“It’s not by accident,” stated Sean Payton, coach of the Broncos. “It’s not by accident in the overview, however there may be some coincidence in there. Absolutely not.
With 46 games played at Illinois, Pat Bryant, a third-round wide receiver, stated: “I think maybe they like guys who stayed and worked through things at one place.”
Six of the seven players the Broncos selected in last month’s draft participated in at least 41 games at one school. Three of them—Jahdae Barron, a first-round cornerback, Sai’vion Jones, a third-round edge rusher, and Jeremy Crawshaw, a sixth-round punter—topped 50 games at their respective schools. Barron’s 57 games at Texas led the group.
Caleb Lohner, a seventh-round tight end who played basketball at BYU and Baylor before spending a season at Utah, was the lone exemption to Denver’s transfer ban.
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Payton’s vision and requirements for players in the 2025 selection class were mental toughness, leadership, and a strong work ethic. Those qualities just so happened to be most appropriate for a group of athletes that were prepared to stay at their collegiate programs for a long time.
When you go into this, you always state that you want a starter in pick [No.] 1; what is our intention for this player? Is he a good fit for us? “It was a significant component of Jahdae’s makeup,” Payton remarked. “And you move through pick 2, pick 3, pick 4, pick 5 and pick 6 on this board … it just kept coming up for us.”
The transfer site and NIL income had a greater influence on the 2025 draft board than ever before, according to many league members. The Broncos, meanwhile, continued to search for players who had remained.
RJ Harvey, a second-round rookie running back who played 41 games over four seasons at UCF, stated, “I told people who asked me, including [the Broncos], it was about the right situation.” “I came from Virginia, but I didn’t play quarterback in any of their games. I arrived at UCF and went to running back; staying was a blessing since I made the right choice for my family’s position and for my education.”
Just ten years ago, a single transfer would have raised serious concerns. The motivations behind the relocation would have been vigorously investigated. However, the NFL has had to adapt as players have welcomed the transfer portal’s independence in recent seasons and coaches have made it a major component of roster building. (Colorado coach Deion Sanders reportedly instructed his students “to jump into that portal” during their first team meeting.)
The transition is highlighted by NCAA data. According to the report, there was a notable increase in the number of football players who used the transfer site in 2024, with 1,919 undergraduates and 983 graduate players, respectively, compared to 1,427 and 547 in 2022. The statistics show that 72% of the 2024 portal’s users joined in a new football program, 5% went back to their previous school, and 23% had either quit football or not enrolled in a new program by the time the data was made public.
“[Transfers] are part of the evaluation — like before — but the environment around them has changed,” stated George Paton, general manager of the Broncos. “You get the information as part of the process, you look at it, you talk to the player, but it’s something that is so common and you look at it like you do everything else.”
What to anticipate from the NFL draft in 2025
• View all 257 selections | Pick-by-pick evaluation
• Miller’s top 100 selections | Kiper’s grades
• Yates’ preferred selections | Exaggerated reactions
• Kiper’s wins during the first and second days
• Hunter to Jaguars | Sanders to Browns
When scouting this class, Payton described the Broncos as having a “unique year” since a number of Denver assistant coaches had daily, first-hand interactions with several of the guys the Broncos ultimately chose.
When Bryant was there, defensive line coach Jamar Cain had been Jones’ position coach at LSU for a season, and assistant head coach/defensive passing game coordinator Jim Leonhard had been at Illinois for a year. Payton stated that although that dynamic is not uncommon, it appeared to be more common surrounding the players they truly wanted to choose in this draft class.
Additionally, it led to the Broncos acquiring the guys Payton desires for his program.
“I had a lot of turnover [on the coaching staff], and with some of the new arrivals and with coaches we’ve had, there was a lot of institutional knowledge with some of these players,” Payton stated. “What matters to us is the inside information—who they are. We say things like “tough,” “smart,” and “good teammates,” but what you truly want is to find it.
“In this group, we found it in players who had stayed and played where they were for longer than a lot of guys.”
