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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Broncos have two major items to cross off checklist before start of training camp
Less than two weeks out from the start of training camp, the Denver Broncos have yet to sign either of their top two draft picks to contracts. The Broncos will kick off training camp ahead of the 2025 season on Friday, July 25. To this point, first-round pick Jahdae Barron and second-round pick RJ Harvey remain unsigned. While several teams have yet to sign their second-round picks to a deal, the Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals are the only teams in the league to have gotten a new deal done with neither. Advertisement Though the situation between the Broncos and Barron is nowhere near as contentious as the one between the Bengals and their first-round pick, Shemar Stewart, it would still be in the best interest of the team to get a deal done soon. It would not be ideal to open camp without Barron and Harvey under contract, as every rep is precious, but that goes double for rookies. Guaranteed money — and how much of it — seems to be the hangup with these contracts. While there is nothing to suggest that the Broncos won't get these deals done before the start of camp, it has to be considered at least slightly concerning that it hasn't happened yet. Barron is expected to be a huge part of the Denver defense in year two. While he wasn't on the radar for the Broncos by many within the draft community, he fell to the team with the No. 20 overall pick in the draft and George Paton and Sean Payton couldn't turn that down. Advertisement In the second round, the Broncos selected Harvey despite many running backs who were rated higher still being on the board. That pick was made because Payton sees something in him that he feels many other front offices are overlooking. The point is, the team was excited to get these two players on the roster, so hammer out the details, work with them on good deals in guaranteed money and get signatures on those contracts. If that doesn't happen within the next two weeks, the Broncos will open camp without them. MORE BRONCOS CONTENT Broncos predicted to sign 31-TD running back to massive free-agent deal in 2026 Advertisement Broncos have two of the worst head coaching hires of the century, but which one was worse? Broncos acquire Alvin Kamara from Saints in blockbuster trade prediction Bo Nix criminally underrated with ridiculous slot on recent NFL QB hierarchy list
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Broncos have signed entire draft class (view the contract values)
After agreeing to terms on a four-year deal with running back RJ Harvey on Thursday, the Denver Broncos have now signed all six members of their 2025 NFL draft class to rookie contracts. Each player received a four-year deal, and as a first-round pick, cornerback Jahdae Barron has a fifth-year option built into his contract for the 2029 season. The Broncos will make a decision on that fifth-year option following Barron's third season in the NFL. Barron's fully guaranteed contract is worth $18,073,176, including a $9,784,128 signing bonus. Harvey will receive $7,359,674 over four years with $4,726,842 guaranteed. Denver gave the running back a $1,992,488 signing bonus. View the full contract values for all six draft picks below. Broncos 2025 draft class Round 1: CB Jahdae Barron: $18M Round 2: RB RJ Harvey: $7.3M Round 3: WR Pat Bryant: $6.5M Round 3: DE Sai'vion Jones: $6.1M Round 4: OLB Que Robinson: $5M Round 6: P Jeremy Crawshaw: $4.3M Round 7: TE Caleb Lohner: $4.3M Broncos rookies reported to the team's facility this week ahead of the start of training camp practices next week. Denver's first practice of the summer is set for July 25 (view the full training camp schedule). Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans. This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Denver Broncos: Entire 2025 draft class has signed (view contracts)
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Broncos' RJ Harvey Remains Unsigned as Question Over Guaranteed Money Looms
Broncos' RJ Harvey Remains Unsigned as Question Over Guaranteed Money Looms originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Denver Broncos drafted running back RJ Harvey in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, and have big plans for the rookie running back this season. However, the Broncos' running back has yet to sign his rookie contract, and Denver's training camp opens to rookies this week. Advertisement Harvey isn't alone, though. He's one of 30 second-round draft picks who have yet to sign their rookie contracts, and the main reason comes down to the amount of guaranteed money involved. 'Harvey is caught up in a league-wide, second-round quagmire where the twisted issue centers around guaranteed money,' 9News' Mike Klis wrote on July 13 (h/t 'That guaranteed portion is now in dispute for not only Harvey but all second-round picks in the most recent NFL Draft. Credit, or blame, the Houston Texans. They gave their second-round draft pick, No. 34 overall, receiver Jayden Higgins, a 100% full guarantee on his four-year, $11.7 million contract. 'That precedent bulged the eyes and raised the eyebrows of agents representing the other second-round draft picks.' Advertisement The only other player selected in the second round to have signed their rookie contract is Cleveland Browns' linebacker Cam Schwesinger, who also signed a fully guaranteed deal. Now, Higgins and Schwesinger were the top two picks in the second round, and Harvey was the 26th pick in the second round. So, there is a large gap, and it might be a waiting game now to see which teams are willing to hand out fully guaranteed contracts. Denver Broncos running back RJ Harvey (37) during rookie minicamp at Broncos Park Powered by CommonSpirit. It's worth noting, Charger's second-round pick, receiver Tre Harris, was the first to skip his first day of training camp, holding out for guaranteed money. Harris with the 23rd pick in the second round, just five picks before Harvey. Advertisement With Broncos' rookies set to report to training camp on July 16, the worry is that Harvey will hold out for a contract with fully guaranteed money. However, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio thinks it might be too late for that. 'The second-round picks should have held out earlier. At a minimum, they should have collectively skipped mandatory minicamp. Instead, all of them signed participation agreements and showed up for work despite not being employed, throughout the offseason program,' Florio wrote. 'So now they're going to stay away?" 'The teams may not take it seriously. They'll count on players caving so that they can get ready for the season, accepting less-than-100-percent guarantees in order to get to work. And any such deals coming later in the round will set the parameters for the rest of the round.' Regardless of the outcome, it will set a new precedent in the NFL among second-round draft picks' rookie contracts that will affect future drafts. For now, both sides will have to wait and see who decides the cave first. Advertisement Related: More from Inside the Broncos: This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
New York Times
13-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
With one question, Deion Sanders gave a student reporter a ‘life-changing moment'
Deion Sanders has created many viral moments over his career. One in particular resonates for a different reason. On Sept. 28 last year, Sanders' Colorado Buffaloes had just blown out previously undefeated UCF 48-21 in Orlando. Andrew Cherico, a 21-year-old student reporter, showed up at Sanders' postgame news conference, hoping he could ask a question for his job covering the Knights for a small website, Sons of UCF, that he was interning for. Advertisement When Cherico got called on in, his hands were shaking. His heart was racing. He'd been out at UCF since 8 a.m., and it was now close to 8 p.m. That's a full day for anyone, much less someone confined to a wheelchair, as Cherico has been since he was 9 years old. 'It was like 1,000 degrees that day in Florida, and by the time I asked my question, I was exhausted,' Cherico said. He would end up working a 17-hour day before getting back home at 1 a.m. and was so worn down, he vomited on his way out of the stadium that night (and he didn't want work to know). Before the conference began, Cherico tried to position himself in the best spot he could to get called on. He had started going over his question in his head before the game ended. He decided he would try to ask Sanders how Colorado was able to shut down R.J. Harvey and the nation's leading rushing attack. Sanders began to answer Cherico's question about the Buffs' run defense, but then stopped and focused on the reporter. 'I'm proud of you and your resilience and what you go through on a daily basis,' Sanders told Cherico. 'I'm so darn proud of you, you have no idea. Because I was in a (wheel) chair at one point with these toes being amputated. And I know what you deal with on a daily basis. I had to change my whole bathroom and put rails in so I could even get on the darn toilet, man. So I understand, and I'm proud of you man, truly.' Wow, I'm blessed beyond belief to have witnessed @DeionSanders giving me a shoutout telling me he's proud of me and all the work I do especially with the adversity I deal with from my physical disability. Thank you Coach Prime it means the world. 🙏🏼 Growing up with a disability… — Andrew Cherico (@Andrew_Cherico) September 29, 2024 Cherico couldn't believe what he had heard. 'I felt every butterfly in my stomach crawl up to me,' he said. 'And that's when all the people started turning their heads around in the room to me — OK, yeah, he's really talking about me right now. I'm not going crazy.' Cherico was born with spinal muscular atrophy. Technically, he has what is known as SMA Type 3, a neuromuscular disability that affects all the muscles in his body. He was able to walk until he was 9, but it's a progressive disease that first caused him to go into a manual wheelchair, then a wheelchair with assistants, and then the power wheelchair he relies on now. Advertisement 'Thankfully, modern medicine has halted the progression of it,' he said. His dad put him in front of the TV with a New York Jets jersey on when he was only 2. Andrew always loved sports, especially the competitive aspect of it, but he was also aware he would never get to play for the Jets someday or play in the NBA like Michael Jordan. By the time he was 6, his aunt, listening to the little boy rattle off all sorts of sports statistics, told him, 'Some day, you're gonna be a sports broadcaster.' He'd listen to Gary Cohen call Mets games and Kevin Harlan and Ian Eagle do football and basketball games, and by the time he was 10, he'd come up with his dream job and believed he could do everything they could. But his true role models, he said, are his parents (his father is a retired NYPD detective and his mother is a nurse's assistant), who always motivated him to keep going. Wheelchair or not, they never wanted Andrew to feel separated from the community despite whatever challenges he faced. He graduated from a school in New York for students with disabilities in a class of only about 15. The college he chose to go to, UCF, has 70,000 students. There was a lot of culture shock when he first got to college, but he picked UCF because he loved the warm weather, the city of Orlando and the energy of the school that first caught his eye in 2017 when Scott Frost led the Knights to a 14-0 record. He and his parents moved to Florida in 2023, after he took a gap year. Andrew wasn't sure of the best way to try to break into the business, but in April 2023, he started a Twitter account. 'I was tweeting to nobody for the first two or three months,' he said. 'But I just knew that this is what I wanted to do, and eventually, I started picking up a few people along the way, and people started to enjoy my work.' Advertisement Sons of UCF, an independent site dedicated to covering all things UCF Knights, noticed Cherico wanted to be a journalist and asked if he wanted to get involved. He was all in. 'We're a small outfit,' said Adam Eaton, the site's founder. 'It's just two of us.' Cherico's job with Sons of UCF was a paid internship in which he got college credit and a stipend every month for his 20-plus hours of work. It helped that his dad could drive him to all the games and practices. It also helped that Andrew's outgoing nature enables him to connect easily with all sorts of people. 'The thing with Andrew is that he's been counted out his entire life,' Eaton said. 'We don't tell him no. If he has an idea and wants to do something, we figure out ways to support him and let him do it. I'd always tell him, 'Tell us what your plan is, how you want to get it done and what you need from us, and we'll support you.' And he makes it work. Luckily, the community of UCF has really embraced him.' This summer, Cherico was hired by 247Sports' UCF site, Knights247 — a bigger platform and a move up the career ladder. This week, he traveled out of state for the first time for his job, covering the Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas. Air travel is the biggest challenge for him. Whenever he has to get on a plane, he tries to arrive at the gate three hours early. He has to speak with the airport's ramp supervisor about transporting his motorized wheelchair, which costs $30,000. He always brings instructions with the chair. He's heard so many stories of wheelchairs being broken or damaged. 'These,' he said, referencing his chair, 'are these people's lives. Without this chair, we are stuck.' It's only part of what makes air travel such a hassle. He can't use an airplane bathroom. And when he lands, getting a wheelchair-accessible taxi can often take longer than the flight. He said he called 20 different cab companies around the DFW area to try to get a ride before he found someone who was able to recommend a driver who could assist him, and that person was in Fort Worth. His first night in Dallas, he went out to get dinner and called the driver he had used earlier. He was in the car for eight minutes, and he said the trip cost him $75. 'Whenever I go somewhere, I always have a Plan A, B and C,' he said. 'When I got here, I had a Plan A and a Plan B and both of those failed, so I was kinda stuck. I didn't even know if I was gonna be able to make it here.' The further he gets into chasing his dream, the more Andrew has come to believe that this is all much bigger than him, that his real drive is to inspire people like him. A few weeks before he flew to Texas, he went to Disneyland in California to speak at a three-day conference with panels for people dealing with SMA, the neurological disease he has. There were several hundred people in attendance. After he spoke and shared his story, a few parents approached him, telling him how inspiring he is and wanting him to talk to their kids. Advertisement 'There are so many people like me that don't get a voice, that feel trapped in their bubble,' he said. 'I didn't know what I was gonna do with my life. I can't get out of bed on my own, can't go to the bathroom. But I still find a way to make it happen, and I want them to know that they can, too, with just a bit of faith and hope. I'm just trying to go through life as a regular person chasing my dream. ' As he tells his story of what it's been like to chase his life's dream while continuing to realize how steep his climb will be, it's hard for him not to get emotional. 'My end goal is to really use my platform to hopefully reach a professional level and get some recognition that I can inspire other people with my disability to see that it is possible that you can pursue the career that you want,' he said. 'You may need to work a little bit harder; you may need to position yourself in certain ways, but it is possible. 'I want to do all these things, but then sometimes life just hits me a little bit. Like a ton of bricks sometimes. It's unfortunate, knowing that I'm ready for the world, but the world isn't ready for a guy like me.' He wasn't going to let anything stop him from getting to Dallas. The school he covers has a new coach (well, its old coach — Frost — has come back). There are also so many people he wanted to meet. He also wanted to try to see Sanders, to thank him for a 'life-changing moment.' The day after Sanders' comments at UCF last year, Cherico had posted about 'the really cool moment.' 'I'd hit click and hundreds of retweets started coming in about it,' said Cherico, who had played as Sanders in the Madden video games for years. One of the new followers he picked up after his post was Sanders. On the second day of Big 12 Media Days, Sanders, with Colorado, arrived in Frisco, and Cherico got his chance to speak with the Pro Football Hall of Famer and tell him what his words meant to him. Advertisement Sanders told The Athletic it was great to see Cherico in Texas. 'It's just to see him smiling and doing his thing,' he said. 'It takes a lot to get here, and we take it for granted. My hat is off and my prayers are for him. That is unbelievable what he is accomplishing.' Cherico said seeing Sanders reminds him that he belongs here in the media space, pursuing his dreams; that he can do this job, even though he was probably one of the youngest people in the room that day and the only person with a physical disability. 'Even when I'm getting beat down by the world and when I feel like I may not be able to pursue this career, because I can't be as quick as everybody else pulling out my tripod, that I can't get my microphone out as fast, or that I have to find adequate space so I can set up my questions,' he said. 'But then, I have a situation like that with Deion Sanders, and it reminds me that I can do this. It reminds me that this field, that no matter what, with my mindset, I can make something happen.' (Top photo of Sanders at the UCF postgame conference in 2024: Don Juan Moore / Getty Images)
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Can Jaleel McLaughlin find playmaking role in Broncos reconstructed backfield?
Jaleel McLaughlin viewed the shrieking whistle as a suggestion and chose to ignore it. During an offseason practice at the Denver Broncos training facility in early June, McLaughlin caught a pass in the flat and turned upfield. In a blink, he had outrun the angle the nearest defender had taken while trying to pin the running back to the sideline. In a non-tackle, offseason setting, the play was over at that point, but McLaughlin kept running. Kept accelerating. Kept envisioning the home runs he wants to hit more frequently when his third NFL season rolls around in September. Advertisement 'Really, just turning those 12-yard plays into 80 or 90 yards, or 50- or 60-yard touchdowns, that's what I've been trying to work on,' McLaughlin said just before the Broncos broke minicamp last month. '(The difference) is that small. If you juggle the ball, especially in a league where everyone is really fast and smart, that can change the game. I've been working on those little things, for sure.' The Broncos reconstructed their backfield this offseason with two key additions. First, Denver selected RJ Harvey, an All-American running back out of Central Florida, in the second round of April's NFL Draft. Then, just before minicamp, the Broncos signed veteran JK Dobbins to a one-year deal after the sides had spent much of the offseason discussing a potential deal. Those additions, combined with Denver's leading rusher of the past two years, Javonte Williams, leaving in free agency, have created an entirely new picture for an offense aiming to be more dynamic on the ground. Still, even amid new faces in his position group, McLaughlin remains a fascinating potential piece of the puzzle for Denver's offense, a versatile, whip-quick backfield weapon who has totaled 1,142 yards of offense and six touchdowns since joining the Broncos as an undrafted free agent out of Youngstown State in 2023. The 5-foot-7, 187-pound back is never going to be a traditional workhorse for the Broncos. He carried the ball 7.1 times per game last season and has averaged just under two passing targets per game during his career. The new firepower, along with the presence of second-year running back Audric Estimé, makes it hard to imagine a world in which McLaughlin will hover much above that 10-touch mark per game. The quantity of work is largely out of McLaughlin's control. That's why his focus is on explosive efficiency, turning more of his opportunities into home runs. It's a thought that fueled every pre-dawn workout this offseason for the notorious early riser. The playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills stung. McLaughlin touched the ball three times for minus-2 yards. He simply hadn't impacted the game in the way he had envisioned. He was back in the building working out days later. Advertisement 'I didn't take much time (off after the season),' McLaughlin said. 'I had a sour taste in my mouth.' McLaughlin's shiftiness was evident in the tight spaces of the red zone last season. All three of his touchdowns came on plays inside the 10-yard line, including a nifty run during a Week 3 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. McLaughlin caught a pitch from quarterback Bo Nix and appeared trapped by the pterodactyl wingspan of 6-foot-7 outside linebacker Anthony Nelson. So McLaughlin slammed the brakes, juked inside to freeze Nelson and then bounced back outside, zipping by chasing defensive lineman C.J. Brewer into the end zone. The play showcased what running backs coach Lou Ayeni calls McLaughlin's ability to 'teleport' on the field. 'There's juice and there's vision,' Broncos coach Sean Payton added. Jaleel McLaughlin got there! The @Broncos now lead the Buccaneers 14-0! 📺: FOX — FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 22, 2024 The next step for McLaughlin is turning more of his opportunities in the open field into game-changing plays. Ayeni, who has worked with McLaughlin since the running back entered the league, has challenged him to spike his number of explosive runs. He has averaged a respectable 4.8 yards per carry in his first two seasons, but he had only five runs of at least 15 yards last season and only one 20-plus yard run. 'I left a lot out there last year and I know that,' McLaughlin said. McLaughlin will be facing fierce competition in the backfield when training camp begins later this month. Much of the hope for a resurgent Broncos running game is being pinned on Harvey and Dobbins, even if Payton has been adamant there is not yet an established pecking order at a position that also includes holdovers, Tyler Badie and Blake Watson. Can McLaughlin still count on nine or 10 opportunities per game to make a play with the ball in his hands? Advertisement The number of touches may matter less than what McLaughlin can do with them in big spots this season. That's why, when he hears the whistle blow in training camp later this month, it may serve as a signal to hit the gas. 'Everything's slowing down, but speeding up at the same time with my play,' the running back said. 'I have been focusing on those little things, for sure. I think the hard work is going to show.'
