Believe it or not, it’s already fantasy football draft season. Yes, it’s only May, and we haven’t even seen the 2025 NFL schedule, but fantasy players have been champing at the bit since the NFL Draft and are ready to throw their hard-earned cash at every tournament offering a six-figure payout. Yes, even me, as I entered The Fantasy Championship at RTSports.com ($300 entry for $500,000 grand prize), drafted on May 7 and stacked my beloved Denver Broncos for my first official entry.

But Howard, you’re a New York Jets fan. What do you mean by “your beloved Denver Broncos”? Well, as you may have heard both on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and across a variety of social media platforms, I am extremely bullish on this Denver team, and as we go through the Broncos depth chart, you will understand why.

 

 

 

Fantasy Football Rule No. 1: Follow the Coaching

I say it every single year – coaching systems matter. It’s why I write such extensive breakdowns for Fantasy Alarm’s Fantasy Football Draft Guide. And in relation to this article, the coaching in Denver is one of the primary reasons why I chose to stack Broncos in this draft. Head coach Sean Payton and offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi have been working together since 2007, and their offensive system has been a proven winner for almost two decades.

We can certainly dive into the details behind this Air Coryell system with its outside zone/power gap hybrid blocking scheme, but the easiest way to understand what Payton and Lombardi do for their players is to look at the history and equate it to the current roster. Is it an exact match? No, of course not, but when you start talking about how the scheme funnels targets to the X-receiver, what Payton’s “joker role” is all about and how the running backs are deployed, matching up the current Denver Broncos to past players who have worked under Payton and Lombardi will make it significantly easier to understand.

 

 

 

Quarterback Bo Nix Leads the Way

The quarterback position may actually be the least equitable, simply because Payton and Lombardi spent so much time tethered to Drew Brees and now find themselves working with a player with a much different skill set and playing style. Brees had a cannon for an arm, and his game was primarily marked by 5,000-yard seasons with anywhere from 35-45 touchdown passes. Sure, he could scramble to avoid a sack, but his highest rushing total for a season was 130 yards, and that was over a 20-year career. Bo Nix plays a very different game.

During his rookie campaign in 2024, Nix passed for 3,775 yards and 29 touchdowns; hardly a Brees-like season. However, he also rushed for 430 yards and four touchdowns on 92 attempts, ranking eighth in rushing yards among all quarterbacks, and has instantly become a darling for those who don’t want to invest such a high pick on the position, but still want that coveted rushing upside. We aren’t expecting him to reach the Lamar Jackson/Jayden Daniels level of rushing, but as this offense continues to grow, his skill set and style tell us that an average of 450-500 yards per season is well within reach. If he can maintain that while increasing his overall passing work, Nix is going to be a steal at his current fantasy football ADP.

 

 

 

Is RJ Harvey the Next Alvin Kamara?

This is really where we get to start having some fun – equating current Broncos with their past Saints counterparts. After all, Payton and Lombardi haven’t really changed the base of their scheme in 20 years. When they were together in New Orleans, their best backfield was made up of the Alvin Kamara/Mark Ingram 1-2 punch. Kamara saw roughly a 70-percent snap share with an average of 200 carries and 100 targets per season. Ingram also saw an average close to 200 carries, but his work in the passing game was substantially less. Yes, Ingram was fantasy-relevant, but there were times when Kamara was just otherworldly.

Harvey definitely profiles more in the realm of being the next Kamara. The Broncos may still find ways to utilize Jaleel McLaughlin, but Harvey should be the primary beneficiary of a Lombardi scheme in which his running back room has ranked in the top three among receptions for the position. If everything unfolds the way Payton and Lombardi have built this team, the expectation is that Harvey lands the lead role and catches the majority of RB targets while Audric Estime handles some of the Ingram-like duties. That could push Harvey into immediate top-10 range in full-point PPR formats.

 

 

 

The Role of Michael Thomas Will Be Played by Courtland Sutton

When Payton and Lombardi took over in Denver, I immediately championed the drafting of Courtland Sutton. When you go back into the Saints history, you will see that this scheme funnels targets to the X-receiver, that being Sutton. Marques Colston played the role for a while, and then Michael Thomas stepped in back in 2016, where he went on a four-year run where he averaged 150 targets, 118 receptions, 1,378 yards, and eight touchdowns per season. You can even look to the 2019 version of Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams, who, under Lombardi for that one year, posted career-highs in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.

When Lombardi arrived in Denver in 2023, Sutton’s game reached a new level. He led the team in targets that year with 90, caught 59 passes for 772 yards, and scored a career-high 10 touchdowns. In Year 2, Sutton continued to lead the team in all receiving categories, but elevated his production to a place where fantasy owners were salivating – 135 targets, 81 receptions, 1,081 yards, and eight touchdowns. His return value for where he was drafted was spectacular, and here in Year 3, we expect similar numbers.

And for those dynasty fantasy football folk, keep an eye on recently drafted Pat Bryant. Word around the NFL Draft was that he third-round pick out of Illinois was originally projected as a fifth-rounder, but was grabbed much earlier because Payton kept speaking on how he [Bryant] reminded him of Thomas. That’s some high praise from a guy who’s been coaching in the NFL since the late-90’s. He plays a bit of a different game than Sutton, so expectations aren’t skyrocketing for Year 1, but moving forward, he could prove to be a huge receiving asset.

 

 

 

Evan Engram is the New Joker

The final piece to my Denver Broncos stack comes in the form of a fantastic pass-catching tight end in Evan Engram. We watched this guy drop ball after ball while playing for the New York Giants, but once he landed in Doug Pederson’s tight end-friendly scheme in Jacksonville, we watched his catch rate jump from 61.1 percent to 76.7 percent. He also posted career-bests in targets, receptions, and receiving yards while playing in Jacksonville. Now he brings those talents to Denver, where Payton and Lombardi have a role for him that will have fantasy managers eager to invest.

The ”joker,” as defined by Payton and Lombardi, is a versatile, dual-threat player, typically a tight end or running back, who can exploit coverage mismatches in the middle of the field. Strong hands, clean route-running, and the ability to pick up significant yards after the catch are the requirements, and Engram fits the bill to a tee. While he doesn’t have the same size advantage, you can equate his role to that of Jimmy Graham, the Saints' dominant tight end from 2011-2014. During those years, Graham ranked in the top three among tight end targets and led the league in two of them. Given there is no true WR2 in this system – sorry, but Marvin Mims just doesn’t rate -- expectations of Engram will be high. His current ADP puts him as TE8, which, in the end, will be one of the best bargains we see at the position.

How to Stack Denver Broncos in a Fantasy Football Draft

So now that we’ve covered the reasons as to why I love the Denver Broncos so much for 2025 fantasy football, let’s see that love in draft action. As I said earlier, I entered the Fantasy Championship on RT Sports, and while I don’t typically subscribe to stacking in season-long fantasy formats, this one has that $500K overall grand prize, so stacking can definitely work, especially when you’re fishing for upside. Click here for the Draft Board, and you can also head on over to the livestream broadcast I did while I was drafting. Fantasy football strategies are discussed and revealed, along with some pretty entertaining and educational commentary.