Denver, CO
Broncos RB Javonte Williams enters pivotal year feeling healthy, lean and ready to lower the boom
Sean Payton found himself watching running back film one day during the leadup to the 2024 NFL Draft.
He had a running back from North Carolina on-screen that he really liked. Powerful runner. Capable of breaking tackles. A pretty decent receiver even though he didn’t get a ton of targets in the passing game.
The guy averaged 7.3 yards per carry his junior year and 6.3 per carry for his career.
Payton and the Broncos, though, didn’t select him in April’s draft.
Turns out, they already had the player on their roster for the last three years.
Now it looks like they might have the best version of the player back on the field.
That’s Javonte Williams.
In a moment undoubtedly orchestrated by Payton, Williams stopped by to see the head coach at one point this spring while Payton had his college film on.
“It was kind of crazy seeing me in a North Carolina jersey and him watching that, but like I said, he knows what he’s talking about, so I’m going to listen,” Williams said.
The order: Trim up. Get back to the guy in the powder blues.
So Williams spent the summer cutting out snacks and nighttime eating, dropped 12 pounds to get down to 221, and showed up for training camp feeling lean and strong.
“I called him in and I said, ‘This is the runner I want,’” Payton said. “That player that I saw was versatile — outside, inside — and I think we’ve seen that from him in camp. I’m encouraged with his progress, and obviously, he’s healthier.
“He’s having a good camp.”
The fourth-year running back is entering a critical season in his career. The shelf life on NFL backs is notoriously short and seems to get shorter every year. Not only that, but Williams is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is now closing in on two full years since a devastating knee injury against Las Vegas on Oct. 4, 2022.
That not only ended his second pro season, but it also impacted his entire third year. He spent all of last offseason focused on recovery and pushing hard just to get back to the field.
“Last year’s offseason was pretty much just rehabbing and trying to regain strength,” he said. “Even trying to learn how to run again and things like that. This offseason, just being able to get away and focus strictly on football, drills, and moving.
“I feel like it was a huge benefit.”
Factor in a veteran offensive line, potentially a mobile quarterback in rookie Bo Nix and a set of running backs that overall has a combination of skill sets, and Williams should be at the tip of a running game spear that’s much sharper than a year ago.
One key area where the shed pounds and increased explosiveness could really help Williams: In the passing game.
Consider this: Williams had a career-high 47 catches in 2023. If it feels as though that flew under the radar, it’s in part because he turned those grabs into just 228 yards (4.9 per catch). According to Pro Football Focus data, only four of his catches and six targets out of 58 came past the line of scrimmage and outside the numbers. The rest were either behind the line of scrimmage, between the numbers, or both. When he catches the ball, there will be people around him and often in front of him.
Getting some burst back and trending back toward his early career ability to break tackles and make people miss could turn modest receiving numbers into solid ones very quickly.
The Broncos easily led the NFL in target share to running backs (31.9%) last year. And though quarterback Russell Wilson is gone, it stands to reason that the backs will be heavily involved in the passing game once again this fall.
Payton has a long history of it. Over 14 seasons in New Orleans — taking out an injury-scrambled 2010 — the back with the second-most touches on Payton’s Saints teams averaged 155 per year. He had nine seasons where a back finished with 70-plus catches. And though there may not be an Alvin Kamara on the Broncos’ roster, they have the kind of balance to meet or exceed last year when Williams (No. 17), Samaje Perine (No. 18) and Jaleel McLaughlin (No. 39) each finished in the top 39 in the NFL in targets among running backs.
2023 Broncos RBs in the passing game
Mobile users, tap here to see the chart.
| Player | RB Rank | Target | Catches | Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Javonte Williams | 17 | 58 | 47 | 228 |
| Samaje Perine | 18 | 56 | 50 | 455 |
| Jaleel McLaughlin | 39 | 36 | 31 | 160 |
* Pro Football Reference data
2023 RB target share by team
Mobile users, tap here to see the chart.
| Top fives | RB/FB target share |
|---|---|
| Denver | 31.89% |
| San Francisco | 23.57% |
| Atlanta | 23.56% |
| N.Y. Jets | 23.56% |
| Pittsburgh | 23.13% |
|
|
|
| Bottom five | RB/FB target share |
| Minnesota | 14.92% |
| L.A. Chargers | 14.84% |
| Indianapolis | 14.73% |
| Jacksonville | 14.14% |
| L.A. Rams | 12.84% |
* Compiled using PFF data
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.
Originally Published:
DENVER (KDVR) — With the mild winter and warm start to spring, beekeepers are seeing swarms earlier in the year and expect the season to be longer than usual.
Gregg McMahan is a dispatcher for the Colorado Swarm Hotline. It’s usually his job to send a beekeeper to collect a swarm when someone calls, but on Sunday afternoon, he decided to handle one himself.
“Nice little swarm,” McMahan said. “It’s tricky, though, because it’s hanging on a fence.”
A warm winter and spring mean swarm season has begun four weeks early.
“Never seen it like this ever,” McMahan said.
This call is to a house on Denver’s east side. When McMahan arrived, he saw a swarm had taken up residence on the fence.
“Absolutely typical, it is on the small side,” McMahan said.
He got to work, first luring them into a box when he spotted a good sign.
“See all these girls, they got their butts up, they’re fanning their wings. That’s telling us the queens in here,” McMahan said.
With the queen in hand, the rest began to follow her into the box.
McMahan said two years ago, he had 400 calls like this. Last year, only 100, the Swarm Hotline was as unpredictable as the weather, which has caused bee activity earlier in the year than ever.
“It makes it hard on the bees, you know? Two days ago, I’m collecting swarms in the snow,” McMahan said.
Rescuing them is integral to Colorado’s ecosystem. McMahan hopes people give a beekeeper a call instead of spraying them or harming them in any other way.
“They do a phenomenal amount of pollination within this state. Not only our native flowers but all the other flowers that people bring in,” McMahan said.
Slowly but surely, the swarm left the fence and moved into the box. McMahan loaded them into his truck to deliver them to their new home.
“Westminster to the Stanley Lake Wildlife Refuge, so these girls will have lakefront property tonight,” he said.
As he wrapped up, McMahan’s phone was buzzing more than the bees. Just another call to start a swarm season, he thinks, could be a long one.
“This year I’m already 20 swarms deep, so I’m expecting way more than 100 this year,” McMahan said.
To have a bee swarm removed for free from your property anywhere statewide, the Swarm Hotline number is 1-844-SPY-BEES.
For the first time in the team’s history, Altitude Sports is broadcasting Denver Nuggets home games in Spanish. Kroenke Sports and Entertainment announced it has contracted a team to broadcast its games in Spanish for the playoffs.
“I think that is what the public wanted,” said Ivan De La Garza, producer for the broadcast team.
A team of three people, two commentators and a producer, sit in a press box at the top of Ball Arena. Their commentary is then synced with the traditional Altitude broadcast video and shared on the Altitude Plus application.
“With the Nuggets winning in the last five years, there is a tremendous amount of following from Latino people trying to listen to and watch the games in Spanish,” said Andres Casas, color commentator for the broadcast.
Casas said he strives to bring the same energy fans get during soccer broadcasts into the basketball broadcasts.
“That excitement that gets you. We want people to feel they are at the game,” Casas said.
“It has been so amazing to be a part of the Spanish broadcast for the Nuggets. I have been a fan of the Nuggets for my whole life,” said Jena Garcia, play-by-play commentator.
Garcia said it has been a dream come true to help bring this broadcast to her community.
“I’ve always desired to hear a Spanish broadcast, just as a fan. To be a part of it is just incredible,” Garcia said.
Those working in the broadcast said they are honored to help expand the reach of the Nuggets and sports in accessing diverse communities.
“We love sports. We are passionate, we are loud. We like to get together and enjoy sports,” De La Garza said.
“The Nuggets have a huge following, especially on the Spanish side. So, it is great for them to be able to listen to what is going on, game by game, especially into the playoffs,” Casas said.
“It is just another step of access that they are getting to be a fan of basketball,” Garcia said.
Copyright 2026 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. The use of any content on this website for the purpose of training artificial intelligence systems, algorithms, machine learning models, text and data mining, or similar use is strictly prohibited without explicit written consent.
-
Culture38 minutes agoWhat America’s Main Characters Tell Us
-
Lifestyle44 minutes agoWe beef with the Pope and admire the Stanley Cup : Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
-
Technology56 minutes agoThis pasta sauce wants to record your family
-
World1 hour agoMassive 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits off Japanese coast, tsunami alert issued
-
Politics1 hour agoUS military announces another deadly strike against ‘narco-terrorists’
-
Health1 hour agoCancer tied to woman’s vaping habit since age 15 as she’s now given just months to live
-
Sports1 hour agoPolice report details Zachariah Branch’s arrest days before NFL Draft over sidewalk incident
-
Technology1 hour agoBMW puts humanoid robots to work building EVs