Team news: Denver Broncos

Broncos ruled out TE Evan Engram and LB Dre Greenlaw for Sunday’s game at the Chargers.

Related Players: Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull

Engram has accounted for 33 yards through two weeks, so it's hard to say his absence is going to impact the offensive gameplan too much. Trautman can remain on waiver wires.

Evan Engram: The signs were there when Engram played just one snap on the first drive of Denver’s season in Week 1, but the free-agent tight end was even less involved against the Colts than the Titans last week.

Nix emphasized Engram’s the Broncos’ No. 1 option on a variety of plays, but the tight end just doesn’t have the snap count at the moment to make a massive impact when defenses are taking him away.

It's been a frustrating start to the fantasy season for those who waited on the TE position and thought they got a steal in Engram in the later rounds. Engram was thought to be a perfect fit in the Broncos offense, which seemed to lack a lot of big-name targets. The story said Engram did have one chain-moving catch in the second half, but was a ghost before the break. Through two games now, Engram has just four catches, the story pointed out. Engram will be tough to trust until we start to see more fantasy production, so owners may want to look for another option.

The Broncos ruled out LB Dre Greenlaw (quad) for Sunday's opener vs. Tennessee.

WR Marvin Mims Jr. (thigh) and OLB Nik Bonitto (foot) are off the injury report and good to go.

Related Players: Courtland Sutton, Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant

Good news for Mims, who is one of the more intriguing WR4/5 types in the league this year; he could either put up barely-relevant fantasy numbers, or build on what was a promising back-half of 2024. He can be left on benches in Week 1, but keep him on rosters where you can, as this sets up for a possible breakout season.

Broncos unofficial depth chart for Week 1 has J.K. Dobbins as the starting running back and RJ Harvey as RB2.

Tyler Badie is No. 3 and Jaleel McLaughlin No. 4.

We've seen some depth charts all over the place today as teams have begun to post them. While you can't always trust them exactly, there could be some stock in this one as we've heard Dobbins and Harvey were battling it out for the top spot. Harvey should get his share of work as well, but owners maybe have to think twice about starting him Week 1 until we see how the workload is split up. It's a good sign for Dobbins he's made an impact through camp and the preseason.

Cowboys RB Deuce Vaughn is getting waived.

Related players: Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, Jaydon Blue, Phil Mafah

Watkins went on to post the Cowboys had Vaughn on practice squad last year for a bit. Might return to that in 2025. RB room was top heavy with vets this year and the emergence of rookie Blue. This likely also means the team is keeping Sanders. Even with Mafah on the IR, as reported yesterday, Vaughn wasn't able to crack the top-three.

Broncos have waived RB Audric Estime per source.

Related players: RJ Harvey, J.K. Dobbins, Jaleel McLaughlin

This probably doesn't come as much of a surprise given Estime doesn't offer much in the pass-catching game. The Broncos are fresh off drafting Harvey and signing Dobbins. Estime was drafted just last year in the fifth round by the Broncos.

And another trade! The Denver Broncos are sending WR Devaughn Vele to the New Orleans Saints for a 2026 4th-round pick and a 2027 7th-round pick, per sources.

Related Players: Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant, Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Mason Tipton, Brandin Cooks, Cedrick Wilson

That's a lot of related players, but the biggest impact is probably on rookie Pat Bryant, who has played well enough to make Vele expendable in Denver.

The Saints will presumably employ the 6'4" Vele as a rotational threat, which makes him a little more interesting in super deep leagues for a team that is projected to be playing from behind a ton.

I just got back from Broncos practice. There’s buzz around several players, but one name I haven’t seen mentioned enough is second-year WR Troy Franklin. The staff loves what they’ve seen, and he looks poised for a bigger role.

Related players: Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims, Devaughn Vele, Pat Bryant, Troy Franklin

The post went on to say Franklin's understanding of the position, overall toughness and strong hands should help make him a key target for QB Bo Nix. Schultz went on to say Denver believes it has multiple WRs ready - including Mims Jr. - to step up alongside Sutton. For what it's worth, we have Franklin a bit buried down the WR depth chart in Denver. Behind Sutton we have Mims, Vele and the rookie Bryant ahead of Franklin. But with really no clear-cut WR2 in that group, it really could be anyone's job and would certainly have some fantasy value.

As Bo Nix enters his second season as Denver’s starting quarterback, piloting a team that has been outspoken about its championship aspirations, the Broncos have no plans to meddle with his running instincts. However, they are emphasizing an important caveat.

“The audit would be more in regard to protecting himself at the end of those plays and the timing of when (the run) is a got-to-have-it versus (not),” Payton said. “So we’re comfortable with (Nix scrambling); it’s a strength. When the combine came, he didn’t shuttle. He didn’t do a number of these drills that I thought he would be exceptional at."

The story said because Nix didn't run at the combine, the team was surprised about his overall speed. The story added there may be a natural decline in Nix’s scramble attempts due to his increased familiarity with the offense and a better understanding from his receivers about how their quarterback prefers to make plays when he leaves the pocket. Nix had 26 scrambles in the first seven games of his rookie season. He had only 24 across his final 10 as he finished more of his pocket-escaping plays with throws to receivers who did a better job mirroring his scrambles, the story added. We are projecting Nix to have 86 rushes for just about 400 yards this season, and overall we have him ranked ninth among our QBs.

Despite RJ Harvey being listed as the Broncos' last RB on their first unofficial depth chart, it's pretty clear he's their No. 2 RB behind J.K. Dobbins.

What's notable about the RB depth chart is Jaleel McLaughlin is ahead of Audric Estime.

The depth chart Stevens is referencing has Harvey listed behind Tyler Badie and Blake Watson, which would be hilarious. We still have Harvey far ahead of Dobbins in our rankings, with eyes toward the back-half of the season.