Denver already has the greatest Joker – over Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.

Joker is taken. How about “The Fusion” instead, coach?

Rather than the confusion at running back and tight end.

Fusion is the process of melding two elements into a single entity.

Sean Payton constantly is recycling an old term from his previous Saints’ team. “We need a joker,’’ he stated once again in an interview during Super Bowl week in New Orleans where he was as visible as a Mardi Gras parade king.

Nikola Jokic has been the real “Joker” for more than a decade since then Nuggets teammate Mike Miller gave the Super Serbian the nickname because he could not properly pronounce “Yo-kich”.

The Joker is a triple-double waiting to happen every night of the NBA season.

Payton seeks a double threat who is a running back or a tight end and also can be an “exceptional and elite receiver,’’ he told TV host Kay Adams. “We were spoiled (in New Orleans),” he says while rattling off the names of running backs and tight ends Reggie Bush, Jimmy Graham, Jeremy Shockey, Darren Sproles and, at last, Alvin Kamara.

For example, in 2020, Kamara rushed for 932 yards and 16 touchdowns and caught 83 passes for 756 yards and five touchdowns. As a hybrid tight end-wide receiver in 2011 Graham finished with 99 receptions for 1,310 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Sean strongly and truthfully suggests that in his two seasons with the Broncos he hasn’t possessed any fellow to follow in those fusions’ footsteps. During the 2024 season Javonte Williams ran for 513 yards, received for 346 yards and scored 4 touchdowns. Jaleel McLaughlin managed 496, 76 and 3. Tight ends Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull, Nate Adkins and, lest you forget, Greg Dulcich – who never will be compared to the Four Horsemen – produced a collective total of 49 catches, 483 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Dulcich, The Great Long-Haired Hopeful, was dumped, and the other three will be backups if they remain. The disappointing Williams will disappear, and McLaughlin will be retained as a reserve.

Despite the driveling of dolts, the Broncos’ priorities are not wide receiver and inside linebacker.

The urgency is for a running back and a tight end. And one has to be, as Payton publicly proclaims, an amalgam.

The Broncos already have a quadruple Pro Bowler in Marvin Mimms, who returns both kickoffs and punts, receives and rarely runs while accumulating 1,147 yards in the four categories. But he’s not a running back or a tight end.

The triad of Payton, Paton and Penner must choose, as Indiana Jones, wisely to find them in the first four rounds.

And the Broncos finally again have a pick in all those rounds – for the time being.

The last year the Broncos owned a choice in each was 2020 because of trades for a quarterback, a head coach and a myriad of other positions. In that draft the Broncos had six picks in the first four rounds. Where have all the flowers gone from ’20? They, including Jerry Jeudy, are gone with the wind, and the previous regime is gone with them.

In the past 22 drafts, the Broncos were without a pick in one or more in the first four rounds 16 times. Oddly enough, they had Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 2007, and no other selections.

The NFL draft this year will be April 24-26 in Green Bay. The Broncos will be without fifth and seventh round choices, but will own two in the sixth round. They draft No. 20 and 51 overall, but the other exact spots will not be determined until after the league awards compensatory picks. The Broncos won’t get any.

In summary, the Broncos should draft Michigan tight end Colston Loveland in the first round and Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson in the second round.

Loveland, ranked 29th in the draft, is a wide receiver in a tight end’s body (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) and should be a combo-type starter immediately.

In April of 2017 I wrote in The Gazette that the Broncos should draft a Tennessee running back – Alvin Kamara. Sampson, who set the Volunteers’ career rushing record, was selected the SEC offensive player of the year. He is Kamara 2.0.

Loveland and Sampson are Payton’s perfect players – The Fusion Brothers.