Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton has yet to name Denver’s starting quarterback, but all signs point to a decision coming soon.

Kay Adams sat down with Payton on Aug. 14 as part of a summer tour across NFL training camps. Their conversation centered around No. 12 overall pick and former Oregon Ducks quarterback Bo Nix.

When Adams pushed Payton for an update on the quarterback competition, he said, “It’ll be sooner than later, relative to how these guys finish out this next preseason game.”

Broncos and Ducks fans are hoping to see Nix succeed, and Payton delivered a positive update.

“He’s playing well. Now there are a few things in the game that we’ve got to clean up, and I’m encouraged with how he’s playing,” said Payton on Nix.

In his preseason debut, Nix showed off both his passing and running abilities. Finishing with a passer rating of 102.8, Nix threw for 125 yards with one touchdown and zero turnovers. While Nix has certainly impressed the Broncos with his on-field abilities, Ducks fans are not surprised to hear that his maturity and leadership have also shone.

Payton said, “With Bo, you feel a more experienced player. You don’t feel a true rookie.”

Oregon Ducks wide receiver Tez Johnson has one more season of eligibility at Oregon before he hopes to hear his name called in the 2025 NFL draft. In the meantime, he certainly does not lack confidence for his adopted brother Nix and the Broncos.

“Whatever team Bo goes to, they’re going to have success. That’s no doubt. He’s the best guy in the NFL. The guy is unbelievable,” Johnson told Oregon Sports Illustrated’s Bri Amaranthus.

Regardless of Payton’s decision on the starter, Nix has certainly left an impression on his coach, from the pre-draft process until now.

“We went on the field, and he threw probably about 80 passes. I think during that period is when I turned to George [Paton] and said, ‘This is the guy,’” said Payton.

During his final season as the Ducks signal caller, Nix received criticisms for a lack of downfield passes under offensive coordinator Will Stein’s system. Another narrative about Nix’s NFL potential revolved around his older age when compared to the other quarterbacks in the 2024 class.

“I’m unconcerned with that. We’ve seen some of the best quarterbacks to ever play our game have their best years into their 30’s. It was more about getting [the pick] right. . . . And look, you can take an experienced quarterback who’s had 61 starts, who’s mature. That may not be good enough. We saw ‘really really good’ when we evaluated him,” said Payton

After the selecting Nix at No. 12 overall, Payton told his famous story from the 2017 NFL draft. Coaching for the New Orleans Saints at the time, Payton had plans to draft Patrick Mahomes with the No. 11 pick in the first round. However, the Kansas City Chiefs traded up to No. 10 and selected Mahomes before Payton had his opportunity.

Clearly enthusiastic about Nix’s overall ability as a football player, Adams asked Payton if he found his next Mahomes in Nix.

Payton said, “That’s a tough one for anyone, but I think we found a really talented player who’s doing the same things that we want to see that we saw on college tape. The ball comes out fast, it’s hard to sack him. He didn’t have a fumble at Oregon.”

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Visitors to City Park will soon be able to explore the long-awaited, $7.9 million playground that simulates the box canyons, beaver dams and other wild features of Colorado.

The Nature Play project, which is scheduled to open later this year, has been a construction fence fixture at the park ever since it broke ground in January 2023 — 20 months ago.

Project leaders at the time said it would open in late 2024, but about eight months ago, a Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) staffer mistakenly shared a notice saying it would be open this summer, prompting DMNS leaders to publicly reassert the original timeline.

“We always said it would open in fall 2024, so at the moment we still have to close out permits and are in the process of making sure all the plants we selected are going in,” said Jacqueline Altreuter, director of strategic planning at DMNS, and leader of Nature Play.

“When I saw that (false opening date) over the holidays I was like, ‘Oh no!’ so we tried to take that down pretty quickly,” she added.

Nature Play is a complex project that digs much deeper than the grassy expanses typically seen at Denver’s largest park. Its goal is to simulate miniature versions of the alpine tundra, grassland prairies, wetlands and other distinct environments that cover the state.

One of the templates was set 75 years ago, when Denver Botanic Gardens first opened in City Park. “Some of the areas in the southeast part were theirs before they moved to York Street, so there are lots of leftover plant species still growing,” Altreuter said. “Restoring those waterways, which were originally designed by Dutch architect Saco Rienk DeBoer to mimic mountain streams, is a big part of this.”

Nature Play brings together Denver Parks & Recreation and the DMNS for a project that’s been six years in the making. Situated just outside the museum, the 4-acre, gently hilly strip offers interactive chances for kids and students to learn how they work. That includes the process of carefully restoring natural ecosystems, museum officials said.

“Since Nature Play will be landscaped with native Colorado plants, we are hoping that we will see a return of insect species that aren’t currently found in City Park right now,” said John Demboski, senior vice president of science at the DMNS, in a statement.

Animal footprints from Colorado wildlife lead visitors into different areas, whether it’s a wooden swing set or the path of the waterway that connects the mini-ecosystems.

“When we asked people to tell us about experiences they had in nature that were memorable and meaningful and really lasted for them, 98% described something with water,” Altreuter said. “Now, we’re in an arid state, but we’re all connected by and reliant on water, so we wanted that to be a big component.”

As such, the project was designed to amplify the sounds of splashing water by narrowing the restored waterway at points and adding rocks to create the illusion of a larger stream or river. Nature Play uses very little water, however, and is fed by a diverted storm drain. The same water source irrigates Washington Park and feeds City Park’s Ferrill Lake, and it all eventually filters into the South Platte River, according to Denver Parks & Recreation.

So far, the only Nature Play impression for visitors has been the construction fences concealing the playground, plus a new, winding sidewalk that’s meant to discourage cyclists from barreling down a pedestrian path. But inside, they’ll soon see hundreds of new trees and plants, a 20-foot-tall Bighorn Sheep sculpture and play structure (it’s Colorado’s official state animal), a slide, climbable beaver dam, native pollinators, carven-wood benches, and tableaus inspired by the museum’s dozens of dioramas in its Explore Colorado gallery.

Many of the features in the playground spring from the 800 people surveyed about it in 2021, and crews had to change gears at times, as when researchers discovered a native bee colony they didn’t want to disrupt or move. Staying nimble through the project, which broke ground last year, has allowed designer Dig Studios to adapt to changing conditions, officials said.

About 70% of the space featured existing trees, which they needed to work around, but only one tree was removed,  Altreuter said (and that’s because it was dead). Seeing squirrels, falcons, foxes, and bunnies frequent the construction site reassured workers at ECI Site Construction that they hadn’t disrupted the habitat — at least not too much.

“There’s a lot of thoughtfulness and artistry inside the space,” Altreuter said, noting that the Loveland artist known as Chainsaw Mama created custom wooden benches for the project. “We want to connect the museum and its mission to the park, and this brings together so many ways to do that.”

Originally Published: August 15, 2024 at 6:31 a.m.

DENVER — Denver District Attorney Beth McCann on Wednesday explained her decision not to file criminal charges against three officers who shot and killed a person in June.

Around 11:44 a.m. on June 16, officers were called out to Broadway and Lawrence Street for a report of a person holding a knife in the intersection. Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said officers confronted the person and gave them commands to drop the knife, but they refused and began advancing toward the officers.

After at least two tasing attempts, three officers opened fire and fatally struck the person, according to Thomas.

The person who was killed was identified as 52-year-old Miguel Tapia. Previously, the person was identified by Denver police as a woman and during a following press briefing was described as a transgender person. In her decision letter, McCann said Tapia “presented as a female at the time of this incident but the medical examiner identified him as a male.”

The district attorney said in her letter, “Because we do not know how the individual preferred to be identified or addressed, we refer to Tapia as “he/him.””

During the news conference, Denver Police Department Commander Matt Clark said the incident began with several motorists reporting a person standing in the intersection.

“One caller advised the subject was yelling at passing motorists ’to kill them,’” said Clark.

He said a nearby Denver Park Ranger saw Tapia and alerted police dispatchers that “the subject had a knife with an eight-inch blade in a bag.”

“When officers arrived, the subject was carrying several bags but did not have a weapon in their hand,” said Clark. “The officers could see the handle of what appeared to be a large knife in a bag that the person was wearing over their shoulder.”

Clark said officers attempted to de-escalate the situation by speaking in both English and Spanish.

“An officer also visually demonstrated that he wanted the person to put their hands on their head,” said Clark. “The subject did not comply with the officer’s direction and instead retrieved the large knife for the over-the-shoulder bag they were wearing. The subject held the knife in their right hand while pointing it — the point of the knife — directly at officers.”

The department released body camera video showing the sequence leading up to the fatal shots.

On Wednesday, McCann told reporters that officers were justified in using deadly force against Tapia.

“I found it reasonable for the officers to believe that Mr. Tapia was about to commit assault with the knife, or even worse actually,” said McCann.

McCann believed the officers were in imminent danger of being killed or wounded.

“After the tasers were not effective, they did not have time to do anything other than to use deadly physical force,” she said.