster trimming, restructuring and more.  The normal offseason house-cleaning stuff. I’m not the only one who agrees with your assessment that the Broncos need more playmaking offensively. Left tackle Garett Bolles said it after the season and head coach Sean Payton acknowledged it in his own way after the season. He and general manager George Paton each continue to say they like the young talent they’ve got at receiver and running back, but each also said last week that Denver will look to upgrade anywhere possible. All three of the offensive skill positions look in need of upgrade, whether that’s development of players already on the roster or additions from the outside. In a perfect world, you’re talking about receivers Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin and Pat Bryant all taking big steps in 2026. Same for running back RJ Harvey in Year 2. Realistically, though, Denver could stand to add external options at all three. Pie in the sky, I’d put the order of impact this way: Top-flight, all-around TE first. Then a No. 1 receiver. Then, a high-quality running back. The best tight ends in football make such a difference across an entire offense. Of course, a Brock Bowers or a Trey McBride can set the course for an entire passing game. Imagine what the Broncos offense would look like with George Kittle or one of last year’s first-rounders in Indianapolis’ Tyler Warren or Chicago’s Colston Loveland. The rub, of course, is that recognizing the value of that player and finding him are two different matters entirely. Same goes for a top-flight receiver to pair with Sutton or a difference-making running back. At least in the backfield, the Broncos can entertain bringing J.K. Dobbins back, hope he stays healthy and then work on perhaps finding a new face to fill out the room. Receiver-wise, Stefon Diggs has said the past couple of weeks that the Broncos almost landed him last offseason before he signed with New England. Denver reportedly checked on Miami’s Jaylen Waddle around the trade deadline. There will be trade speculation about Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown this offseason, along with perhaps a few others. The top of the free agent market is George Pickens — at least until he signs an extension with Dallas — and then players like Indianapolis’ Alec Pierce and Green Bay’s Romeo Doubs, though of those three only Pickens is a true, proven No. 1.  The question for any player, naturally, is the acquisition cost in dollars, draft capital or both balanced against production and also whatever other baggage might come along with the player. At tight end and receiver, the Broncos don’t need more bodies. They just need one real difference-maker at each. That can actually be the bigger challenge than finding several guys who fit into a mold or a role in the offense. How will the field-goal decision be treated in Broncos history? — Ed Helinski, Auburn, N.Y. Not kindly, for starters. I’m not sure it’ll go down in the sort of all-time franchise lore, but certainly it will be remembered by a lot of people for a long time. Related Articles Patriots WR Trent Sherfield is still mentoring Broncos’ Pat Bryant after Bryant took his job Broncos’ Garett Bolles wins NFLPA’s Alan Page Community Award, reflects on how far he’s come Broncos push ahead with land acquisitions near Burnham Yard for new stadium Broncos’ Pro Bowlers embrace Davis Webb’s potential play-calling ascent: ‘It’d be awesome’ Among Broncos veterans Dre Greenlaw, Evan Engram, J.K. Dobbins, which player would you want back? None more vividly, likely, than by Payton himself. He said as much last week during his end-of-season news conference. The longtime head coach said he regrets the play-call more than the decision to go for it in the first place, but he didn’t exactly mount a big defense of his rationale for going for it, either. Essentially, he sounded like he regretted both, but the play call more than the decision to keep his offense, led by his backup quarterback, on the field for a fourth-and-1 from New England’s 14-yard line and leading 7-0 early in the second quarter of the AFC title game, while knowing that snow was forecast to start before the game ended. Anybody in the business, as long as Payton’s been in it, will have a long list of calls they regret. I’m not sure fans — or really anybody who’s not a coach — maybe realize just how acutely play-callers remember specific sequences and decisions. It can be with a Super Bowl berth in the balance or in Week 6 against Arizona. But obviously, the stakes do matter, and Payton sounded after the game and the following week like a guy who will remember that call and that decision forever. Am I the only one who agrees with Sean Payton’s fourth-down call? The way I saw it at the time, even after the play failed, was that Payton showing the confidence in his players was worth more than three points in the fourth quarter. The Broncos have been winning in the fourth all year, so this looked like a good bet. The only problem was that this game did not have a fourth quarter. The weather eliminated that. — JoeBieg, Longmont Your first point is well-taken and something I’ve talked with several people about in the aftermath. You can use the dominant start for Denver’s defense as justification for taking three points and building a two-score lead, but you can also use it to justify going for it. No doubt about that. That’s certainly part of the reason the play call itself bothered Payton more than the go/no-go decision. And yeah, the weather heavily impacted the game in the second half. Payton indicated it was worse than they thought it was going to be based on the forecasts they had at the time. But everybody knew snow was coming. There is a huge disconnect between the thought that the Broncos have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, yet the rushing attack is so anemic and easily defended. Why is that? — Mark, Centennial You know who else wants to know the answer to that question? Payton himself. He said so last week. Here’s what he said when asked about the running game, noting that he’d been in offensive line coach and run-game coordinator Zach Strief’s office since the season ended, talking about studying the run game this offseason. “There’s probably a series of answers to that,” Payton said. .. “I feel like we’re far enough along with the RPOs and some of that, but when we want to run it under center and control a game — we’ve been able to do it a few times, but not as much as I’d like. That’ll be an important study and with urgency. And then also with the runners, who are we asking (to do what?). Losing J.K., obviously, that was a tough loss. He brought a lot to the locker. More than you would know. “But that’ll be one of the points of emphasis that I think that we research and look into heavily. I want to play from the gun, but I also will always want to play with a two-back or multiple tight end mindset and have that flexibility. It’s a good question. I think it’s one of the key things that we have to do this offseason.” If you look just at the splits between how Denver ran the ball before Dobbins’ injury and after, it’d be easy to believe that the Broncos basically had a ball-carrier problem the second half of the season. Clearly, that’s at least part of the equation, but Payton and company aren’t satisfied assuming that’s the entire thing. Payton’s always been a smorgasbord run game believer. He’ll incorporate inside zone, outside zone, power, duo, zone read, RPO, a smattering of QB-designed run. He’s never been one to hang his hat so extensively on one thing like much of the Shanahan tree builds around outside zone, for example. What Denver’s staff comes up with — and what newly promoted offensive coordinator Davis Webb believes in — will be a critical component to the offseason. Hey Parker, going from jubilation to heartbreak in the span of 30 minutes feels like a wakeup call to me. Do you think, moving forward, Sean Payton will give his backup QBs more reps during the regular season? By more, I mean, SOME. It seems like a little bit of action when it matters would better prepare a team for worst-case scenarios like the Broncos are facing. I get that this was an odd season — with so many close games and come-from-behind wins, Nix didn’t get a lot of time to rest — but surely there were opportunities to get Stidham at least a few reps, no? Even an occasional down here and there? And not actual garbage time, but situations where the plays really matter? Is this a strategy that differs from coach to coach and team to team, or are the Broncos an outlier? What are the pros and cons of giving your backup QB real reps in situations that matter? — Mark, Fort Atkinson, Wis. Hey Mark, the short answer is no. Yeah, it would be great to get your backup quarterback some live work during the regular season, but almost nobody builds it into their plan for the regular season. A couple of series late in lopsided games can be a nice reward for your No. 2, but there’s just so little margin for error in the NFL that actively putting a player you’ve decided isn’t as good as your primary quarterback in the game for meaningful time is asking for trouble. If football were like hoops or baseball, where the value of one game wasn’t so high, then sure. We see this all the time in those sports — a young pitcher who might be needed in the playoffs gets innings in August and September or bench players get extra work in the middle of the NBA season. Those scenarios can do two things: Get a role player comfortable ahead of a time when he might be needed and also take some workload off starters. That’s just not the way it works in the NFL with only 17 regular-season games and the near-universal acceptance that everything comes down to tiny margins. The Broncos won the division about as comfortably as you’ll see this fall — though it took 11 one-score wins to do it — and even still the only reason they hosted the AFC Championship Game is that New England lost Week 1 to Las Vegas. The Raiders, of course, ended up with the worst record in football. That could be the difference for a team making the playoffs or not in the future. We see those kinds of tiebreakers and close calls all the time. That more than anything is why teams try to keep their main guys fresh and healthy, but also play them until the moment the action no longer matters. Hello Parker. Alex Singleton seems like a great guy/teammate, but he is a major liability in coverage. Dre Greenlaw, in my opinion, has not provided what we signed him to do. Mainly because he isn’t in the lineup on a consistent basis. Do you think middle linebacker is going to be an area to focus on in the draft or free agency? Secondly, why won’t Sean Payton get Evan Engram involved in the offense?! It blows my mind watching games every week and seeing the importance of tight ends. And we don’t use ours! — Mike, La Jose, Pa. Hey Mike, thanks for writing in. Inside linebacker is definitely one of the most interesting positions to watch for the Broncos this offseason. Greenlaw is under contract for two more years, though his contract is not prohibitive to get out of if Denver decides it wants to go in another direction. He was an impact player against the run, didn’t play a ton of coverage generally speaking and, of course, missed time with two different injuries over the course of the regular season. Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad aren’t the best coverage linebackers in football, but not all of Denver’s issues in the middle of the field or against backs and tight ends were on them. In fact, I thought both played pretty well in that department over the second half of the season. Really, teams went after the Broncos’ safeties — Talanoa Hufanga in particular — after Brandon Jones was lost for the season due to a pectoral injury. Singleton and Strnad both said after the season that they thought they played the best football of their respective careers and I don’t really disagree with them. They’ve both earned starter money going forward. If Cody Barton got $7 million per season last year in free agency, I think you could see either or both Singleton and Strnad push toward $10 million a year. Will one of them be back in Denver? Both, but not Greenlaw? None of the three? It seems like all options are on the table at the moment, though having all three back might be a stretch. Remember, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph will be back for the 2026 season and he’s got a high level of trust in Singleton. Strnad has called his defense, too, when Singleton missed a game in the middle of the season. Those things matter when Denver starts sifting through its roster. Why does Riley Moss never look back for the ball? He is going to blindly run into someone, draw a flag, and cost us the game. How can Moss be better than Jahdae Barron? — Eric, Nashville Moss definitely became a lightning rod-type player over the course of the season, Eric. My take: Overall, he played really well and a handful of the pass interference penalties against him were really soft, but also his low moments were quite low. He’s a tough customer in coverage, but sometimes his technique abandons him down the field. He’s a physical tackler, but when it got away from him against Jacksonville, it happened multiple times that ruptured into big gains. He was the most-targeted player in football (116) and allowed the fifth-lowest completion percentage among the top 20 targeted defensive backs. That’s a pretty darn good body of work. But there is also plenty to clean up. A big part of Moss’ game is his ability to take tough moments in stride and play through them. That’s part of why the Broncos trusted him with the tall task of playing opposite Pat Surtain II. The Barron conversation is interesting. If the Broncos decide to extend Ja’Quan McMillian this offseason, then will Barron bump outside and compete with Moss? Moss is entering the final year of his rookie deal in 2026. Denver also has a talented cover man in Kris Abrams-Draine in a reserve role outside, too. The Broncos have a lot to work through there, but not all of it has to happen this offseason, necessarily. It’s a good problem to have, too, when you have more guys who can cover than spots to put them in. There aren’t many teams in the NFL that can say that. Hi Parker, I’m concerned about Pat Bryant and how many injuries he’s been piling up of late. I get little things here and there, but concussions aren’t exactly great to accumulate. I had high hopes of him eventually becoming a stronger weapon for us, but I’m afraid his career may be cut short. What do you think? — Ryan, Wheat Ridge It’s always concerning when a player has two concussions in a short period of time like Bryant did this year. He wore a Guardian Cap over his helmet for the Patriots game, which struck me as a prudent move. As for long-term concern, it’s a natural worry, but one that at this point is just that. A worry. Hopefully, for Bryant’s sake, he can have a long, healthy career. Want more Broncos news? 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