The Denver Broncos have spent the last two weeks looking less like a team still sorting itself out and more like one with a real claim on the AFC. A Week 1 stumble briefly suggested otherwise.
Since then, the offense has found a rhythm and the roster has started to look deep enough that the front office does not need to treat every contributor as untouchable. That does not mean Denver is shopping.
It does mean the club can afford to listen if the right offer arrives for a player whose role has already narrowed.
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox made that case ahead of Week 4, identifying receiver and return specialist Marvin Mims Jr. as the Broncos’ most sensible trade asset. Knox’s reasoning is straightforward.
Mims was an All-Pro returner in 2024 and will not turn 25 until March, so the résumé and the age still travel. What does not travel as cleanly is a defined place in Denver’s plans.
He has missed the last two games with a foot injury, and the Broncos have managed the return game without him, with undrafted rookie Kolbe Katsis handling punts. A team that can absorb that absence is a team that can at least price the player.
The offensive picture is tighter still. Mims has 1,202 career receiving yards and is headed for free agency in the spring. The arrival of Jaylen Waddle pushed him toward the bottom of a receiver room that already includes Courtland Sutton, Pat Bryant, and Troy Franklin.
That is not a criticism of the player so much as a description of the depth chart. Denver did not acquire Waddle to create a logjam it intends to carry into November. It acquired him to raise the ceiling of the passing game.
Once that move was made, Mims became the odd man out in a room built for the present, not a developmental project the club still needs to resolve.
There is a practical case for moving him before the November 10 deadline, and a practical case for keeping him. A contender rarely gives away special-teams value for nothing, and a young All-Pro returner can still swing a field-position game in January.
The counter is that Denver has already shown it can cover the role, that Mims has no clear offensive snap share, and that his contract status limits how much leverage the Broncos will have if they wait until spring.
A midseason deal would not have to be extravagant. It would only have to return something the roster can use now, whether that is a depth piece on defense or a draft asset that does not expire when Mims hits the market.
For a club that has spent the past two weeks looking like a title contender, that is the whole calculation. Denver does not need to sell.
If another team values Mims more as a returner and rotational receiver than the Broncos can use him over the next four months, Knox’s read is the sensible one: listen, name a price, and only move him if the return improves a roster that already believes it is in the race.
The NFL trade deadline is on Nov. 10.
