INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The man in the head chair sat back and watched, for the most part, when the Broncos’ brass first met with Kenyon Sadiq.
That wasn’t unusual for Sean Payton. Specific Denver positional coaches often lead conversations or whiteboard work with prospects in formal meetings at the NFL Combine. Payton was simply “watching,” Sadiq told The Denver Post, and introduced himself to the Oregon tight end after the short interview.
The man who was “very involved,” though, as Sadiq put it? New Broncos playcaller Davis Webb.
“Just seeing how much ball I know, seeing what kind of person I am,” Sadiq said. “But no, it was a good conversation, a lot of laughter, a lot of stuff going on.”
In keeping with Sadiq’s interview, multiple top offensive prospects in this 2026 draft class have told The Denver Post this week that Webb has been a focal point of conversation with them in combine meetings. Texas A&M receiver KC Concepcion, an All-American in 2025 and consensus first-round pick, said Webb was trying to test his football knowledge and “how much I love football.” Alabama wideout Germie Bernard, who could be a name to keep an eye on for Denver, said Webb asked him “a lot of questions.”
“We were just breaking down film,” Bernard said. “He was getting to know — picking my brain a little bit, seeing what I knew.”
As Payton officially ripped off the Band-Aid and minted Webb as Denver’s play-caller, the defining narrative of the Broncos’ lead-up to 2026 becomes how much influence Webb actually has on Payton’s overall offensive design. Payton’s organizations have long drafted or signed talent to fit his specific system, from tight ends like Adam Trautman to receivers like Lil’Jordan Humphrey. Webb’s clear level of involvement in combine meetings, though, could well indicate that he’ll have a greater hand in personnel packages in Denver.
“I’ll still, I’m going to have opinions with plays — mine’ll be the bad ones, his will be all the good ones,” Payton cracked on Tuesday. “But I want to support him in that.”
After an initial run of defensive prospects, Denver has now held formal meetings with some of the top skill players in the draft as it looks to level up, specifically at running back and tight end. Sadiq, in particular, has widely impressed at the combine, and told reporters he already knows how quarterback Bo Nix thinks from overlapping with him at Oregon in 2023.
Here’s a collection of Broncos-related intel from the combine on Friday.
New Broncos formal meetings with combine prospects
Each NFL team is allowed a maximum of 45 total formal meetings at the NFL Combine. Note: these are conversations solely intended to gather more information on different prospects, and usually have little correlation to which players teams actually draft.
RB Jadarian Price, Notre Dame
RB Jonah Coleman, Washington
RB Emmett Johnson, Nebraska
WR KC Concepcion, Texas A&M
WR Germie Bernard, Alabama
TE Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon
TE Max Klare, Ohio State
Five takeaways from Friday
1. Could the Broncos take a run at Breece Hall? The New York Jets seem unlikely to let the RB walk, with constant buzz swirling that New York wants to extend Hall and could elect to franchise-tag him. General manager Darren Mougey, formerly the Broncos’ assistant GM, said at the combine that New York would “find a way to keep Breece here” if they couldn’t get a deal done, which would heavily indicate that the Jets would tag him.
If Hall manages to hit free agency, though — watch out for Denver. The former Iowa State RB has a pre-existing relationship with Broncos running backs coach Lou Ayeni from Hall’s recruiting process in high school, when Ayeni was Iowa State’s RBs coach. And a source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Denver Post this week that Hall has plenty of interest in joining the Broncos. It’d be a splash move for Denver, as Hall has totaled over 1,350 yards from scrimmage in each of his last three years in New York.
2. A receiver that’s a perfect fit in all but timing. In the ninth grade, Louisville WR Chris Bell was cut from his football team. In an effort to simply be back in a football atmosphere, he joined his school’s band — and learned to play the baritone horn, he told The Denver Post Friday.
“I knew the band is always at the game in high school, and always playing,” Bell said. “I didn’t have the funds when I was younger to pay for the game. And so, that was my way of getting in the game. It was free.”
Sounds like a guy Denver and Payton would love. The receiver who totaled 72 catches for 917 yards in 11 games in 2025. Also in Bell’s favor? size (6-foot-2, 220 pounds), run-after-catch ability and blocking ability. He checks all the boxes, except one. Bell tore his ACL late in the 2025 season, and if the Broncos swung on a receiver in the first or second round, they’d need an instant-impact player. Bell, for his part, said he hopes to be cleared by training camp in 2026.
“Like I told every team, don’t let this injury fool you,” Bell said. “I’m still that dog.”
3. Washington RB could step in right away. Coleman, who’s been the lead back for Washington for the past two years under head coach Jedd Fisch, told The Post on Friday that the Broncos said their pass-protection schemes were “pretty much the same thing” as what Coleman did with the Huskies. That’s a huge point in Coleman’s favor, as Denver needs a power back who has between-the-tackles juice and pass-protection ability to pair with RJ Harvey in their backfield.
“Taught me the way they formatted the blitzes,” Coleman said, recounting his meeting with the Broncos. “And then — ‘OK, Jonah, if we got this look right here, who are you blocking? If you got this look, we make this call, now who are you blocking?’ So just being able to recite that to them was great.”
A Broncos source said Coleman did a “good job” in the meeting, and this would make a lot of sense for Denver. Coleman stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 220 pounds. Han for 15 touchdowns last year, and caught 31 passes for 354 yards out of the backfield.
4. John Franklin-Myers could have a major suitor. Just a day after Tennessee made a splash by trading young defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat to the Jets for defensive end Jermaine Johnson, Johnson hopped on Twitter and quote-tweeted the “eyes” emoji on a post of Franklin-Myers’ stats in Denver.
The tie here is all too obvious. Johnson played with the Broncos’ defensive lineman in New York. Titans defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, too, coached Franklin-Myers with the Jets. If Tennessee can afford to pay Franklin-Myers — in a weak defensive-tackle market, his camp will look to command over $20 million per year — look for him to land with the Titans.
5. Broncos could retool their entire RB room, save Harvey. Denver has elected not to offer a tender to running back Jaleel McLaughlin, a source confirmed to The Post on Friday. It’ll mean McLaughlin will hit unrestricted free agency, even as the Broncos could easily still look to re-sign him. Veteran J.K. Dobbins has said he wants to return to Denver, too, but his status is more uncertain. The interesting name here is reserve Tyler Badie, who showed up on tape as the only back on the roster that quarterback Bo Nix trusted in pass protection in 2025. Nix loves Badie, a source told The Post, which could influence Denver’s calculus there.
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