Sean Payton ended his appearance at the NFL Scouting Combine last year with a prediction about how the critical quarterback hunt ahead would unfold for the Denver Broncos.

The coach’s delivery came with all the subtlety of a jackhammer.

“We’ll be really good at this,” Payton said. “And I think, to some degree, we’re glad that a lot of people aren’t.”

Two months later, the Broncos selected Bo Nix with the No. 12 pick in the NFL Draft, the sixth and final quarterback taken in the first round. He produced a better rookie season than all but one of them — No. 2 pick Jayden Daniels, the Offensive Rookie of the Year — while helping guide the Broncos to their first playoff appearance in nine years. If Nix’s first season was any indication, the Broncos have backed up Payton’s boisterous claim of a year ago.

“I think we’ve found that player that can lead us and be what we need relative to having the success we’re used to having,” Payton said in January, two days after Denver’s season ended with a loss to the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs. “I think we’ve found it.”

But there is no space for a victory lap as the Broncos prepare to take the stage Tuesday in Indianapolis once again at the combine, a de facto table-setter for the critical offseason ahead. The Broncos might have the most important piece of their roster in place, but reaching the lofty goal they have already set for next season — dethroning the perennial AFC West champion Kansas City Chiefs — requires them to surround Nix with players who will make a Year 2 leap for the quarterback more attainable.

It’s a process that is already well underway with the team’s scouting department, but it will reach another level in Indianapolis as the Broncos search for players who will fit the schemes and culture that is far more established than they were at this time last year.

“You literally never pick up from where you left off,” Payton said last month. “You rake everything back down to rubble, and you start again. That’s what we plan on doing. We have more information now relative to where we are as a team. There are a few important pieces, obviously, that will help us in a direction as we move towards the 2025 season, but that’s kind of how it starts.”

Nix is the most important of those pieces. Here are some of the priorities facing the Broncos this week as they interview prospects, evaluate workouts, conduct team business and work to build the next roster around their young quarterback.

Finding common ground with Courtland Sutton

Veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton had arguably his best career season while catching passes from Nix last season. Sutton finished with a career-high 81 catches for 1,081 yards and eight touchdowns. Those numbers, taken together, made him a top 10 or 12 wide receiver last season. His $14 million salary scheduled for next season, the final year of the extension he signed in 2021, ranks 22nd among NFL receivers.

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Sutton is due for a raise. He has repeatedly expressed a desire to remain with the Broncos long-term, even as he held out of voluntary offseason work last season. Creating continuity and comfort for Nix as he heads into his second season would be easier to achieve if he’s able to work with his No. 1 target throughout the offseason.

The combine is often a time when team executives meet with representatives of players already on their roster. It would make sense for the Broncos to prioritize figuring out whether they can come to a long-term agreement with Sutton in time to set their budget for the rest of the offseason.

Ranking the running backs

The NFL Draft is more than two months away, but Ashton Jeanty of Boise State already appears a safe bet to be the first running back selected. He could become just the second running back since 2018 to be selected within the first 10 picks of the draft, joining Bijan Robinson (No. 8 in 2023).

The Broncos will undoubtedly do their work on the Heisman Trophy runner-up as they aim to improve a backfield that didn’t have a consistent No. 1 presence in 2024. Jeanty is the kind of talent that could immediately change the complexion of Denver’s offense, a dynamic three-down back whose ability to consistently break tackles can force defenses into difficult decisions about how they deploy resources along the defensive front. He was graded as the No. 5 player in this draft class in the latest top 100 update by The Athletic prospect analyst Dane Brugler.

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But Jeanty is but one running back in what appears to be a deep class. The question for the Broncos is whether there is another player at the position who warrants a selection with the No. 2o pick. It would be the highest spot in the draft the Broncos have selected a running back since Knowshon Moreno (No. 12) in 2009.

Kaleb Johnson of Iowa (No. 35 on Brugler’s top 100 list), Omarion Hampton of North Carolina (No. 36) and TreVeyon Henderson of Ohio State (No. 49) are other prospects at the position who could land in the first round. But will the Broncos grade any of them highly enough to select with their top pick? The combine will be an important part of that separation process.

Will Broncos fall in Loveland with Michigan TE?

News flash: The Broncos need more receiving production at tight end. Denver cumulatively ranks 32nd in the NFL across the past two seasons in tight end targets (134), receptions (90) and yards (845), and they are 25th in yards per reception (9.4). It’s a credit to Nix that Denver was able to finish 13th in third-down conversion rate last season (39.6 percent) without having a reliable tight end who could find pockets of space in the middle of the field. The Broncos converted only 2 of 17 third-down attempts when Nix targeted tight ends, an 11.8 percent rate that also ranked last in the league.

The good news is that, as with running backs, this draft class appears to be deep at tight end. Brugler ranked seven tight ends among his top 100 prospects, including Penn State’s Tyler Warren (No. 10) and Michigan’s Colston Loveland (No. 11). Warren had the bigger numbers last season — an eye-popping 1,451 yards of offense and 12 total touchdowns — but Loveland might be the more crisp, versatile route runner and has a national championship victory (2023) on his resume. They are similar in size (Warren: 6 feet 6, 255 pounds; Loveland: 6-5, 245), but Warren, who turns, 23 in May, is two years older than Loveland.

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I expect the Broncos to make a move at tight end in free agency so they don’t enter the draft in a position where they have to take one with their top pick. There would still be plenty of tight end options in the middle rounds. Among them: Mason Taylor (N0. 36), the former LSU star and son of Hall of Fame pass rusher Jason Taylor; Gunnar Helm (No. 64), who played at Cherry Creek High School outside Denver and registered a career-best 60 receptions while helping guide the Longhorns to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season; and Terrance Ferguson (No. 98), a former target of Nix’s at Oregon.

The Broncos will undoubtedly invest in tight end this offseason. The combine could help determine how significant that investment will be.

Could defensive line be a first-round priority?

The Broncos don’t have a long list of prominent, in-house free agents, but they have an important decision to make with defensive lineman D.J. Jones. Teammates on the defensive line pointed to Jones as an unsung force for a defense that finished No. 2 against the rush (3.9 opponent yards per carry) and led the NFL with 63 sacks.

But the Broncos could decide to go younger on a defensive line that has three key members — Zach Allen, John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach — entering the final season of their contracts. They likely won’t be in range for Mason Graham, the dynamic interior pass rusher from Michigan who is rated as Brugler’s No. 4 prospect. But they’ll closely evaluate players such as Oregon’s Derrick Harmon (8 1/2 sacks last season), Michigan’s Kenneth Grant (players at 6-3, 340 pounds who move like him aren’t easy to find) and Mississippi’s Walter Nolen (6 1/2 sacks and two forced fumbles in 2024).

Much of the attention on the Broncos this season will be centered on the assets with which they surround their young quarterback. But some of the best support could come from adding talented reinforcements to a defense that finished first last season in defensive EPA (expected points added) per snap in 2024, according to TruMedia. Inside linebacker and safety are positions on that defense Payton has named as priorities, but it’ll be intriguing to see how much the Broncos lean into strengthening an already talented defensive line.

(Top photo: G Fiume / Getty Images)