Broncos’ RB bread crumbs, winning Dre Greenlaw pursuit and latest on stadium

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Broncos are about to trade in the Florida sunshine for the great indoors.

The team will begin its full football department NFL Draft meetings Wednesday, three weeks and a day before they are on the clock in the first round. They are scheduled to have six picks — one in each of the first four rounds; three in the sixth — to help build the roster coming off Denver’s first playoff appearance in nine years.

Let’s dive into some draft nuggets and other takeaways after two days with the Broncos at the NFL meetings at The Breakers resort:

Running back puzzle at forefront

The Broncos will have a rookie running back on their roster in 2025. General manager George Paton said that plainly here Monday, at a time on the NFL calendar when executives rarely speak in absolutes. Still, it was hardly a startling revelation given Denver’s hands-off approach to that position of need during free agency.

But coach Sean Payton provided a reminder Monday that the Broncos still have four running backs on their roster, and some combination of them will contribute to the team’s backfield this season.

“Make no mistake about it, we’re wanting to see our group at home get these opportunities now,” Payton said.

Three of those backs — Jaleel McLaughlin, Audric Estimé and Tyler Badie — led the team in rushing during at least one game last season. The other, Blake Watson, was an undrafted rookie who saw action in two games.

McLaughlin is the most experienced player in the above group. He’s been a versatile weapon in Payton’s offense the past two seasons, totaling 1,142 total yards and six touchdowns in that span. Estimé represents the biggest investment the Broncos have made at the position. He was a fifth-round draft pick in 2024 who played 13 games as a rookie. Badie was on his way to a larger role in Denver’s offense — he had a career-high 70 yards on nine carries in Week 3 against Tampa Bay — before a back injury in late September knocked him out for the rest of the regular season. The Broncos thought enough of Badie’s progress to activate him for the playoff game against the Buffalo Bills, where he had two carries for 8 yards in place of Estimé.

The bottom line, though, is that it’s unclear whether there is a bonafide difference-maker in the group. None of the running backs on the roster played more than 26 percent of the team’s offensive snaps last season. That makes it a pivotal offseason for this group as they try to carve out role alongside the rookie running back the Broncos have pledged to draft at some point later this month.

“That competition will help,” Payton said.

I found one running back note from Paton interesting on Monday. He and Payton agree with draft experts. This is a deep class of running back prospects, and Paton said he believes the Broncos can find an impact player at the position “in the second round all the way up to the sixth round.”

Did Paton intentionally not mention the first round — where Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton are predicted to fall — as an option? Is it a smokescreen?

“Everyone’s talking about the running backs, so that’s a good thing, right?” Paton said. “There are a lot of running backs. I think we just need to get depth everywhere. Obviously, we want to get a running back. There are other positions we need to get stronger depth. I do think the draft matches up to some of the places we have needs.”

49ers’ pursuit of Greenlaw highlights his impact

Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch wanted “one more chance” to convince Dre Greenlaw to stay.

After the linebacker agreed to terms on a contract with the Denver Broncos during the legal tampering period, the San Francisco 49ers’ brain trust hopped on a plane and headed to Texas to meet with Greenlaw in a last-ditch attempt to convince him to stay.

“That was our first,” Shanahan said Tuesday of the high-stakes recruiting trip. “It just worked out that way. We would have done that in the past if it came down to it, but when you’re going through the recruiting part and he commits to someone else, we wanted to see Dre face-to-face. He happened to live in Texas, so it was a little farther. We couldn’t meet him at our facility so John and I wanted to fly down there and talk to him and give ourself one last chance.”

Greenlaw stuck to his commitment and signed his three-year, $31.5 million deal with the Broncos when free agency opened. He joined safety Talanoa Hufanga, his teammate with the 49ers, in Denver.

Payton was relieved.

“For us, nothing could happen until that Wednesday timeframe,” he said. “I’m glad (Greenlaw) chose us. The only discussions that are being had at that time are (Greenlaw’s) agent to (Paton). Like I said, I’m just glad when the decision is finalized — you wait on a few of these guys, and you know you don’t know all the specifics. Those guys are excited about being in Denver.”

Shanahan, whose team is going through a reconstruction on the heels of a disappointing 6-11 season, said it was “really tough” losing Greenlaw and Hufanga, even if he knew their departures were likely.

“Those are two great players that have helped us a ton,” Shanahan said. “Two of my favorite guys just to work with in my career. So it was really tough losing those guys. But Denver got two great players and two great people.”

Greenlaw and Hufanga both dealt with injuries last season in San Francisco. The linebacker was recovering from the torn Achilles he suffered in the Super Bowl after the 2023 season. Hufanga was limited to seven games as he recovered from an ACL injury suffered in 2023 and then injured his wrist. But both players, Payton said Monday, are expected to be “100 percent” healthy for the start of Denver’s offseason program.

Shanahan shed light on what a healthy Hufanga could do for the back end of Denver’s defense: “He’s just a playmaker the way he communicates back there. He calms all the other 10 guys down. He’s got great anticipation and when he’s out there flying around, he makes defenses better.”

‘Healthy amount of pressure’ on stadium decision

There is no timetable for a decision on a new stadium for the Broncos. That was the message from owner Greg Penner when he addressed a small group of reporters in a private meeting room at The Breakers on Monday. He spoke in now familiar terms about a future project.

We are doing their due diligence in a complex process. We are focused on the best long-term option. We haven’t ruled anything out.

Yet, there was a new tone to the non-update updates from the team when it came to the stadium conversation. The Broncos have a lease with their current Empower Field site through the Metropolitan Football Stadium District that runs through 2031. Penner insisted that doesn’t create an ironclad deadline for the team’s ownership group as it weighs options, but team president Damani Leech conceded there is a “healthy amount of pressure” to create long-term plans given how long the entire process would take.

“The lease ending is certainly a stake in the ground of time, but we are not holding ourselves to that to say, ‘We absolutely have to have something by that year,’” Leech said. “The components of what happens though, I think, is real and important to think about. Stadiums generally take about 48 months to build from a construction standpoint. You think about what has to happen from a permitting standpoint and all of those things. We’re starting to build out those calendars to get a better understanding of once you do decide what you want to do, how long it’s going to take.”

Damani Leech says the work to improve the team’s facilities has “been quite a sprint.” (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)

The Broncos have already made significant investments to improve the team’s infrastructure. They put $100 million into stadium upgrades ahead of the 2023 season. They are building a brand new training headquarters, at the site of their current facility, that is set to open ahead of the 2026 season at a price tag of $175 million.

“If you talk to people who’ve been with the organization for a longer period of time, the things that we’ve done in a two-and-a-half-year period a lot of clubs around the league get done in about a 10-year window,” Leech said. “So it’s been quite a sprint.”

The Broncos may not be in a sprint to come to a final decision on a future stadium project, but it appears the pace is quickening.

“A stadium is a signature opportunity and moment to do that and be a part of it,” Leech said. “You talk to other colleagues who’ve been involved in stadium projects, and they talk about it. It’s transformational for their career. It’s a special moment. Given the life cycle of a stadium, you’re lucky if you get a chance to be a part of it just once in your career. So that alone is pretty exciting.”

New ‘Russian hockey player’ on coaching staff

Payton raised a few eyebrows last month when he announced changes to his coaching staff that included a new director of game management, Evan Rothstein. Payton didn’t go into much detail Monday about specifically what Rothstein’s game day role will be this season, but he was animated when talking about the pursuit of his new assistant that goes back years.

“I tried to hire Evan when he was leaving Detroit,” Payton said. “He ended up in New England, but I had interviewed him in New Orleans. So every season I’ve always kind of paid attention to what he’s doing. He’s real smart. He’s a football coach. He’s also someone who has a great way about him, both analytically and from a preparation standpoint. So finally that worked out.”

Rothstein’s resumé, which includes NFL stints with the Lions (2012-2020) and Patriots (2021-2024) speaks to his coaching versatility. He’s been a quarterbacks coach. He’s worked with the offensive line, which he’ll also do in Denver. He’s contributed to football research and game-management strategies.

Evan Rothstein works with quarterback Drake Maye during his time with the Patriots staff. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

Payton has remained intrigued by Rothstein’s career from afar for years. So during an offseason in which Payton saw two of his assistants (Declan Doyle, John Morton) leave for offensive coordinator roles with other teams, and in which he fired three others (Ben Kotwica, Greg Manusky, Michael Wilhoite), adding Rothstein was a major priority.

“This guy is something,” Payton said. “Super smart. Kept track of where he’s at. So it was kind of like an offseason (question), ‘What’s he doing now?’ The minute I felt like he was available. … It was just, ‘Where’s Evan at this year?’ Kind of like the Russian hockey player you don’t know you can get in the draft. He finally became available, so that would be specific to him.”

(Top photo of Jaleel McLaughlin: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)

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