ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton have spent dozens of drafts inside team headquarters during their respective decades-long careers in the NFL.

They have rarely waited so long to get in on the action.

The Broncos on Friday selected Texas A&M defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim with the 66th pick. That came at the top of the third round, after the Broncos acquired a sixth-round pick from the Bills to hop back from the 62nd spot. The result was that the Broncos, for only the third time in franchise history, did not make a first- or second-round pick during a draft.

“It fell like we thought it would,” Paton said.

The Broncos never felt the urge to dart up the board in search of an instant upgrade. It was the continuation of a message the Broncos have sent to members of their roster this offseason, a group that finished 4 points shy of a trip to the Super Bowl. Denver may not travel the same path in their championship quest this season, but it’ll largely be bringing the same cast on the journey.

Denver has added exactly one veteran free agent since the new league year began in March: Tycen Anderson, a part-time safety and full-time special teamer. The Broncos on Friday became the only team in the league to end Day 2 having made only a single pick.

There was the major splash, of course, that brought dynamic wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to Denver. Can you imagine the pitchforks that would be out in the Mile High City if Waddle hadn’t penguin-danced into town back in March?

“Yesterday, that was a boring day,” Paton said of the draft’s opening round Thursday. “But we forget that we did trade (their first-round pick) for one of the better receivers in the league, so it was a good day.”

Go ahead and scan the initial 53-man roster the Broncos put together last fall, the one that embarked upon a journey that ended with the AFC’s No. 1 seed. A conservative projection right now could point to somewhere between around 43 and 45 of those same players being on the roster that Payton and Paton put together ahead of their 2026 season opener in September. Open starting spots on this roster? They are in short supply. The foundation is largely set.

Quietly, though, the Broncos have set themselves up for a substantial Saturday. The trade with Buffalo pushed Denver’s total of Day 3 picks to seven. The work they do with that capital will be critical to Denver’s quest to ensure its status as title contenders becomes an annual occurrence for the foreseeable future. A massive contract for quarterback Bo Nix looms, but that’s an anchor only if the Broncos can’t continue to reinforce critical rotational spots on their roster through the draft.

And that doesn’t have to come, Paton said, with the glitzy Day 1 and Day 2 selections that garner all the headlines.

“As we go through our discussions, these two fourth-round picks will define our draft,” Paton said. “We should, if we’re doing our job, hit on the second-round (pick), now third. It’s really the middle-round picks that define your draft. We’re looking for young developmental backups with traits that we can develop.”

Onyedim fits that description. After four years at Iowa State, where he played one season with current Broncos defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike, Onyedim transferred to Texas A&M in 2025 and put together his best season. Importantly, the scheme at Texas A&M under defensive coordinator Mike Elko showcased his ability as a one-gap interior pass rusher.

“That defensive scheme sometimes, that’s one of the challenges to projecting (a defensive lineman),” Payton said. “The importance of him at the A&M exposure, you got to see a guy play a different position or technique. I think that probably helped a lot of teams (with Onyedim’s evaluation), not just us.”

Uwazurike produced his best season with the Broncos in 2025, his third in the NFL. He’ll enter the final year of his contract this season while playing alongside Onyedim and Sai’vion Jones, the second-year player whom Denver selected out of LSU in the third round last year. The Broncos lost John Franklin-Myers in free agency after he produced 14 1/2 sacks the past two seasons, but the Broncos are taking a developmental approach in replacing his production, while planning to lean more on freshly extended veteran Malcolm Roach.

It’s not a flashy process, but it’s one, extrapolated at positions across the roster, that explains how the Broncos have steadily risen from a five-win outfit the year before Payton arrived in 2022 to a team that ended Kansas City’s near-decade run atop the AFC West.

“The reason why we’ve been so good the last couple of years is because of our depth, and where you get that depth is the third day,” Paton said. “They may be backups in Year 1 like (outside linebacker) Nik Bonitto or (cornerback) Riley Moss, and then in Year 2, if you hit on them, maybe you get a starter or a key contributor. That is what we are looking for on Day 3.”

Bonitto (a late second-round pick in 2022) and Moss (third round in 2023) were actually Day 2 selections, but the Broncos have found other impact pieces on the draft’s final day since Paton became the team’s general manager in 2021. Edge rusher Jonathon Cooper, center Luke Wattenberg, offensive lineman Alex Forsyth, safety and special teams ace JL Skinner, wide receiver Troy Franklin and Uwazurike are all starters or rotational contributors taken in the fourth round or later. The Broncos drafted wide receiver Devaughn Vele in the seventh round in 2024 and were then able to flip him for one of the fourth-round picks they have in this draft in a trade with the Saints last August.

The reality is that good teams with complete rosters are rarely the most buzzy teams during the NFL Draft or the offseason writ large. The Broncos have embodied that truth to the highest degree in the months since their special season ended on the doorstep of a Super Bowl appearance.

Saturday could nonetheless prove to be a pivotal day for the Broncos. The pieces they need to make a championship run in 2026 are in place. But making similar chases in the seasons to follow demands that they hit the defining Day 3 picks ahead.

“We feel good about where we are at, and we feel really good about the day,” Paton said. “We feel good about the first day (of the draft). We got Waddle. Then, we got (Onyedim), who we really like. (Saturday), we’re going to have a good day.”

The last time the Broncos didn’t make a first- or second-round pick in a draft was 1995. A player they did pick? Running back Terrell Davis.

No pressure, George.

“They’re all bad defenders.”

Jaden McDaniels called out Denver’s stars after Game 2, and the Wolves proved him right by bulldozing the Nuggets 113-96 in Game 3 Thursday night in Minneapolis

Minnesota has taken control of the series with a 2-1 lead, and Game 4 is in Minneapolis on Saturday night. With another win, the Wolves would lead the series 3-1 and put the Nuggets in a must-win situation entering Game 5 on Monday in Denver.

The Wolves attacked the paint and made Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Cam Johnson, Tim Hardaway Jr., and anyone else McDaniels trash-talked after Game 2, from start to finish. Minnesota held Denver to a season low 11 points in the first quarter, built a 61-39 lead at the half, and led by as many as 27 points in the second half.

The damage was done despite Anthony Edwards battling foul trouble, scoring only 17 points in 24 minutes. Julius Randle also struggled to score, finishing with 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting. Naz Reid had just five points in 17 minutes off the bench.

So who killed Denver? The others.

Ayo Dosunmu was a beast with 25 points off the bench, most of his damage coming in transition or simply blowing by Denver’s defense for layups in the half-court.

McDaniels was a monster, capping his big night with a three-pointer and then a monster jam in traffic late in the fourth quarter to put an exclamation point on the blowout. He finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, knocking down 9 of 13 shots, all while playing relentless defense. Prime Video analyst and NBA Hall of Fame inductee Dwyane Wade said McDaniels’ defense was so tight that it was like he was wearing Murray’s jersey.

The Wolves scored 68 points in the paint, compared to 34 for the Nuggets.

Rudy Gobert and Donte DiVincenzo were also great. Gobert finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks. DiVincenzo had 15 points, seven assists, and four steals.

Jokic couldn’t buy a bucket, largely because Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, dominated him. The three-time MVP finished with 27 points and 15 rebounds, but he shot just 7 of 26 from the field.

Murray also struggled, scoring 16 points on 5-for-17 shooting.

The Nuggets shot 34.1%, their worst shooting game of the entire season.

Up next: Game 4, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ABC.