The Denver Broncos are a young team led by a rookie quarterback.
There are, of course, plenty of veteran players mixed in, but the Broncos have a young core of Bo Nix (24), Pat Surtain (24) and Quinn Meinerz (25) with key pieces including Ja’Quan McMillian (24), Riley Moss (24) and Nik Bonitto (25) and rookies like Audric Estime (21), Troy Franklin (21) and Jonah Elliss (21).
Eight games into the 2024 season, coach Sean Payton likes what he’s seen from the youngsters.
“I’m pleased with our younger players that are getting to play,” Payton said Monday. “We have a young group and a young team. We have some veterans mixed in. We just have to continue. Much the same as we’re developing the quarterback — which obviously gets a lot of the attention — we have to be developing these other younger players just as well.”
Nix and a few other rookies were thrown right into the fire this season. There’s no time to sit back and observe. Denver needs the rookies to play and develop right away, and they have.
“We say this now, ‘There’s no more rookies anymore,'” Payton said. “We’re eight games in. As a team, we need to continue to grow. The Peloton doesn’t have room to wait for the slackers. It’s like, ‘Let’s go.’ So far, we haven’t had to do that, and we’ll continue to keep that pace.”
Up next for the young Broncos is a tough road test against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9.
