Pat Bryant and the ‘frickin' clutch' plays that led him to the Broncos in the NFL Draft

New York Times

05-05-2025

When the Denver Broncos selected Pat Bryant in the third round of last month's NFL Draft, head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton zipped through the attributes that attracted them to the wide receiver from Illinois.
They talked about his big hands and how aggressively he attacked the ball down the field. They lauded his explosiveness off the line of scrimmage and his physicality in the run game. They gushed over the leadership intangibles. Payton even compared some of Bryant's receiving traits to Michael Thomas, the former All-Pro wide receiver with the New Orleans Saints.
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Then, there was perhaps the most appealing aspect of studying Bryant in the pre-draft process.
'He was just a player,' Payton said, 'that excelled in crunch time.'
Bryant caught 10 touchdowns in 2024, tying an Illinois single-season record. Three were game-winning receptions made in overtime or the dying seconds of regulation. Digging deeper into the situations surrounding each grab gives a better understanding of why the Broncos made multiple trades on Day 2 with an eye on landing the receiver. 'He understands situational football,' The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler wrote of Bryant before the draft, words that may as well have been music dancing in Payton's ears.
'That's Pat Bryant, man,' Illinois wide receivers coach Justin Stepp said in a recent phone conversation. 'He's just frickin' clutch.'
Bryant had already caught four passes for 70 yards and a touchdown in the Big Ten opener at Nebraska last September when he exited an overtime huddle and headed to an unfamiliar spot. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound receiver crouched his frame as he slinked toward the line of scrimmage, then dropped into a three-point stance as a fullback, just behind quarterback Luke Altmyer.
At the snap, Bryant slid out of the backfield, smoothly navigated around a defender trying to set the edge, and found himself wide open in the flat for a game-winning, 4-yard touchdown reception.
¡ILLINOIS TOMA LA DELANTERA! 🏈🔥 Pat Bryant con un touchdown que adelanta a los Illinois Fighting Illini 31-24 sobre los Nebraska Cornhuskers. #CFBenFOX pic.twitter.com/DbqxlexFy6
— FOX Deportes (@FOXDeportes) September 21, 2024
Bryant was a big fan of the play call, of course, but he almost made it clear to the coaching staff that he'd be willing to fulfill a fullback's more foundational duty — paving the way through a hole for a running back — if he ever needed to serve as a decoy.
'I think the trait of any great receiver is being unselfish,' Stepp said. 'We all knew who needed to get the ball, but there were times where he didn't touch it for a few drives, and before he'd touch it, we'd be like, 'On this run play, we need you to go in and crack a safety and block a linebacker.' He never said one word about it. He's the ultimate team player. Something he took a lot of pride in this year was taking his blocking to another level.'
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Added Bryant, who will take the field with the Broncos for the first time during a rookie minicamp later this week: 'My motto was always, 'You block, you get the rock.' So my main focus was just using my physicality both in the pass game as well as the run game, just helping my running backs get to the end zone.'
The second game-winning play for Bryant came three weeks later in another overtime thriller, this one at home against Purdue. Illinois trailed by three points and faced a second-and-10 from its 27-yard line with only 35 seconds left in regulation. Bryant, lined up outside to the right, made a subtle shake at the line of scrimmage that gave him the room to burst past his defender and haul in a 32-yard catch near the sideline that helped Illinois get in range for a game-tying field goal.
The heroics were only getting started.
'We're in the huddle and we've got the ball first to start overtime, and Pat looks at Coach (Barry) Lunney, our OC, and goes, 'Scissors!' which is one of the play calls,' Stepp said. 'Coach Lunney looks at (quarterback) Luke (Altmyer) and goes, 'You like scissors?' Luke goes, 'Yeah, let's run it.' So Pat essentially called the play in overtime.'
The play had Bryant lined up in a tight alignment on the right side of the formation, just off the tight end. At the snap, he slithered past the linebacker trying to jam him off the line of scrimmage, then navigated between two defensive backs to find just enough real estate in the end zone to haul in a 25-yard, toe-tapping touchdown pass from Altmyer.
'My main focus when the ball is in the air is, 'It's mine, and I'm better than the man that's in front of me,'' Bryant said.
Stepp could feel Bryant's self-assuredness since he became his new position coach last year. He couldn't help but make a comparison.
'He's just like Courtland,' the coach said.
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Stepp coached star Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton at SMU for three seasons before he became Denver's second-round pick in 2018. Sutton made such an impression on his coach during that time that Stepp and his wife named their now 7-year-old son Courtland. What the two now teammates in Denver share, Stepp said, is a humility that belies a sturdy confidence in who they are — and, just as importantly, who they aren't — as players.
'I remember during the pre-draft process with Courtland, people would say, 'Is he mean enough to play football? He's so dadgum nice,'' Stepp said. 'I'd be like, 'I'm just telling you, he has an unbelievable confidence to him.' Pat is the same way. He knows who he is. He knows his strengths and he knows his weaknesses.'
Never did that confidence come more to the surface for Bryant than during the top highlight of his career — an improbable touchdown catch against Rutgers that ended what Stepp called 'one of the craziest games I've ever been a part of.'
Illinois, trailing 31-30, began the game's final drive from its 25-yard line with 68 seconds left. Bryant caught a 21-yard pass from Altmyer early in the drive and then drew a 10-yard holding penalty, helping to push the Illini into Rutgers territory. But things still looked bleak for Illinois as it approached a fourth-and-13 from the 40-yard line with 14 seconds left. Head coach Bret Bielema decided to trot out kicker David Olano for a potential game-winning, 58-yard field goal into a driving wind. Just before the snap, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano called a timeout to freeze Olano. The kicker booted the ball anyway, and it barely reached the same zip code as the uprights.
'So we're like, 'Hell, we can't kick the field goal. Let's just go for it,'' Stepp said.
When the ensuing play was called on the sideline, Bryant was tabbed as the No. 2 option. But as he walked onto the field, he caught his coach's eye. 'I'm switching,' he told Stepp. So Bryant moved to the left of a trips formation. As the two receivers to his right pushed up the field in a pair of go routes, Bryant darted underneath into the vacated space. He caught he ball at the 22-yard line with 9 seconds left. When he made the grab, Bryant had enough for a first down and put Illinois in more manageable field-goal range. But there were five defenders in his vicinity.
PAT BRYANT SCORES THE GAME-WINNING TD ON 4TH DOWN! 😱@IlliniFootball pic.twitter.com/ndso5u3X8B
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) November 23, 2024
'If you go back and watch that play and watch the sideline, I'm on the sideline screaming, 'Get down!' because I thought we were going to get down and kick a field goal,' Stepp said.
Instead, Bryant made a juke to get around the nearest defensive back, darted to the outside and sprinted into the end zone to complete a stunning, 40-yard touchdown play. The 22-year-old was pegged as a fifth- or sixth-round prospect by numerous draft evaluators largely because he ran a 4.61-second 40-yard dash at the scouting combine in February. Only one wide receiver prospect at the event posted a slower time. But on the game-winning play against Rutgers, Bryant ran away from everybody.
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It's why Bryant never sweated his lackluster 40 time in Indianapolis. He passed up a chance to improve it at his pro day. Everything teams needed to know about his speed, Bryant reasoned, could be found on his film — in snapshots like the one on that memorable November day in New Jersey.
'That's the confidence he had,' Stepp said. 'He didn't think twice about it.'
Stepp and Bielema were with Bryant last month in Orlando as he gathered with family and friends during the second day of the draft. The coaches planned to be there through Saturday before beginning a recruiting trip. But shortly before the Broncos were on the clock with their third-round pick, Bielema told Stepp that plans had changed. They would be leaving that night. Bryant wasn't going to last until Day 3.
'I was like, 'Hell, Coach B must know something,'' Stepp said.
When the Broncos selected Bryant with the 74th pick, Stepp pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Sutton. The two have maintained consistent contact since Sutton entered the NFL seven years ago. The week before the draft, Stepp was working in his office when he came across film of some of Sutton's one-on-one matchups from SMU. He recorded videos and sent them to the wide receiver. Sutton responded that he had recently been watching film alongside Bo Nix, the Broncos quarterback, and the pair had watched the same plays.
'I literally couldn't think of a better place for Pat to go,' Stepp texted Sutton after Denver picked Bryant. 'I know you're going to take care of him.'