Denver, CO
3 Bold Moves Broncos Must Make on Offense Prior to Training Camp
Training camp is fast approaching, and the Denver Broncos are in need of making a few strategic moves to enhance the roster. The potential addition of free agents could strengthen weak positions or even preempt training camp battles.
What unfinished business do the Broncos have? Here are three key moves that could greatly improve the Broncos’ offense before the training camp commences on July 26.
Naming the starting quarterback before training camp would be crucial. A prolonged battle can deprive the eventual starter of valuable snaps, particularly for a rookie like Bo Nix. These snaps are essential for building chemistry with the receivers, gaining confidence, and mastering the offense — vital for a well-run offense.
Instead of keeping up the facade of a battle between Nix, Jarrett Stidham, and Zach Wilson, the Broncos should dispense with it. And Wilson needs to catch up.
Through OTAs and minicamp, Stidham was the most consistent quarterback, as he should be. He would have the best understanding of the offense, having been with the team for over a year, but he has shown in his limited action that he is not a franchise quarterback. The same can be said of Wilson, despite not being in the best situation with the New York Jets, who drafted him at No. 2 overall in 2021 and didn’t give him the best support.
The Broncos drafted Nix at No. 12 overall because they believe he can be a franchise quarterback. With that belief, the Broncos must do everything they can to prepare him.
Nix is a 24-year-old rookie, so the Broncos don’t have time for him to sit. They need to get him the first-team reps during training camp and let him work to be the franchise quarterback they believe he can be.
There’ a saying that if you have two quarterbacks, you have none.
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This might rattle some who want to turn to Alex Forsyth because of his one year with Nix at Oregon, but he still has to show he can be the starting center. The same goes for Luke Wattenberg. While the Broncos have veteran newcomer Sam Mustipher, his time as a starting center was among the worst in the NFL. Denver needs to add a good veteran with experience.
There are some veteran centers the Broncos can look at, but finding one with good experience might be challenging. There is Mason Cole, whom the Pittsburgh Steelers released, but his experience as a starter isn’t great, though it was better than Mustipher. The one who might be more interesting is Nick Gates, who has been a solid starting center throughout his career.
Another option is reuniting with Connor McGovern, who spent the first four years of his career with the Broncos. He spent the last four with the Jets, where he was a quality starter for the first three years. McGovern struggled in the 2023 season but was sidelined with an injury after seven games.
Bottom line, the Broncos need to add another center to compete, and one who brings quality experience. They don’t have a proven center, but if Forsyth or Wattenberg develop and earn the starting job, then all will be well. However, not having a quality center could ruin a season.
While the Broncos have potential in the tight end room, they don’t have any proven assets. Can Greg Dulcich stay healthy? Can Adam Trautman take a step forward? Will Lucas Krull develop?
It’s a room replete with questions, and the Broncos don’t have any answers. On top of that, they don’t have any insurance if Dulcich can’t stay healthy or Krull develops. And what about the blocking at the position?
Few tight end options are available when looking at free agents. Trevon Wesco is an available blocking tight end and can give the Broncos a reliable blocking option. If the Broncos want to add someone for receiving ability, then Jimmy Graham — a familiar face for Sean Payton — could be an option. Graham will be 38 years old and may not offer much as a receiver, but he would provide some insurance for Dulcich and Krull.
Blake Bell, who is 32 years old and a decent depth option, might be the best bet. Again, there isn’t a top guy available, but the Broncos need insurance for what they have, but players they can look to fall back on if other things don’t turn out as they hope.
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Denver, CO
Are GLP-1 weight-loss drugs really rewriting Denver restaurant menus? | Opinion
Food, Honestly is a monthly column discussing how people actually eat right now – not through reviews or recipes, but through real talk about cost, convenience and everyday food decisions. We want you to participate in that discussion by telling us what matters to you. Email allysoneatsden@gmail.com to keep the conversation going.
GLP-1s, drugs designed to regulate blood sugar, weren’t supposed to disrupt how we eat. They were built for metabolic control, not cultural upheaval, but it’s their effect on appetite that’s been the plot twist.
David J. Phillip, Associated Press file
Drugs like Ozempic are changing the way we eat. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
Now, if you want to see how drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have reshaped how we eat, don’t look to a scale or a lab report. Look at a restaurant menu.
It was actually back in 2005 that the first GLP-1 drug was approved to treat Type 2 diabetes, but unless you were directly affected, you probably didn’t hear about these sorts of drugs until the more potent Ozempic entered our cultural lexicon. Over the past couple of years, as millions of Americans began taking these GLP-1s — and as appetites have shrunk — restaurants started to notice.
Some of the changes? Downsized portions, cocktails losing their alcohol and protein pushing its way into everything from our morning coffee to ice cream cones. What began as a medical intervention is now rewriting the menu.
I’ll admit, I thought last August’s New York Times story about restaurants shrinking portion sizes in response to Ozempic was just clickbait. Mostly, it was my own ignorance. I thought of the drugs as something only celebrities and rich people were taking for vanity, and I didn’t understand how they actually work.
The reality is that 18% of Americans have taken a GLP-1 drug for one reason or another, and those numbers are expected to grow substantially this year as new pills hit the market and as prices come down. Essentially, these drugs mimic a naturally occurring hormone that regulates blood sugar, slows digestion and signals fullness to the brain, erasing hunger long before that “personal” pizza is finished.
The result is not just weight loss, but also a reset of appetite itself. GLP-1 medications normalize smaller appetites — and restaurants are starting to respond.
“Before, if you didn’t have these gargantuan portions [on your menu], you were frowned upon,” said Brent Berkowitz, COO of Denver-based Olive & Finch restaurants. “The trend is flipping around. Now it’s about quality and flavor over quantity.”
At Olive & Finch, that looks like adding smaller, protein-dense plates to the menu and shedding some of those empty calories. Protein is a key part to all of this, the VIP on the plate to make sure weight comes off without taking all your muscles with it.
“It’s monstrous, the emphasis on protein,” Berkowitz said. “I’ve been on GLPs. You don’t feel like eating. Eating becomes a chore, not something you enjoy. You might have had 30 bites before, now you have 13 bites. So it’s got to entice you.”
Nationally, the GLP-1 era has made its way to the corporate test kitchen, with many chains getting in on the small-portion, high-protein action. Olive Garden added a “lighter portion” section to its menu in December 2025. Subway introduced $3.99 Protein Pockets in January, and Shake Shack is channeling the Atkins days with bun-less burgers on its “Good Fit” menu.
While most restaurants have been discreet about naming GLP-1s directly, Smoothie King wasn’t shy about calling its menu what it is. They created a dedicated GLP-1 Support Menu back in 2024, full of high-protein, no-added-sugar smoothies designed specifically for Ozempic users.

Carrie Baird, partner and culinary director of Culinary Creative Group, which runs restaurants like Tap & Burger, Mister Oso, Bar Dough and Fox and the Hen, gave a playful nod to the drugs on her most recent menu at Tap & Burger. The smaller-portion, higher-protein burgers are under a new section called Green Lean Protein. (GLP – get it?)
“I think the demand is there,” Baird said. “For me, writing menus, I want to make sure I’m making these things available to people who want to eat like that. I want to give them the options.”
Her next goal is to create sugar-free mocktails for her restaurants, as GLP-1s can make alcohol less appealing. So while the sober movement had already been picking up steam over the past decade, these meds might just give it a little extra fizz going forward.
Even after learning more about these drugs, their history and their implications, I’ll admit that my ignorance and stereotyping about who, exactly, is taking them persisted. (I blame ‘The Real Housewives.’) I asked Berkowitz — who has Olive & Finch locations in Cherry Creek, Uptown, Union Station and the Denver Performing Arts Complex, as well as Little Finch on 16th Street — if geography played a role in demand. Would Cherry Creekers, I hypothesized, be more likely to need an Ozempic-friendly menu because of their reputation for being, well, maybe a little more Housewife-y?
Berkowitz emphasized that demand for this type of eating is showing up at all of their locations, but it is strongest at the Cherry Creek and Arts Complex restaurants. Still, even in neighborhoods where image isn’t everything, the appetite shift is real.
These drugs may not have been designed to change how we eat, but here we are. Protein added to anything and everything, smoothies designed to play nice with your prescriptions and restaurants measuring portions by appetite, not tradition. Maybe GLP-1s have done what no menu ever could: They’re convincing insatiable Americans that less is more.
Allyson Reedy is a Denver-area freelance writer, cookbook author and novelist. She is also a former Denver Post food writer.
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Denver, CO
Denver area events for Feb. 11
Denver, CO
1 dead after early morning I-70 crash in north Denver
One person was killed in a crash on westbound Interstate 70 in north Denver early Tuesday morning, police said.
The Denver Police Department reported a two-vehicle crash with serious injuries near westbound I-70 and Havana Street on X at 4:07 a.m.
One person was pronounced dead at the hospital as of 8:26 a.m., police officials said, and the crash is under investigation.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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