The Denver Broncos would not have traded up into the second round of the NFL draft if they didn’t love the prospect they were targeting.
Denver moved up for Oklahoma wide receiver Marvin Mims, who coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton gushed about after the pick.
“His traits — he’s got return skills, character makeup and he’s smart,” Payton said. “He’s someone that can play at ‘Z’ [position] He can play at ‘X.’ He brings an element of speed you can feel on tape. … He was a captain and face the program. His makeup was fantastic. He’s extremely intelligent, and you feel the top-end speed.”
Mims ran a 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds at the combine and his speed stood out on film.
“The one thing that I think we found that was different was lot of these receivers you felt were in rush hour traffic — Monday through Friday,” Payton said. “This was one that looked like he was driving on Saturday and Sunday. He was open, and it was cleaner. That’s because of his speed.”
Though he is a small receiver, Mims (5-11, 183 pounds) is a tough player who will contribute both on offense and as a punt returner.
“[T]he way he tracks the ball in the hands, the toughness in the run game for a guy who’s not that big. His transition after the catch on those screens. We just feel for his size, he’s really tough,” Paton said.
The Broncos were thrilled to come out of the draft with Mims added to the roster.
“Look, today’s the day where everyone says we got our guy,” Payton said after the pick. “It was hard to predict who our guy was going to be because of where we picked, but we felt really good about the guy we got.”
