Pat Bryant Camp Update — August 16: The Play of Camp Belongs to Patty Ice
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 17
Bryant caught a double-coverage touchdown that DNVR called the play of training camp, earned a nickname from his coordinator, and is running ahead of Troy Franklin in the rotation. The fourth-or-fifth-option framing from June is under real pressure.
Follow Pat Bryant and get every episode, every week.
The full episode, in writing
Pat Bryant went up in double coverage in the tight red zone, over Ja'Quan McMillian and Jahdae Barron in the back of the end zone, and came down with what Zac Stevens at DNVR Sports called the play of training camp. That was Day 8, back on August 8, in a week that also saw offensive coordinator Davis Webb hang a nickname on him, Patty Ice, and DNVR call him arguably the biggest winner of the first week of camp.
The June read on Bryant was the rare case where we and the general expectation agreed: a third-round rookie who did respectable complementary work, 31 catches in a rotational role, projecting fourth or fifth for targets in a room that added Jaylen Waddle to Courtland Sutton, Troy Franklin, and Marvin Mims. We said no pattern we trust turns a rookie's rotational share into a starter's share unless the depth chart cooperates, and Denver's had cooperated in the wrong direction. We also flagged a genuine health file, multiple concussions across a 15-month stretch, as a live variable.
The depth chart is starting to cooperate. Beyond the highlight, the substantive reporting came from Chad Jensen at Denver Broncos On SI back on August 6: Bryant is getting more practice opportunities than Troy Franklin, effectively running ahead of him in the receiver rotation. And the room's math shifted further this week for reasons that have nothing to do with Bryant, because Waddle's leg strain has him on side work with his Denver debut pushed to next Friday at the earliest. Every first-team rep Waddle misses is a rep somebody else banks, and right now the somebody is often Bryant. On the health file, this window's reporting contains no new concussion news, which for this particular player is itself worth saying out loud.
Does the June read hold? COMPLICATED. The claim was that the room was too crowded for the role to grow, and the room is visibly rearranging with Bryant moving up rather than holding fifth.
Next week: whether the rotation edge over Franklin survives Waddle's return to practice, and where Bryant lines up when Bo Nix makes his debut against Green Bay. We'll check next Sunday.
_Data via nflverse._
Keep going