Denver has improved each season since Sean Payton took over as head coach, culminating in last year’s 14-3 mark and a trip to the AFC championship game against New England. They remain one of the relatively White friendliest teams in the NFL, with 9 or 10 projected White starters in ’26 and a total of 19 or 20 on the roster.
In 2025 it was 9 White starters and 20-22 Whites overall; in 2024 it was 11 and 22 or 24; and in 2023 the numbers were 9 and 21.
Payton brought out Drew Brees’ genius level talent in New Orleans, and is staking the Broncos’ success on 2024 first round pick Bo Nix. Nix has been very good his first two seasons and will continue to improve as he’s not yet a finished product. He is smart, accurate and has good wheels, all conducive to winning football.
The capable Jarrett Stidham backs up Nix, with Sam Ehlinger the third QB.
For the third straight season the Broncos feature a snow plow on the offensive line, and it is routinely ranked as the best in the league or close to it. Garrett Bolles holds down left tackle, Ben Powers is the left guard, Luke Wattenberg is the starting center, Quinn Meinerz is the right guard, and Mike McGlinchey is the right tackle.
O-line backups are LG Kage Casey, C Alex Forsyth, and RG Alex Palczewski.
The starting tight end is black, Evan Engram, but backing him up are Adam Troutman, Nate Adkins, and Dallen Bentley. Troutman was a third round pick in 2020 but hasn’t become the receiving star many had hoped.
The Broncos return the three White starters they had on defense last season – end Zach Allen, ILB Alex Singleton, and CB Riley Moss. In fact this year’s starting team on both offense and defense is similar to last year’s and so it will be a major disappointment if it isn’t again a solid playoff team.
Allen has played both tackle and end at a very high level and is one of the best. Singleton is the best linebacker in the league at diagnosing and making plays, but because he wasn’t drafted and doesn’t run a 3.9 40 he’s faced the usual attacks and criticisms that almost all White defensive players do who aren’t drafted in the first three rounds. The Canadian born Singleton has finally found a home in Denver after playing in the CFL and being mostly kicked around by the Eagles.
Riley Moss has joined Cooper DeJean as that rarest of rarities – a White starting cornerback in a league where even backup White CBs are extremely tough to find. Moss is very fast and athletic and has done a great job under a lot of pressure and scrutiny, scrutiny that is often blatantly unfair and racist, an example being the number of times he was singled out last season for bogus pass interference calls.
Allen, Singleton and Moss are the only three White defensive players on the roster this year, though end Matt Henningsen, who would likely have played a fair amount as a backup, is on IR.
The practice squad is 7/18 or 8/18 White depending on how one classifies WR Kolby Katsis, and 5 of the 7 players currently on IR are also White.
The lack of a starting White TE, and the lack of White receivers are the biggest negatives on this year’s Denver squad. The receiving corps is getting a lot of positive hype, but Courtland Sutton is aging and slow, Jaylen Waddle has bad hands, and the young receivers are again making lots of mistakes and dropping passes. While Payton’s Denver teams have been noticeably different demographically than were his Saints teams, one thing that hasn’t changed is the lack of White receivers, going back to his first New Orleans team in 2006, which drafted Mike Hass in the sixth round but then threw a remarkably gifted receiver on the Caste trash heap, along with every other NFL team. Someone like Michael Bandy would give Nix a steady and reliable presence as a slot receiver, but Bandy isn’t “flashy” and thus continues to go back and forth from being cut to languishing on practice squads, 40 transactions worth and counting, with just 14 career catches over six NFL seasons.
QB: Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham, Sam Ehlinger
LT: Garrett Bolles
LG: Ben Powers, Kage Casey
C: Luke Wattenberg, Alex Forsyth
RG: Quinn Meinerz, Alex Palczewski
RT: Mike McGlinchey
TE: Adam Troutman, Nate Adkins, Dallen Bentley
FB: Adam Prentice (was used a bit in the preseason so may have a minor role but is currently on the practice squad)
RDE: Zach Allen
ILB: Alex Singleton
CB: Riley Moss
PK: Will Lutz
P: Jeremy Crawshaw
Practice Squad: WR Michael Bandy, OT Tyler Miller, G Gavin Ortega, C Calvin Throckmorton, TE Lucas Krull, RB Cody Schrader (continues to languish on the furthest fringes of the league despite dominating the SEC in rushing at Missouri), WR Kolby Katsis (described as White by some but looks mixed to me), FB Adam Prentice (currently on the practice squad despite supposedly being the starting fullback).
IR: TE Colby Lohner, OG Nick Gargiulo, OT Frank Crum, DE Matt Henningsen, C Michael Dieter
Number of White Starters: 9, 10 if Prentice is promoted from the PS
Number of Whites on the 53 man roster: 19, 20 with Prentice
Grade: C
Steve Watson was a top NFL receiver in the 1980s until injuries shortened his career. Watson, Steve Largent and Cris Collinsworth were the last star White receivers “allowed” for a number of years until several began breaking out in the late 1990s.
And since Mike Hass was mentioned and we have very long memories here at Caste Football and remember and honor our own, here's a good background piece on Mike Hass. It ignores the elephant in the room, namely that this walk-on turned Biletnikoff award winner as the best college receiver in the nation was screwed over solely because he was White in a league that rarely wants White stars at the position, but still gives a lot of good background and footage of Hass in action.
In 2025 it was 9 White starters and 20-22 Whites overall; in 2024 it was 11 and 22 or 24; and in 2023 the numbers were 9 and 21.
Payton brought out Drew Brees’ genius level talent in New Orleans, and is staking the Broncos’ success on 2024 first round pick Bo Nix. Nix has been very good his first two seasons and will continue to improve as he’s not yet a finished product. He is smart, accurate and has good wheels, all conducive to winning football.
The capable Jarrett Stidham backs up Nix, with Sam Ehlinger the third QB.
For the third straight season the Broncos feature a snow plow on the offensive line, and it is routinely ranked as the best in the league or close to it. Garrett Bolles holds down left tackle, Ben Powers is the left guard, Luke Wattenberg is the starting center, Quinn Meinerz is the right guard, and Mike McGlinchey is the right tackle.
O-line backups are LG Kage Casey, C Alex Forsyth, and RG Alex Palczewski.
The starting tight end is black, Evan Engram, but backing him up are Adam Troutman, Nate Adkins, and Dallen Bentley. Troutman was a third round pick in 2020 but hasn’t become the receiving star many had hoped.
The Broncos return the three White starters they had on defense last season – end Zach Allen, ILB Alex Singleton, and CB Riley Moss. In fact this year’s starting team on both offense and defense is similar to last year’s and so it will be a major disappointment if it isn’t again a solid playoff team.
Allen has played both tackle and end at a very high level and is one of the best. Singleton is the best linebacker in the league at diagnosing and making plays, but because he wasn’t drafted and doesn’t run a 3.9 40 he’s faced the usual attacks and criticisms that almost all White defensive players do who aren’t drafted in the first three rounds. The Canadian born Singleton has finally found a home in Denver after playing in the CFL and being mostly kicked around by the Eagles.
Riley Moss has joined Cooper DeJean as that rarest of rarities – a White starting cornerback in a league where even backup White CBs are extremely tough to find. Moss is very fast and athletic and has done a great job under a lot of pressure and scrutiny, scrutiny that is often blatantly unfair and racist, an example being the number of times he was singled out last season for bogus pass interference calls.
Allen, Singleton and Moss are the only three White defensive players on the roster this year, though end Matt Henningsen, who would likely have played a fair amount as a backup, is on IR.
The practice squad is 7/18 or 8/18 White depending on how one classifies WR Kolby Katsis, and 5 of the 7 players currently on IR are also White.
The lack of a starting White TE, and the lack of White receivers are the biggest negatives on this year’s Denver squad. The receiving corps is getting a lot of positive hype, but Courtland Sutton is aging and slow, Jaylen Waddle has bad hands, and the young receivers are again making lots of mistakes and dropping passes. While Payton’s Denver teams have been noticeably different demographically than were his Saints teams, one thing that hasn’t changed is the lack of White receivers, going back to his first New Orleans team in 2006, which drafted Mike Hass in the sixth round but then threw a remarkably gifted receiver on the Caste trash heap, along with every other NFL team. Someone like Michael Bandy would give Nix a steady and reliable presence as a slot receiver, but Bandy isn’t “flashy” and thus continues to go back and forth from being cut to languishing on practice squads, 40 transactions worth and counting, with just 14 career catches over six NFL seasons.
QB: Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham, Sam Ehlinger
LT: Garrett Bolles
LG: Ben Powers, Kage Casey
C: Luke Wattenberg, Alex Forsyth
RG: Quinn Meinerz, Alex Palczewski
RT: Mike McGlinchey
TE: Adam Troutman, Nate Adkins, Dallen Bentley
FB: Adam Prentice (was used a bit in the preseason so may have a minor role but is currently on the practice squad)
RDE: Zach Allen
ILB: Alex Singleton
CB: Riley Moss
PK: Will Lutz
P: Jeremy Crawshaw
Practice Squad: WR Michael Bandy, OT Tyler Miller, G Gavin Ortega, C Calvin Throckmorton, TE Lucas Krull, RB Cody Schrader (continues to languish on the furthest fringes of the league despite dominating the SEC in rushing at Missouri), WR Kolby Katsis (described as White by some but looks mixed to me), FB Adam Prentice (currently on the practice squad despite supposedly being the starting fullback).
IR: TE Colby Lohner, OG Nick Gargiulo, OT Frank Crum, DE Matt Henningsen, C Michael Dieter
Number of White Starters: 9, 10 if Prentice is promoted from the PS
Number of Whites on the 53 man roster: 19, 20 with Prentice
Grade: C
Steve Watson was a top NFL receiver in the 1980s until injuries shortened his career. Watson, Steve Largent and Cris Collinsworth were the last star White receivers “allowed” for a number of years until several began breaking out in the late 1990s.
And since Mike Hass was mentioned and we have very long memories here at Caste Football and remember and honor our own, here's a good background piece on Mike Hass. It ignores the elephant in the room, namely that this walk-on turned Biletnikoff award winner as the best college receiver in the nation was screwed over solely because he was White in a league that rarely wants White stars at the position, but still gives a lot of good background and footage of Hass in action.