2025 Denver Broncos Fantasy Preview
The Denver Broncos were one of the league’s biggest surprises last year, making the playoffs after a 10-7 season that far surpassed the preseason over/under of 5.5 wins. Sean Payton did a tremendous job rebuilding both sides of the ball and hit a home run with first-year quarterback Bo Nix.
Integral to Denver’s success is an offensive line that ranked first in pass protection. Nix jelled after a slow start. He averaged 165 passing yards with one touchdown and four interceptions in his first four starts. After that, Nix totaled 31 touchdowns and eight picks the rest of the way. With an improving cast of pass-catchers supporting him, Nix enters his second pro season firmly in fantasy QB1 territory.
Payton has long preferred a committee backfield approach. However, with Javonte Williams in Dallas, Payton nabbed UCF RB RJ Harvey with the 60th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Harvey became just the fourth running back taken before Day 3 of a draft by Payton. The other three- Reggie Bush, Mark Ingram, and Alvin Kamara. Harvey is a tackle-breaking machine and offers a three-down skill set. One of the top sleeper RBs of 2025.
Courtland Sutton returns as the top wideout in Denver. Sutton had the best season of his career with Nix, posting WR15 numbers that included five games with 95-plus yards in the second half of the season. Marvin Mims also excelled down the stretch and will be one of the top third-year breakout wide receivers to target.
Third-round Illinois WR Pat Bryant has excellent hands and shows well in contested-catch situations. Payton compared the rookie to Michael Thomas. He’s the favorite to earn Denver’s WR3 role.
Evan Engram signed a two-year, $23 million deal to stabilize Denver’s tight end position. Payton’s offense has an extensive history of utilizing the tight end heavily, and Engram will be a massive upgrade over Denver’s previous trio of unassuming veterans. Engram posted back-to-back top-5 fantasy finishes in 2022 and 2023 and has sneaky potential to contend for those lofty numbers again in 2025.
Fantasy Grade: B-
One of the biggest surprises of last season, Bo Nix finishing as the QB9 overall. His 5.1 percent touchdown rate surpassed rookie-year marks of Joe Burrow and C.J. Stroud. Nix amassed 3,775 passing yards, 29 touchdowns, and 430 rushing yards with four scores, ranking fifth among quarterbacks in carries. Nix demonstrated deep-ball prowess, completing 31 of 73 passes over 20 air yards for 932 yards and eight touchdowns. His explosive play rating (EPX) of 103.2 ranked 14th league-wide. With Sean Payton’s system and Denver’s strong offensive line, Nix projects as a high-floor QB1 in 2025 drafts
RB Harvey, RJ, DEN [RB1] Sleeper
Sean Payton has only selected three running backs before Day 3 of any NFL Draft. Those backs, Reggie Bush, Mark Ingram, and Alvin Kamara, turned out to be excellent fantasy bets. R.J. Harvey rushed for over 1,400 yards in back-to-back seasons at UCF and showed elite tackle-breaking ability. In 2024, Harvey ranked 2nd in FBS in breakaway runs (32), 7th in missed tackles forced (69), scored 22 touchdowns, and reeled in 20 catches. Harvey checks all the boxes to be a three-down weapon and landed with a coach who knows how to make that happen.
The Broncos signed Dobbins to a one-year deal. This is good news for Dobbins, but bad for RJ Harvey and the Denver backfield from a fantasy perspective. It looks like the Broncos will stick with a frustrating committee, limiting the potential for each player.
RB McLaughlin, Jaleel, DEN [RB3]
McLaughlin got an extended look down the stretch, surpassing double-digit carries in three of his final four outings. However, Sean Payton using Day Two draft capital on RJ Harvey ends any chance McLaughlin had of making a fantasy impact in his third season. Harvey will be given every opportunity to command a three-down workhorse role, which will reduce McLaughlin and Audric Estime to change-of-pace duties. McLaughlin is a decent receiver who caught 24 of his 27 targets in 2024. Expect him to see limited carries this season as Harvey’s understudy.
ADVICE: Estime is over two years younger than R.J. Harvey, who is expected to lead Denver’s backfield. Of course, Sean Payton isn’t adverse to trotting out a committee, so Estime makes sense as a late-round flier.
WR Sutton, Courtland, DEN [WR1]
The ascension of Bo Nix led to a career-best 14.8 PPR points per game average for Courtland Sutton, who finished as the overall WR15. Sutton was a man-coverage killer, who ranked 2nd among all wideouts with 1,787 air yards and 3rd in contested catch rate. He ended the season on a heater, catching 45-of-77 targets for 582 yards and six touchdowns in Denver’s final eight regular-season contests. He’s indisputably Denver’s No. 1 wide receiver and could benefit from Sean Payton’s reinforcements that arrived in the draft.
WR Mims, Marvin, DEN [WR2] Sleeper
If you’re looking for players who ended the year on a hot streak, then Marvin Mims is your guy. Over the final three games of the 2024 season, Mims had 16 receptions for 216 yards and four touchdowns. That average of 20.6 PPR points per game ranked 7th for Weeks 16-18. After a nearly invisible first half of the season, Mims became a factor in Denver’s offense beginning in Week 10. From that point on, he averaged 14.4 PPR points per game, which would have ranked as the WR24 for the full season. Mims excels at creating separation, and Sean Payton finally figured it out.
ADVICE: Vele’s 41 grabs were the most by a seventh-round pick in at least the last 10 years. However, with Pat Bryant, Evan Engram, and R.J. Harvey now on the roster, Vele will be hard-pressed to match his 55 targets. Benjamin Albright indicated that it was “Vele SZN” quite often in OTAs.
WR Bryant, Pat, DEN [WR4] Super Sleeper
ADVICE: Sean Payton compared Bryant to Michael Thomas. Bryant has outstanding hands and performs well in contested-catch situations. He also has a good shot at winning a top-3 role right away in Denver. Excellent late-round sleeper.
Sean Payton clamored for a ‘joker’ tight end and got his man in Evan Engram. In Payton’s two seasons as the Broncos’ coach, Denver has utilized tight ends in the slot 52.3 percent of the time. That’s the fifth-highest rate in the NFL. Meanwhile, Engram leads all tight ends in grabs (112) and yards (957) out of the slot in the past two seasons. Engram is a massive upgrade over the innocuous rotation Payton has been forced to use and should get back into the 90-100 target range.
Altitude was no issue for Lutz in his second season in Denver. Lutz was perfect on PATs (46-for-46), and he only missed three of his 34 field-goal attempts. In all, Lutz ranked 7th in fantasy scoring with 136 points. Solid fantasy option in an ascending offense.
Denver led the NFL with 63 sacks. They also scored three defensive touchdowns, a pair of safeties, and forced 25 turnovers. Nik Bonito, Alex Singleton, and Dre Greenlaw lead the way, and CB Pat Surtain II remains an elite shutdown corner. The Broncos are the top DST unit to target this season.
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