Jonas Valanciunas will be MORE than just a backup for the Denver Nuggets | The Rundown
now that he has voiced his commitment to the Denver Nuggets in 202. 25. What will Yonis Valenunis’s role be as a member of the Nuggets? Will he be more than just a backup five behind Nicoola Joic? And will Evan Ingram find himself as one of Bo Nicks’s favorite targets in year two of Shawn Payeyton’s offense as the Joker that he has been missing for his first two seasons here in Denver. All things to come on today’s rundown, but we will begin in the NFL where Shawn Payeyton has his latest attempt as a head coach at the NFL at stacking the deck for his offense. He signs Evan Ingram with the help of George Payeyton to a two-year contract worth north of $20 million with a significant number of that guaranteed to be the quote unquote joker that his offense has not had during his iteration with the Broncos. Marvin Mims started to play that role a little bit. I call it by force. Philip Lindseay and others here at the station pushed back at that. But I say by force because it didn’t appear Shawn found anyone else within the offense other than Mims who was capable of being moved around and doing the things that that role requires in Shawn Payeyton’s offense. And Mims did it admirably given the fact that he was thrust into it. ended up putting up wide receiver 2 level production and moving around on the field in different ways that expanded his role beyond just being an allp pro and pro bowl level returner in this special teams unit. But Evan Ingram is here now and he is clearly the choice for Shawn Peyton in this year’s team about how he is going to add complexity and dynamic flexibility to this offense in 2025. But what will it look like? Well, the acclamation period, as the Broncos are calling it this year, begins today. Uh it is going on tomorrow and Thursday as well before practice really starts when the fans are allowed in the 800. So the smallest crowd that will be at training camp in some time and they will be on the bleachers instead of the traditional burm the hill that has now been destroyed and is being renovated to construct a brand new state-of-the-art facility. Another feather in the cap of Greg Penner and this Walton Penner ownership group. We will get to have eyes on Evan Ingram’s role and how he tends to slot and fit in with this Nuggets offense. But if we’re just talking about projections, right, I think it’s important that we start by looking at where we came from. So when you look at the Broncos tight end room last season, it didn’t leave a whole lot to be desired. It was comprised of these three individuals, Adam Troutman, Lucas Kroll, and Nate Atkins. All of them averaging between 13 and 19 receptions on the season and none of them failing to crack 200 yards with a combined five touchdowns between them. So, you see the totals there at 46 receptions, 455 yards, and five touchdowns. So for Evan Ingram, the question is where should his statistical production jump in his first year with a new team jumping on this moving train in this offense that is now going into year two itself. The entire tight end room in all of last season for the Denver Broncos had 60 total targets in 2024. Well, to project what I think the floor should be for Evan Ingram as the Broncos tight end and the newest Joker in this offense, you have to look further past the 2024 season where I expect Evan Ingram to surpass the grand total combined that the three primary tight ends achieved last year and go all the way back to 2021 where Noah Fant who at the time was an upandcoming Broncos tight end. Had his best season in a Broncos uniform. On 90 targets, Fant amassed 68 receptions for just under 700 yards and four touchdowns. I think that should be the bar for Evan Ingram going into 2025. The best season that Noah Fant, who underwhelmed as a Broncos tight end, was ultimately included in the infamous Russell Wilson trade and has now since been released by the Seattle Seahawks this week. That peak season for Noah Fan, in my opinion, should be the bar for Evan Ingram in 2025. When you look at Bo Nicks graduating from his rookie season in the NFL where he was drinking through a fire hose from weeks 1 through three, clearly looked like things were out of place and out of sorts before he started to catch his stride and then significantly making a jump from weeks 11 to 18 where he was one of the better statistical quarterbacks in the entire NFL. He comes into another off season of continuity with Shawn Peyton. first time that the Broncos have had a head coach and quarterback returning together for a second season since 2014. And he has another offseason to develop chemistry with the likes of Sutton, Mims, Franklin, and Vele and all that and be better as a quarterback to then slide Evan Ingram in and exploit that middle of the field opportunity that will allow Marvin Mims to be relegated back to his more wide receiver 2, wide receiver three type of level. and continue to add expansive weapons for Knicks to use at his disposable disposal. That to me shows that Evan Ingram, despite it being his first season with the team, and despite the fact that we may be setting the bar a little bit high production-wise, given some of the factors that played into Evan Ingram’s more productive seasons, like his 114 reception season a couple of years ago with the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he amassed 150 plus targets from his quarterback in Trevor Lawrence. Courtland Sutton didn’t even get 150 targets from Bo Nixon. was far and away the favored option here in Denver. So Evan Ingram is not going to flirt with that level of production, but at 70 80 maybe 90 targets, which is what Noah Fant had in 2021 to amass just short of 70 receptions for 650 to 700 yards and four touchdowns. That to me sounds like something that is a respectable and appropriate and realistic floor for Evan Ingram to produce given the volume, the attention, and the opportunity that he’s going to be able to seize in the NBA. The saga that has unfolded over the course of this past month since the Yonas Valentunis trade was first announced by Sham Sharan of ESPN and was yet another bullseye on the dartboard for cog’s executive vice presidents Ben Tenzer and Jonathan Wallace. Since that announcement, it has been a whirlwind of speculation about Valenunis’ desire to remain in the NBA. the temptation, the flirtation, and the desire perhaps to travel back overseas to play in the Euro League and play for the Greek basketball club Panathanos has finally come to an end. The team has held firm and steadfast in their commitment and their comments that Jonas Valenunis is a member of the Denver Nuggets and they intend to employ him as such. Well, Yonas Valenunis has now voiced and echoed that sentiment, speaking to a publication this week, saying, quote, “I want to clear the air about my playing situation next season now that Denver has made their decision to keep me. The idea of playing for Panathanos closer to home was very exciting to me, but that will have to wait. I am fully committed to honoring my contract with the Nuggets this season and will give it my all to compete for a championship. So, a couple of things there. one, the way that he phrased it, if we’re going to break down some components of Yonas’s quote there, now that Denver has made the decision to keep me, that to me, especially given the nature of his comments leading up to this, where he was very non-committal and did nothing to tamp the flames and temper the expectation about potentially playing in the Euro League overseas, that to me shows that ultimately this was not his first option. And if he had utter control of his situation, which he does not because the Nuggets own his contract that was traded to them by the Sacramento Kings and there was no buyout issued. He does not have that control. But if he did, he would probably orchestrate a way to play overseas to have a larger role maybe with Panathanos as a starter, potentially someone who could average a double double over the course of a season. Whereas in Denver, he is more of a of a backup five with upside, a backup five plus who could at times sprinkle in uh at the four and play alongside Joic or work his way into the starting lineup without having to be a true backup. He also would be closer to his kids who after the trade to Sacramento moved back to his home country of Lithuania so they could attend school and learn the language and keep that aspect of their culture near and dear to their hearts. Greece and Panathanos would be a three-hour plane ride from his home country and hometown in Lithuania. Significantly less burdensome of a travel itinerary than having to fly out of DIA. Uh secondly, he said in there that he is tempted. He admitted that he is tempted and was tempted and is intrigued in playing overseas, but that that would have to wait. And while he is fully committed, quote unquote, he did preface it by saying this year. And you’ll remember that some of the speculation around the holdup with the contract and and some of the inner workings of the NBA side of the negotiations was that he there wasn’t 100% certainty that the Nuggets were willing to fully guarantee the second of his two years left on the deal with the Sacramento Kings that they inherited. So, by him saying this year, that tells me that there is potential for him to maybe say, “Hey, when we revisit this next off season, I’m going to feel differently about it than I did before.” But he said fully committed, and I believe that. And that is what tells me this. Yonas Valenunis’ comments there were 100% genuine. I think they were honest and raw in a way that we hadn’t seen with some of the koi deflective nature of his previous times in front of a microphone post trade announcement. But it does put more pressure on the Denver Nuggets to ultimately climb to the top of that mountaintop and have a chance at another NBA Finals appearance and or Larry O’Brien trophy this season because Yonas Valenunis set the table there for things to feel different next off seasonason by saying he’s fully committed to the Nuggets this season, not for the duration necessarily of his contract. All of these moves that Ben Tenzer and Jonathan Wallace have made, which deserve passing grades with flying colors from the eyes of myself and many in Nuggets Nation with the swapping of Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson, bringing back Bruce Brown, adding Tim Hardaway Jr. as a savvy three-point shooting veteran to provide depth scoring off the bench. And yes, Jonas Valenunis swapping out for Dario Sarich providing the best backup five. maybe that Nicole Joic will have had during the majority of his tenure here with the Nuggets and somebody who can maybe spell and create different options as a big man in the starting lineup alongside Joic. Those things have to coalesce and gel quickly for this Nuggets team to be able to accomplish that. So encouraging note on one hand from Valenunis where he puts a lot of the speculation to bed and to rest, but for how long that speculation is put to bed and to rest may only be a calendar year essentially from this very day. So many things to monitor on that front. The Colorado Avalanche continue their march toward the post or toward the offseason and the regular season. The Denver Broncos kicked off their acclamation period today. They will continue it through tomorrow and Thursday before everything really feels like football is back on Friday. Fans will be packed at Broncos Park powered by common spirit. We will be there broadcasting live here digitally on the rundown on Denver Sports 1043 the fan with Stokeley and Evans with Mark Scharth and Dover and Cecil. And the Broncos 2025 season will slowly but surely start to come back into focus after a turbulent and exciting off season that featured additions on both sides of the ball and ultimately adding to the hype train that was kicked off by Bon Knicks’s caught you by surprise rookie season. We will be here to chronicle it all for you. Thank you so much for joining me on this Tuesday afternoon. Like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Follow us on social media atdeensports1043 at denverports1043 and we will catch you tomorrow. I do what I love. I love what I do. Stacking inches up in
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