There’s the story of the fourth quarter. There’s Bo Nix going nuclear. There’s Justin Strnad’s pick. There’s a whole bunch to fix offensively. After all the chaos on Sunday, the Broncos sit at 5-2 and in command of the AFC West.
Plenty has been covered since Sunday night, from one of the most unbelievable football games in recent memory. Here’s a look at some more risers and fallers from Denver’s 33-32 comeback win over the Giants.
Stock up
Marvin Mims Jr., not just a gadget guy: If Courtland Sutton is the stabilizer of this Broncos offense, Mims has often been the catalyst. He still has just 35 touches through seven games, and yet has provided massive plays whenever Denver’s needed them. How about the 16-yard end-around score against the Bengals? Or the 26-yard grab out of the backfield in the Broncos’ win over the Jets in London? Or six catches for 85 yards against the Giants?
It felt like more Sunday, as Mims made some legitimate star-receiver-level plays against New York. On a crucial third-and-11 in the fourth quarter, Bo Nix put all his faith in a 31-yard heave up the right sideline, and the 5-foot-11 Mims came down with a grown man’s grab on cornerback Andru Phillips. And his 29-yard sliding grab with 33 seconds left gave Denver the momentum for a game-winning field goal.
Mims has stepped up whenever he’s called upon as a legitimate receiver this year. He deserves the ball consistently.
Saturday walkthroughs: On Sunday, answering a question on inserting a crucial play into his offense on Saturday, Payton told reporters: “I hate that term, ‘The hay is in the barn.’” He repeated the same thing in a Monday presser, too.
Quick question. Is this actually a phrase? Who’s going around talking about hay being in barns, besides farmers? Yet another confusing subplot from a confusing game.
Regardless, this was Payton’s metaphor for late-week play installations. Remember that Bo Nix 23-yard ball to Courtland Sutton that set up the Broncos’ winning field goal? Payton had called Sutton up to his office the day before and told him he had a play that would work. That moment Sunday, as Nix later explained, was the first actual live rep they’d run of it. And they won a football game because of it.
“I think that there’s always something on Saturday that might be, ‘Hey, let’s play with this,’” Payton said Monday.
The Walton-Penner Group: The Broncos hosted a franchise-record 175 alumni — former players and coaches alike — at their Super Bowl 50 reunion, and by most measures, the day stood as a rousing success. As Demaryius Thomas was enshrined forever in Denver’s Ring of Fame, loved ones The Post spoke with were touched. The halftime celebration of that Super Bowl 50 team was genuinely stirring, featuring former defensive coordinator Wade Phillips carrying the Lombardi Trophy aloft and former receiver Emmanuel Sanders delivering a heartfelt speech about Thomas.
Payton gave plenty of credit to owners Greg Penner and Carrie Walton Penner for emphasizing alumni support, a group Payton called “the lifeblood of the program.” Yet again, the Broncos’ ownership delivered on Sunday.
Alex Palczewski: Pour one up for Palcho, who’s gone from cult hero to incredibly vital Broncos piece in the span of a couple of weeks. The 26-year-old Palczewski hadn’t actually played on the left side of the offensive line “in like eight years,” as guard Quinn Meinerz said Palczewski told him. And the reserve guard had all of one week to prep for starting duties, after backup Matt Peart went to injured reserve just a game after starter Ben Powers went to injured reserve.
Palczewski allowed just two pressures in 81 snaps against a strong Giants pass-rush, and just one quarterback hit, according to Pro Football Focus. The Broncos appear to have found their solution at left guard.
“He did an incredible job,” Meinerz said.
Stock down
Nik Bonitto’s DPOY campaign: Bonitto’s earned so much love in this section through seven weeks that it’s time to acknowledge when he actually falters a bit. He managed just a couple of pressures in 17 pass-rush snaps against the Giants, and went sack-less for the first time all year. Giants edge Brian Burns Jr. and the Rams’ Byron Young both overtook Bonitto for the league’s sack lead (nine to eight), and the Broncos’ star edge lost a slight bit of ground in his race for a Defensive Player of the Year trophy. Still, there’s a long way to go.
Troy Franklin: Perhaps an odd placement here after Franklin made a truly incredible play to dive in the back corner of the end zone for a tip-grab touchdown — the play that first got the Broncos on the board. Still, he caught just three of his 10 targets against the Giants for 19 yards, and hasn’t shown the ability to connect with Bo Nix on deep balls beyond a 42-yarder against the Colts in Week 2.
After a hot couple of weeks to start the year, Franklin’s production has leveled off a bit, with three grabs in each of his last three games. He’s still a better receiver than he was as a rookie, and has made some massive plays, but his upside is capped significantly if he can’t threaten defenses vertically. A good part of that falls on Nix, too.
RJ Harvey: He still caught a crucial fourth-quarter touchdown, but the second-round rookie’s offensive utilization is dropping by the week. Harvey got just four carries — for a total of zero yards — against the Giants on Sunday, and had just that lone catch. He’s earned just 10 carries combined in the last three weeks, and has averaged just 2.7 yards a carry since popping a 50-yarder in Week 1.
The Broncos still don’t trust him as a pass-blocker, and third-down back Tyler Badie might be a better and more consistent option as a receiver out of the backfield. It’s hard to justify Payton continuing to hand Harvey opportunities, beyond trust that he’ll figure it out.
Twitter fingers: On one side of the coin, all that Twitter beef this week between Broncos and Giants pass-rushers gave way to possibly the most entertaining game of the 2025 NFL season. On the other side of the coin, all that Twitter beef this week amounted to very little, ultimately.
Broncos outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper didn’t get into it much postgame, despite a 1.5-sack day. Nik Bonitto dropped a pretty funny Instagram post after tweeting and deleting Giants fans a couple of times throughout the week, but he was quiet on Sunday. And the Giants lost. There were no real victory laps for anyone. Bummer.
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