From Alabama to Denver, Waddle and Surtain reunite with training camp battles looming

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Jaylen Waddle and Pat Surtain II are gearing up for some fierce training camp competitions now that the former Alabama stars have been reunited in Denver.

“He was one of the first calls that I made,” Waddle said on a conference call Wednesday after his trade to the Broncos from the Miami Dolphins was finalized. "We talked about this earlier in our careers, we wanted to get together and play with each other.

"Just seeing it happen, it’s special.”

Waddle and Surtain were both part of the Crimson Tide's 2018 recruiting class and played three seasons together in Tuscaloosa, winning a national championship in 2020 before leaving for the NFL. Waddle was drafted sixth overall by the Dolphins in the 2021 NFL draft, three spots ahead of where the Broncos selected Surtain, who has lived up to his promise as one of the league's premier cornerbacks.

The Broncos, who remain the only team not to sign an outside free agent this offseason, acquired one of the league's fastest and best wide receivers in a blockbuster trade that sent three draft picks to the Dolphins, including the 30th-overall selection next month.

Waddle said Surtain didn't give him any new intel on the Broncos and coach Sean Payton in their conversations since the trade.

“Not too many details. (But) we kept in contact through the years when Coach Payton has been here,” Waddle said. "He’s been keeping me in the loop without even knowing.”

Waddle is a bona fide No. 1 wide receiver but he declined to speak of his skills in that manner.

“I don’t think there are No. 1s," he said. “Everyone is here to make plays and try to win. That’s ultimately the goal for the team and for the organization."

Waddle gives rising young quarterback Bo Nix another playmaker along with Courtland Sutton, boosting a passing offense that finished 11th in the NFL last season.

And Waddle’s arrival gives the Broncos a legitimate top wide receiving duo for the first time since Emmanuel Sanders signed as a free agent in 2014 and teamed with the late Demaryius Thomas to help propel Denver to a Super Bowl championship a decade ago.

The Broncos were the AFC’s No. 1 seed last season but lost to New England in the snowy AFC championship game without Nix, who broke his ankle in a game against Buffalo in the divisional round.

Waddle appears to be a good locker room fit for a franchise that is notable for its lack of prima donnas and troublemakers. Payton, general manager George Paton and team owner Greg Penner have all spoken at length about the team's philosophy of not having distracting players on the roster.

Asked for his personal and team goals for 2026, Waddle said, "I wouldn't say nothing personal. I would say for the team, just take it week-by-week. Just try to go out there and play a good brand of football and try to stack some wins together.”

Waddle is the antithesis of the diva wide receiver, saving his trash talk for the field but maintaining humility in public.

“I honestly think it was just the way I was brought up," he said. “My mom and dad obviously tried to do a good job as best they could with keeping me not too high, but not too low. So just staying at a good head space.”

Waddle comes in as the headliner in a wide receiver room that features Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin, Pat Bryant and Lil'Jordan Humphrey but he insisted, “I'm excited to learn from them and for them to learn from me. It should be fun.”

Waddle, 27, had three straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons to begin his NFL career but hasn’t reached that total since 2023.

“I don’t look at it as that standpoint of getting back to where I was,” Waddle said. "I just look at it as a new opportunity to go out there with a new team in a great place, play along great talent and help out as best I can.”

One thing he will lean on Surtain for is guidance on where he can help in the community like he did in Miami, where he befriended a young cancer patient, Rocco Passaro, who was battling leukemia from 2022-23.

“I’m definitely going to get in the community and do something," Waddle said. "I know ‘PS2’ is going to help me find different things to get into. I know he does a lot of good things out here. Rocco is definitely someone that is special. We have a special a bond, and I think that’s just going to continue (no matter) where I play at. He has family in me on his side.”

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FILE - Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (17) runs during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dec. 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys are drawing on statements from a handwritten manuscript by the late mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in an effort to overturn a former FBI agent's murder conviction, saying the crime boss’s own words show that the agent was framed.

Lawyers for former FBI agent John Connolly filed a motion in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Monday seeking to vacate his conviction, citing what they describe as newly discovered evidence that prosecutors failed to disclose for years.

The material includes FBI reports documenting Bulger’s statements and the unfinished handwritten manuscript the FBI seized during a search of Bulger’s apartment after his 2011 arrest.

In their filing, Connolly's lawyers say Bulger, who led Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, asserted in the documents that Connolly didn't leak information to him that was used in the 1982 killing of businessman John Callahan in Miami, contradicting the prosecution’s case against Connolly. Instead, Bulger identified another FBI agent, John Morris, as his mole, and described Connolly as a “sacrificial lamb,” according to the filing.

Connolly, now 85, was convicted in Florida of second-degree murder and racketeering.

In the manuscript, Bulger wrote that he was a “criminal almost all of my life," and described using inside tips to stay ahead of the law.

“I never thought the day would come that I’d be writing a story about my criminal activity,” Bulger wrote.

The attorneys claim Bulger was writing the manuscript to help clear Connolly's name.

They also say Bulger's writings and FBI statements made after the mobster's arrest weren't previously disclosed to the defense.

The material came to light after a longtime prosecutor involved in the Connolly case resigned from the Miami-Dade state attorney's office following reports of misconduct that included granting favors to witnesses and coordinating witness testimony.

In 2024, Connolly's lawyers received a letter from Miami-Dade Chief Assistant State Attorney Jose Arrojo informing them that a sealed envelope labeled “confidential” contained the Bulger manuscript and his statements to the FBI.

In their filing, Connolly's lawyers accuse prosecutors of a general pattern of misconduct, arguing that they withheld evidence favorable to the defense in violation of constitutional requirements. Courts have previously found that some evidence in the case was improperly withheld, though they ruled it was not material enough to overturn the conviction.

Connolly’s attorneys say the newly surfaced material goes further, creating reasonable doubt about his guilt.

Connolly, who had been serving a 40-year sentence, was granted compassionate release in 2021 after a judge cited his terminal illness and the risks of COVID-19.

Connolly was a special agent with the FBI in Boston in July 1982 when mob hitman John Martorano shot Callahan in the back of the head and left his body in the trunk of a car at Miami International Airport.

Connolly was indicted on a first-degree murder charge 21 years later. At the time, prosecutors claimed Bulger and Stephen Flemmi ordered Callahan's killing after Connolly told them the FBI was investigating Callahan's ties to Bulger and his gang for the 1981 killing of Roger Wheeler, who owned World Jai Alai.

But in the manuscript and post-arrest FBI statements, Connolly's lawyers claim Bulger stated that Connolly was framed by Morris, who was Connolly's FBI supervisor.

“I am sure everyone close to me thought all the information I had came from (Connolly), Bulger wrote. “I didn’t discourage that thought — sadly for Connolly, he took the heat for warning me to take off and other things that had come from (Morris).”

Bulger accused Morris of becoming a “star witness” against Connolly to save himself. Morris testified against Connolly as part of a cooperation agreement that granted him immunity from prosecution.

While leading his gang, Bulger, who inspired Jack Nicholson’s character in the 2006 Martin Scorsese movie “The Departed” and was portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 2015 gangster drama “Black Mass,” also served as an FBI informant against the Mafia. Bulger denied that claim.

Willingham reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.

FILE - This booking photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows James "Whitey" Bulger on June 23, 2011. (U.S. Marshals Service via AP, File)