Pat Bryant — Week 3: A Touchdown and the Thirty-Nine
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Bryant caught both of his targets for 44 yards and a touchdown: the 5-yarder on third and 5 that got Denver on the board down 16–0, and a 39-yarder on second and 20 from the Denver 25 with 3:26 left, down 26–23, worth 20.8 points of win probability, the biggest gain on any Denver pass or run. He also caught the two-point try that tied it at 16 and recovered a J.K. Dobbins fumble, in a 30–26 win over the Rams.
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26 to 23, Rams, three 26 left in the fourth quarter, second and 20 at the Denver 25, after a holding penalty had wiped out a Bo Nix scramble. Nix threw short right to Pat Bryant, 14 yards past the line, and Bryant reached the Los Angeles 36 for 39 yards, Kam Curl on the tackle. +2.9 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 20.8 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain on any Denver pass or run of the night by both measures. Denver went from a 32 percent chance to 53. Troy Franklin caught 21 on the next snap, and Nix scored the winning touchdown with 48 seconds left.
The line: two targets, two catches, 44 yards, one touchdown, two first downs, +5.4 expected points on the targets. The touchdown came first: 16 to nothing, Rams, seven 50 left in the third quarter, third and five at the Los Angeles five, short right, Denver's first points of the night. Later in the quarter, when J.K. Dobbins fumbled at the Los Angeles 42, Bryant recovered at the 41 and ran it to the 34, and that drive ended in Nate Adkins's touchdown. Nix then threw the two-point try to Bryant, and it tied the game at 16 with two 15 left in the third; two-point tries are not in a stat line. On the winning drive, third and six at the Los Angeles 11 with a minute 15 left, a throw for him was intercepted by Josh Wallace at the eight, and Wallace's pass-interference penalty wiped it out and gave Denver first and goal at the seven. Both targets came after halftime.
Two of Nix's 34 throws. 44 yards was second on the team, two behind Courtland Sutton's 46.
Back in June the preview made no call on Bryant: a fourth or fifth option on a deep depth chart, which is what his rookie season of 31 catches and one touchdown had been. Week One upended that for a night with a team-high six targets. Week Two was one target and one 16-yard run. Sunday was two targets, and they produced Denver's first score and the biggest play of the comeback, his first touchdown of this season. Three games: nine targets, six catches, 86 yards, one touchdown. The volume still reads like a fourth option; Sunday his two targets were worth more expected points than the throws to any other Bronco. Denver is at the 49ers on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
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