ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Third-year Denver Broncos receiver Marvin Mims Jr. hopes an evening in Cincinnati last December provided a model of how Broncos coaches are planning to use him in 2025.

In what eventually became a 30-24 overtime loss to the Bengals, Mims finished with eight receptions on eight targets for 103 yards and two touchdowns. Both touchdowns were in the fourth quarter — the first a 51-yard catch-and-run for the team’s longest play of the game and the other a leaping are-you-kidding-me effort with eight seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

“It was really big for me,” Mims said. “It’s weird, but when you’re in college, guys make plays all the time, that’s how we all get here. But you get here [in the NFL] and those plays are much more difficult to be a part of consistently. … I think that game alone maybe gave the coaches a different way to look at me.”

The eight receptions were a career-high for Mims, a second-round pick in the 2023 draft. The two touchdowns tied a single-game best, and the 103 yards tied his second-highest total. And it was another flash for a player who has only seven career games with more than 50 receiving yards.

Mims has carried over his fast finish from 2024 to the offseason, where spent most of his time working with the starting receivers alongside Courtland Sutton and Troy Franklin. But how Mims carves out more space for himself in the Broncos’ offense remains to be seen.

“Confidence is born out of demonstrated ability,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said of Mims. “We saw him take a big step in the middle of the year. … There are a number of young players competing for, not so much spots, but competing for touches. He’s one of them.”

It’s been a quizzical combination of circumstances that even Payton has lamented over the past two seasons. Mims is a two-time All-Pro (one first-team, one second-team) and two-time Pro Bowler as a returner in his first two NFL seasons. But he has proven impactful on offense, as well. The opportunities have just been erratic.

In the first nine games of 2024, Mims finished with one or fewer receptions in eight of them. He played 12 or fewer offensive snaps in five of the first seven games.

Payton decided to be bolder with Mims starting in Week 10 of last season, lining him up in the backfield as a running back to get him more snaps. It was a move Mims believes showed his willingness to do whatever is needed to help the Broncos’ offense thrive in 2025.

“Not only for what it does for me personally, but as a team I felt like we kind of had another thing on offense that could help get some things going,” Mims said. “But it was huge for me, huge for the team, maybe that little extra thing to help us.”

Even with his limited snap count early in the season, Mims ended 2024 with the most catches of 40 or more yards by any Broncos player (three). He also caught both of quarterback Bo Nix’s touchdown passes of 50 or more yards and finished with 39 receptions for 503 yards and six touchdowns.

“He took that next step,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said. “Sean used him a little differently than we had in the prior two years. … He’s grown as a pro. You can see the confidence when he started getting touches, and when we used him in different areas, he just took off.”

While Mims is working with the starters now, the competition will be stiff in training camp. Devaughn Vele, who finished third on the team with 41 catches in his rookie season, missed some offseason work with an injury. Payton has also said he has plans for rookie wide receiver Pat Bryant, who the Broncos selected in the third round of this past April’s draft.

Even with increased offensive snaps, Mims will still get plenty of work as one of the league’s best returners. He led the NFL in punt return average last season (15.7 yards per return) and gave the Broncos the best average starting field position after a return of any team which had qualifying returners (their own 38.7-yard line).

“You just keep working, but kind of seeing the production I made out of opportunity gives me more confidence,” Mims said. “You get to the point where you’re like ‘Man, I want to make these plays, I really want to make these plays,’ especially at receiver. Special teams has helped me sort of deal with that because there you know exactly when you’re going to get the ball.”

And with the decisions made by the NFL’s competition committee this offseason to move the ball to the 35-yard line on kickoff touchbacks instead of the 30, Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi believes Mims will have far more than the seven kick returns he had in 2024.

“We just want to win, you know, this team, so for me it’s about keeping yourself ready at returner, at receiver,” Mims said. “Keep doing everything right, get in the right spot every time, fight for the ball for Bo every time. That’s my mindset.”