Two hours after the deadline swept past the Broncos’ building in Dove Valley, their then-22-year-old receiver at the center of the fanbase’s buzz sat at his locker, coolly pulling on his gear. Nobody was coming for Troy Franklin’s job, it turned out. Nobody was coming for his targets.

Sean Payton had told the locker room as much, as Denver sat on its laurels despite being connected to several receivers in potential trades.

“I just go off of Sean’s word,” Franklin told The Post then in November, at his locker. “He told us we got everything we need in this building, and pretty much all that, ‘the Broncos need other receivers,’ (is) outside speculation. So, it’s really not coming from the building.”

Payton’s word, indeed, has held for three years in Denver, when it comes to his wideouts. In public. In private. The largest in-season trade or free-agent signing the Broncos have made at receiver since February 2023 is … Josh Reynolds, who Denver signed to a two-year deal in the offseason of 2024 and then cut after he played a total of five games. The Broncos have held onto Courtland Sutton as their WR1, invested heavily in youth at the position, and tacked on supplemental rotational names each season. The approach has never changed.

It certainly hasn’t changed, either, two days into 2026’s free agency. Payton said multiple times around the season’s end that Denver had too many drops in the passing game, but the Broncos haven’t shelled out in an inflated receiver market to fix that. They had some interest in former Giants star Wan’Dale Robinson, as a source said last week; Robinson agreed to terms with the Titans on Monday for four years and $78 million. Denver reached out this week, too, on steady former Green Bay target Romeo Doubs; they never made him an offer, though, as Doubs agreed to terms with the Patriots Tuesday for four years and $70 million.

Denver had some interest, too, in former Vikings wideout Jalen Nailor, but he signed for nearly $12 million a year with the Raiders. As of Tuesday, the Broncos hadn’t reached out to veteran free agents Keenan Allen, Sterling Shepard or Marques Valdez-Scantling, sources told The Post. Every puzzle piece across the past couple of days — and the whole last year, really — has pointed to the same reality: Payton likes the Broncos’ current receiver room as-is.

“The thing with the draft, we’ve invested,” Payton said at his end-of-year presser in late January. “We’ve got different — we’ve got speed, we’ve got size, we’ve got all the things I’m used to that you’d want to have in a good offense.”

In that moment, he launched into a strangely detailed explanation of how to catch a football.

“Most of the times, it’s with your thumbs together, not the other way around,” Payton said then. “The other way around – I’m serious – only exists when the ball’s below your belly button. Even the deep balls should be caught with your thumbs together. So we gotta be better at that.”

Those single few sentences spelled out the end of receivers coach Keary Colbert’s three-year tenure in Denver, and Colbert’s firing was announced mere hours later. The Broncos replaced him with Ronald Curry, a longtime Payton coaching ally who interviewed for the Broncos’ offensive-coordinator job. That single change, it turns out, may be the most impactful move the Broncos make at receiver this offseason.

Denver wouldn’t shell out for a big-money wideout like Alec Pierce, who re-signed with the Colts on a four-year deal worth over $28 million annually, while it’s already paying Sutton $23 million a year on a back-loaded contract. Rising third-year receiver Franklin produced virtually the same numbers in 2025 as Doubs while being at least $15 million a year cheaper. Rising second-year receiver Pat Bryant, when healthy, produced like a bona fide WR3 down the stretch last season.

And Payton, too, continues to pound the drum for more touches for Marvin Mims Jr. (despite being the one who’s ultimately responsible for curtailing his touches).