Denver Broncos wide receiver Marvin Mims played just 12 snaps on offense in the team’s season opener against the Seattle Seahawks.
Broncos coach Sean Payton implied last week that the receiver’s limited snaps were not intentional but a result of the game flow.
“It’s part of the challenges when we have multiple receiver groups,” Payton said after Week 1. “Obviously, we anticipated him getting more than just 12 [snaps]. A lot of it depends on how much of the game we’re playing in nickel on offense, three receiver sets or base sets. That can vary, but I think you’ll see his pitch count week-to-week, depending on the team we’re playing, go up.”
After those remarks from Payton, many fans expected to see Mims get more reps in Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Instead, the receiver played just nine snaps on offense.
Troy Franklin was also active in Week 2 because Devaughn Vele was out with a rib injury. Franklin played 12 snaps on offense, but he only received one target. Surely, the Broncos could utilize the speed of Mims and Franklin to jumpstart their struggling offense with some deep shots?
“We [have] a few personnel tags, it’s just trying to find the right combinations,” Payton said. “You get into trying to feed too many mouths and then no one eats. I think it’s a fair question relative to the explosiveness, or what we’re trying to do down the field.”
The top three mouths that Payton is feeding at the moment are Courtland Sutton, Josh Reynolds and Lil’Jordan Humphrey. Vele was above Humphrey before his injury. It seems that there are few targets (or snaps) left over for Mims and Franklin.
We don’t see what the coaches see in practice every day, but it’s perplexing that Mims and Franklin haven’t been able to get more involved, and we still don’t have a clear explanation for their limited utilization.
