ENGLEWOOD, Colo — So much good happened for Marvin Mims Jr. in his rookie Denver Broncos’ season.
He had a touchdown and 113 yards receiving off just two catches in his second NFL game. No other Broncos receiver, not even Courtland Sutton, had a 100-yard receiving game in 2023.
Mims also had a 45-yard punt return in that same game 2 against Washington followed by a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown the following week against Miami. Later he contributed during his team’s midseason, five-game winning streak with field-position-flipping returns.
He made the Pro Bowl as the AFC’s top returner.
He was asked what he would remember most as he looked back on his rookie season say, five, 10 years from now.
“Greatest memory might be beating Buffalo,’’ Mims said in an interview with 9NEWS this week for the Broncos Huddle (6:30 p.m. Friday). “To go against a really good Buffalo Bills team, to be in Buffalo, how crazy the atmosphere is and just to come out on top of that game – a crazy game.
“Also beating Kansas City. A huge rival. Haven’t beat them in however many years to come out on top, especially at home for the fans.’’
Good answer, young man. Asked about himself, Mims made it about the team.
At a time when the COVID season of 2020 and fluidity of the transfer portal has prospects entering the league at 23, 24 and even 25 years old, Mims had barely turned 21 when the Broncos traded up to draft him last year. And he’s still 21 as his first season concluded.
More striking than Mims’ age is his maturity. He speaks softly but intelligently and only when spoken to. He carries himself like he’s been around a while.
Young men like this usually have strong parents and Mims is no exception.
“Parents are great,’’ Mims said. “I feel like a big thing are my grandparents the way they helped them and then my parents held me accountable. And then older siblings. Being the youngest is great, it’s cool. Has some perks to it. I don’t know, I get called an old man walking around here sometimes because of the way I carry myself.”
Could he have imagined so much success in year one after the Broncos made him the final pick in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft?
“Not at all,’’ Mims said. “But as the season went on, punt return, kick return, I was really pleased. And then to find out a week and a half ago I’d be the Pro Bowl returner that was icing on the cake. It felt amazing.”
There was also something that didn’t happen for Mims as a rookie.
Namely, he didn’t get the ball enough on offense. Despite flashing his game-break speed deep-ball receiving ability early in the season, he finished with a modest 22 catches for 377 yards and no more touchdowns after his 60-yard reception from Russell Wilson that week 2 game against Washington.
There has to be more from Mims the receiver in year two, especially if the Broncos go through with trading away either Jerry Jeudy or Sutton this offseason after taking trade requests for their top two receivers two separate times in the past year. How does Mims make the leap as a receiver?
“The main thing I would probably say is trust,’’ he said. “And also knowing the ins and outs of the offense and knowing what to expect from the defense from film study, experience. Definitely being in the room with Courtland and Jerry, it helped tremendously. And also having Tim (Patrick) on the sideline, being in my ear, telling me, “Stay ready. Stay read. You never know when my time is going to come.’ It helped tremendously this year.”
Even if he didn’t get the ball as much as the local media and fans thought he should have, Mims is well ahead of where the Broncos’ all-time leading receiver, Rod Smith, was at a similar point in his career. Smith spent his rookie season of 1994 on the practice squad, had just six catches in his second season, and had more returns (24) than catches (16) in year three.
As Smith became established as a 70-catch, 1,180-yard receiver in his fourth season of 1997, he stopped returning punts and kicks. Mims wants to continue to do both.
“Yeah, I hope so. I want to be a returner for the rest of my career,’’ Mims said.
He’s too good of a returner not to. The Broncos had previously drafted or signed three returners – Montrell Washington (2022), Isaiah McKenzie (2017) and Kalif Raymond (2016) – who struggled with the nuances of the position as rookies. McKenzie and Raymond later had success as returners with other teams, but early on they had a tough time making the proper decision while the ball was in the air.
By and large, the booted ball travels much higher and longer in the NFL than it does in college. Mims did make one critical ball-security mistake in a Christmas Eve loss to New England, but he otherwise returned punts and kicks like a five- or six-year veteran.
Mims finished No. 2 in the league with a 26.5-yard kickoff return average and led all punt returners with a 16.4-yard average.
“I think the biggest thing was my experience with it in college and high school,’’ he said. “I’ve been doing it for a while. But also just how good the unit is. Just the blocking and the two gunners -- I mean Tremon Smith and Riley Moss rarely got beat so most of the time I didn’t have to worry about whether I would have space to catch or not, depending on how the punt was. So it helped a ton especially mentally and being stress-free back there.”
Mims is spending this weekend back home in Frisco, Texas but plans on returning early next week to start training for the Pro Bowl skills events and flag football game that will take place Thursday, Feb. 1 and Sunday, Feb. 4 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. Soon enough it will be mid-April when Mims and other Broncos’ veterans report for the start of the team’s offseason conditioning program.
“I feel amazing about the direction (of the team),’’ Mims said. “I mean, started off the season 1-5, to where we’re at the point where people were talking, this guy is going to get traded, that guy is going to get traded, we’re going to clean house for draft picks. And then we turn the season completely around and we finish 8-9. I feel like it was a pretty successful year. Not what we wanted to be but from where it started to where it finished it was pretty good.”
The next stop to a playoff spot starts on his side of the ball.
“Offensively we did get stagnant a couple times,’’ he said. “For different reasons. I would say that’s the biggest thing, especially for me, being a guy on offense, coming from Oklahoma, the Big 12 where we put up 40, 50 points a game. The NFL’s different. You’re going up against great guys and especially for me the difference was just how smart the DBs are, the safeties, linebackers. They see formations, they see tendencies, they’re going to know what’s coming.
“You’ve just got to outsmart ‘em, outplay ‘em. Taking that next step offensively in year two, we all know what the coaches expect and we all know what we’re expecting out of each other. Just to build off of that in OTAs, training camp, to get ready for next season.”
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