GREAT LATIMER LEAPING AS BRONCOS RECEIVER
Wide receiver has been getting up – way up – for his 4th season
T hey strapped a camera to his head to capture the experience of flight.
Cody Latimer, a couple months before beginning his final season at Indiana in 2013, was at the center of a team-building activity that brought him and his teammates inside Assembly Hall, the school’s famed basketball gym. It was labeled a dunk contest, but it was no contest at all.
It was simply a 6-foot-2 wide receiver with a 40-inch vertical jump putting on a show.
With a skull-mounted GoPro camera capturing his aerial acrobatics, Latimer caught the ball after lobbing it off the ground and slammed it through the rim, which he had met at eye level. Then, he leaped from one side of the rim, dropped the ball toward his knees and then ripped it back for a reverse dunk. He closed his gravity-mocking act by effortlessly leaping over a teammate, catching a lob with one hand and finishing with force, drawing shouts of joy from the rest of the Hoosiers.
“His ups and are pretty amazing,” said fellow Broncos wide receiver Bennie Fowler, who has viewed his teammate’s highflying highlights of yesteryear.
Finally, in his fourth NFL season, Latimer is beginning to put his elite physical tools — the ones so apparent on that dunk reel — to use on a consistent basis for the Broncos. His starring role in last week’s 25-13 victory over the Colts — he had three catches for 60 yards, including a leaping, 22-yard touchdown grab — was the latest in a string of bright performances for a player who had provided minimal offensive impact since the Broncos selected him in the second round in 2014.
Latimer has already produced more catches (19), receiving yards (287) and touchdowns (two) in 2017 than in the first three seasons of his career
combined.
“He has an ability to go up and really get the ball, catch the ball well in traffic — as well as get the 50-50 ball as we’ve seen the last three or four weeks from Cody,” Broncos general manager John Elway said this week in an interview with the team’s radio partner, Orange and Blue 760. “It’s been good to see him in the right situation to be able to show what he can do.”
Latimer’s rise has come at the perfect time for the 25-year-old wide receiver. He will enter unrestricted free agency at the end of the season in a league where down-the-field playmakers are coveted. Latimer, who was considered by some to be a potential training-camp casualty in August, now could have a number of suitors for his services.
“It always feels good to be involved,” Latimer said. “I just put in hard work, week in and week out, (and it) finally pays off.”
Latimer wasn’t blind to the stakes entering this season. In his first three seasons, he stood out as a key special teams player — a role he has continued to excel at this season — but he believed he had a lot more to give on offense. He was never able to become a receiver Peyton Manning relied upon during his first two seasons, and there weren’t many more chances last year from Manning’s replacement, Trevor Siemian.
Latimer met with new coach Vance Joseph before the year began and lobbied for more opportunities. But a knee injury that slowed him during training camp was aggravated three weeks into the season, and Latimer missed three straight games in October. When the Broncos entered their Week 9 game at Philadelphia, Latimer had only four catches for 37 yards. He appeared on his way to another forgettable offensive season.
“I think for him, it was getting healthy in order to play the way he’s playing right now,” Fowler said.
Finally, Latimer just started leaping. On Denver’s first drive against the Eagles, he ran a drag route across the field as veteran cornerback Patrick Robertson gave chase. Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler stepped up in the pocket and lofted the ball toward Latimer. The ball appeared to be falling short, but Latimer stopped on a dime, jumped up and back toward the ball, adjusting in midair as he snatched the ball away from Robertson for a 19-yard gain.
It was like he was back in Assembly Hall. The play seemed to embolden Latimer. Similar scenes have played out in the weeks since, with Broncos quarterbacks throwing in Latimer’s direction down the field and asking him to go make a play. In the last seven games, he has averaged 16.7 yards on 15 receptions.
“He’s been the one guy in that receiving corps, with the 50-50 balls, he’s come down with them,” Joseph said. “In that Philly game, he had two of those plays and he had two (against the Colts). He’s a big guy and he can really run. It’s exciting to see his skill set come forward because those things he should be able to do. He’s tall, he’s long and he’s fast.”
And he can jump.