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Kyrese Rowan sat in a receivers’ meeting in Denver last Friday, trying to digest one of the most complex offenses in the NFL days after his life was suddenly upturned. A week earlier, the undrafted rookie receiver was watching a movie on his couch when he got a call from his agent. Denver wanted Rowan back on its practice squad a couple of months after cutting him. A travel director called Rowan at 7 p.m. and told him the team wanted him on the next flight out at 8:55. He chucked his PS5 in his suitcase, left his car in a random parking lot, made the flight, and practiced that next morning. Rowan had about five months in the offseason to learn Broncos coach Sean Payton’s scheme — an ever-rotating mix of skill-player personnel groupings. But that carousel is tough enough for those who’ve been in his system for years, let alone a rookie on the roster bubble. That Friday morning ahead of Denver’s Week 9 matchup at Houston, receivers coach Keary Colbert started to write out some alignments. And got confused, Rowan remembered. Well, you’re at the Y, Rowan recalled Colbert saying. Oh, wait. No. You’re at the F. “I’m just like, ah,” Rowan smiled, “now you’re getting me confused.” Every NFL playcaller rotates offensive personnel. It’s far from a foreign concept. Shifting players in and out “causes a lot for the defense,” tight end Evan Engram said. But Payton’s offense takes it to a unique level. There are no defined roles for receivers in Denver; the X (a top target split out wide) and the Z (a flanking receiver on the other side of the formation) switch by the snap. In the Broncos’ Week 8 blowout of the Cowboys, Denver ran out 25 unique combinations of receivers, tight ends and fullbacks, as charted by The Denver Post. Fifteen of those combinations rotated in for a single play. “We’re never going to just be, ‘He’s the slot, he’s the X, he’s the Z,'” Payton said last week. “So, if that’s what you’re ever rooting for, you’re gonna have to wait until I’m gone. That’s too easy.” Halfway through Payton’s third season in Denver, a bevy of fresh and young faces are in varying stages of understanding how to stay on the field. Engram, a nine-year NFL vet, is playing by far the fewest snaps of his career. Third-round rookie Pat Bryant has worked himself into the rotation by blocking. Second-year wideout Troy Franklin has learned to better play the Z next to stalwart No. 1 Courtland Sutton. One thing is clear to all: There is no tinkering with Payton’s tinkering. This is how he and the Broncos attack. Adapt, or fall behind. “It’s something for a receiver that’s kind of — I would say it’s like, a thing,” Franklin told The Post in October. “Because you obviously want to be in the flow of the game and stuff. But that’s how Sean runs his offense. “And yeah, you just gotta make it work.” Denver didn’t swing a trade for a receiver at the deadline on Tuesday, even as rumors swirled that they were looking for one. In Payton’s nearly 20 years as a head coach, his teams have only traded once for an active receiver: Bethel Johnson in 2006, who never played a snap for New Orleans. Payton has his preferred traits in wideouts (big frame, physical), and it takes time to fully digest his system. The Broncos targeted Bryant out of Illinois in the draft in part because of his ability to play in a variety of alignments, both from the slot and outside. When Bryant first arrived in Denver, Payton made one thing clear: This offense is hard. “He was like, ‘This your job now, this your livelihood,'” Bryant recalled. “So, like, ‘I’m (gonna) give you a lot, but end of the day, it’s on you.’ So I kinda took it as a challenge.” This goes for anyone. In any spot. Of any pedigree. “He’s always talking about — he knows it’s hard,” said Rowan, an undrafted rookie out of Utah State. “But he expects, as a professional athlete, you’ll get it done.” At Utah State, Rowan was involved in five personnel groups, he recalled. Maybe six. In Denver, Payton has “15 different names” for different groupings, Rowan said. Sometimes the same groupings will have different names. In team situations in practice where he doesn’t see reps, Rowan will stand on the sideline next to Colbert and listen to play-calls, trying to envision his exact route. “Sometimes I think I got it right, and then they run it right, and I’m like, ‘Good thing I wasn’t out there, because I might’ve messed that up,'” Rowan grinned. The challenge is significant for Engram. He was touted as the Broncos’ long-awaited “Joker” when signed as a free agent in the offseason. As November hits, though, his playing time has been limited. In previous stops in New York and Jacksonville, Engram functioned more as an every-down tight end. In Denver, he has been largely used as a first-read receiver and has seen the lowest percentage of snaps as a blocker in his career. Cycling on and off the field based on game situation, Engram has caught just 26 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown in eight games. Still, he’s not complaining. “I think it’s been definitely, a little adjustment,” Engram told The Denver Post on Friday. “But it’s just, I mean, we’re 7-2. We’re playing winning football. It’s never perfect. But we’re getting the job done. And I think that’s why I came here: I came here to win. I came here to help do whatever I can to win. “So, as different as it is, and as much of an adjustment as I’ve had to make, it’s taught me a lot. It’s grown my game a lot, and it’s challenging me a bit, too. So I definitely think, as different as it is, it’s definitely worth it.” Engram has learned specifically, he said, that Payton’s substitutions raise the “stress level” of a defense. There are numerous examples in the past three weeks of Payton whipping out a unique formation to explosive results. Against the Cowboys in Week 8, Payton pulled Sutton — a rare occurrence — and trotted out a combination of Franklin, Marvin Mims Jr., and tight ends Adam Trautman and Nate Adkins. Franklin went in motion to the left side of the formation, zipped up the seam, and caught a 25-yard touchdown. It was the only time against Dallas that Franklin, Mims, Trautman and Adkins shared the field. In the fourth quarter against the Texans in Week 9, Payton put fullback Adam Prentice — a fullback — in the X-receiver spot, trotted out Trautman and Engram, and had Sutton as the Z. Sutton drew a Houston safety up the seam, and Bo Nix found running back RJ Harvey on a wheel route down the right sideline for a 27-yard touchdown. It was the first time that group had played together all game. “I think it’s very unique, and something that we gotta continue to embrace and continue to try to perfect,” Engram said. “How can we keep putting defenses in a tough spot?” It works. Usually. There’s some correlation between the success of Payton’s offenses and his number of substitutions. Take Weeks 8 and 9, when Denver went up against two polar-opposite defenses. Sixty percent of the Broncos’ groupings against Dallas were one-play groupings; they scored 44 points. Against Houston, 44% of the Broncos’ groupings were used for just one play with Mims absent with a concussion; they scored 18 points. “We’ll have somebody come in for a specific play, and it’s hard on that guy,” Franklin said. “They’ve gotta be ready, and just make it happen.” Generally, underlying lineup statistics compiled by The Post support Payton’s lineup tendencies. Engram has surprisingly played less than Trautman across nine weeks, and there’s a reason — the Broncos’ offense in every phase is more efficient when Trautman has been on the field. Bryant has also earned a greater snap share because of his role as a run-blocker. The Broncos are averaging 6.9 yards a carry when he’s in the game the last three weeks, according to The Post’s lineup data. There is one inconsistency, though. Payton still has yet to place full confidence in Mims as a multiple-down receiver, as he’s played just 42% of Denver’s snaps — despite the Broncos averaging 9.4 yards a carry and Bo Nix carrying a 114.4 QB rating when Mims was on the field in Weeks 7 and 8. The Broncos won’t stop with rotating personnel groupings, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said in mid-October. And receivers have to show they can stick on the field in a variety of roles, and take advantage of any opportunity that comes their way, as Franklin said. “You gotta show that you can play each position at the same high caliber as you would your regular position,” Rowan said, forming air quotes with his fingers on those last two words. “I put it in quotes because, yeah, in this offense, you really don’t have a set position,” he smiled. Tight end rotations A look at the Broncos’ total offensive output when Evan Engram and Adam Trautman are in the game over the last three weeks. Carries-yards YPC Rush TD Comp.-att.-yards Pass TD INT QB rating Evan Engram 11-21 1.9 1 49-84-465 4 1 84.7 Adam Trautman 58-365 6.3 2 24-43-271 5 1 103.9 Source: Denver Post game charting
