Marvin Mims Jr. hits Denver Broncos receiver

All year the Broncos receiving group has been Courtland Sutton and then the others.

That hasn’t completely changed in recent weeks, but a new face has entered the equation.

Suddenly, Marvin Mims Jr. is squarely in the picture.

Over the last six games, Sutton has 34 catches (51 targets) for 414 yards and four touchdowns. In the same span, Mims still trails with 23 catches (28 targets), but has turned them into 383 yards and four touchdowns.

In the process, the Broncos’ second-year receiver has climbed Denver’s pecking order and last week in Cincinnati, he passed seventh-round rookie Devaughn Vele to rank second on the team with 452 receiving yards .

“It’s mostly about opportunities and making the most of them,” Mims said this week after being named to his second straight Pro Bowl as a returner. “That’s a huge thing for receivers in the league, it’s just when you get an opportunity, make the most of it and then you’ll start to get more.”

Perhaps what’s most interesting about Mims’ late-season rise is a dual reality: first, he was almost entirely out of the offensive field for the first half of the season, and second, his explosion in the passing play occurred. on the heels of head coach Sean Payton and company deciding to deploy Mims more frequently out of the backfield.

Coincidence? Maybe not. Mims’ confidence and demeanor seemed to change as the Broncos increased his usage as a hybrid running back. Now suddenly he’s catching double-move deep balls out of the slot and outrunning two defenders to catch a must-win fourth-down touchdown in the final seconds of regulation against the Bengals. He finished that 30-24 overtime loss with a career-best eight catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

“It’s that thing that always pushes you as a coach — I talked to him three days ago — to keep looking for the things that these guys do well and keep doing those things,” Payton said Friday . “Definitely his confidence on the field, returning punts, running routes, taking (handoffs). Year 2, that was awesome to see. The growth you hope to see in a player during his second year.

Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said earlier this week that he thought just making sure the ball got into Mims’ hands helped jumpstart his season. And doing it from the backfield proved easier to plan for than putting him in situations where he was constantly running low-probability deep routes.

“When you call some of those shots — the couple he scored on — there’s a lot going on with a defense telling the quarterback where to throw the ball,” Lombardi said. “So probably every game (Mims) has been with us, I’m sure we called those plays or we definitely had them in the game plan. You hope to call him at the right time when the defense is set up so you can throw him the ball.

“There are many variables that go into determining whether the ball goes down the field to a receiver. And lately it has worked in our favor. Getting him into the backfield – throwing him swing screens, getting him the ball – those are times where you can guarantee he’ll get the ball.

“He made the most of those opportunities and we did a better job integrating them into the offense for him.”

The numbers are obvious.

In nine games, Mims had eight total offensive touches for 73 yards.

Over Denver’s last seven passes, he had 39 touches (27 catches) for 421 yards and the four touchdowns.

Through the first nine games of the season, Mims had seven catches on 15 targets, a catch rate of 46.7%. Over the last seven games, he has 27 catches on 32 targets for a catch rate of 84.4%.