Coming into this season, Payton had visions of Greg Dulcich playing his infamous “joker” role.
“The ‘joker’ player for us is not a receiver,” Payton explained to NFL.com. “It’s either a running back or a tight end with exceptional ball skills and then you can work matchups. We’ve had that at the running back [position]. Reggie Bush was the ‘joker,’ Darren Sproles and Alvin Kamara. Those were all unique players, not just in the running game, but they had passing game skill sets that allowed you to do multiple things, and I think Greg does, too.” Taysom Hill most recently reprised this role towards the end of Payton’s Saints tenure.
Alas, Payton realized he did not have the personnel to keep pigeonholing the “joker” role into the running back and tight end positions. As Dulcich proved unable to fill this role, he was released. Payton looked outside the typical “joker” box and gave Mims a shot at the role.
Mims had been the best punt returner in the NFL, leading all qualified returners in punt return average, 15.7. Payton identified this playmaking ability and slowly began to incorporate him more into the base offense. Mims’ usage has climbed steadily over the course of the season.
If we break the season up into quarters, Mims averaged 1 offensive opportunity (target/rush) over the first four games. Over the next four games Mims averaged 2.5 offensive opportunities per game. This rose yet again for the four games the Broncos played in November with 5.25 opportunities per game. In the most recent quartile, Mim’s has only played three of the four games, and that touch mark sits at 5.3 per game.
Mim’s boasts an impressive 2.3 yards per route run. This is a highly predictive metric of future fantasy success. The idea behind this is if you are efficient with your touches, you earn more volume in the future. His 2.3 mark sits right next to Amon Ra St. Brown 2.4 for 15th overall among wide receivers. Mims just doesn’t have near the volume to the elite wide receivers to be on most people’s radar…
Payton is using Mims as both a running back and a receiver. Per Broncos’ quarterback Bo Nix on WFAN, “We’re not just putting him in there at back and throwing it to him. He’s getting carries now. He’s just playing well in what we’re doing. Whatever we ask him to do, he’s taking it and he’s running with it and he’s doing a great job. Whether we’re using him as just a motion guy to draw defense, getting him the ball, asking him to run a route, go deep, get a handoff, he’s doing it really well. Since we’ve been doing that, we added explosive plays to our offense.”
With a full off-season to build his ever-growing role into the offense I expect Mim’s role to grow even more.
Mims has the pedigree you want in a playmaker. Mims holds the Texas high school record for career receiving yards with 5,485 and for a single season with 2,629. He then posted a rare freshman year receiving breakout while putting up 610 yards for the Texas Longhorns. He was an early declare prospect who the Broncos spent a second round pick on. The talent is clearly there.
His fantasy production hasn’t always manifested but that hasn’t always been on him. You can see evidence of that here in this week’s game vs. the Chargers.
*Click image for full tweet and video*
He easily has the most big-play ability of anyone on the Broncos.
Mims averaged 1.4 fantasy points per game through the first eight weeks. Through the last seven weeks Mim’s has averaged 9.2 fantasy points per game.
Now for the best part. Mims is only the WR73 on KeepTradeCut. You can and should acquire him for a mid-2025 3rd round pick. This is a weak wide receiver class, and you likely won’t be able to find someone who can contribute like Mims that late in the 2025 Dynasty rookie draft.
I hope you enjoyed reading my article. My goal is to provide actionable advice you can utilize to improve your Dynasty team. You can follow me on Twitter @force_fantasy. #DFFArmy #FantasyFootball #AlwaysBeBuilding #NFL #NFLDraft #NFLTransactions #NFLTrades #AlwaysBeScouting
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