When Dane Key got the call Saturday night inviting him to join the Broncos, he was overcome with emotion and had to hold back tears. While that was going on, he felt his brother, who was seated behind him.

“He was like punching me in the back, he was so excited,” Key said.

Key, 22, agreed to sign with Denver as an undrafted free-agent wide receiver out of Nebraska. His brother Devon, 28, is a Broncos safety who has been with the team since 2022 and in 2025 was named first-team All-Pro for special teams.

“It was just a super exciting moment because until now I’ve never played on the same team as my brother or ever even played against him,” Key said in an interview Sunday with The Denver Gazette from his parents’ home in Lexington, Kentucky. “And now I get the chance to be on the same team as my big brother on the biggest stage and all my emotions came out at once. I was so excited.”

Key said he had talked to wide receivers coach Ronald Curry before the draft, which ran Thursday through Saturday in Pittsburgh, and had a good idea the Broncos would sign him if he became available. Key said some other teams showed interest after he wasn’t drafted but there was no way he wasn’t going to Denver.

“I wanted to be on the same team as my brother,” said Key, who watched Saturday’s final day of the draft at his brother’s home in Lexington, with about a dozen family members and friends on hand.

Key, who starred at Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School, played his first three college seasons at Kentucky, catching 126 passes for 1,870 yards and 14 touchdowns. But he transferred last season to Nebraska because he wanted to play for head coach Matt Rhule, due to his being a former NFL head coach. Key believed that would help better prepare him for the pros.

With the Cornhuskers last season, Key caught 39 passes for 452 yards and five touchdowns. That included a nifty 3-yard contested touchdown grab with 1:08 left for the winning points in a 34-31 win over Maryland last October.

“I’m definitely a contested catch type of guy,” he said. “My production (at Nebraska) wasn’t really what I wanted or what I was really expecting but it helped me become a better football player and also a better teammate.”

The 6-foot-3, 203-pound Key was asked why he became a receiver while his 6-foot, 208-pound brother is a defensive back.

“Our body types are so much different from each other,” Key said. “He’s always been a little shorter but also much more stout than me. He grew out with the muscle and I grew tall with the length.”

Key said his brother always has been his “hero.”

“He kind of always paved the way and he showed me the way,” Key said. “I kind of just followed in his footsteps. Whatever he would tell me to do, I would do. I can’t thank him enough for laying the path for me to follow.”

Now, Devon has been giving Dane plenty of advice as he prepares to join the Broncos. The younger Key will fly to Denver on May 7 in preparation for a May 8-10 rookie minicamp.

“I just feel really confident in the type of player I am and just having my brother out there to teach me the way, I just feel I’m set up to be very successful,” Key said.

The competition will be stiff, but Dane is confident about making Denver’s roster. With that in mind, he was asked what he would like to say to Broncos fans.

“They’ll be watching two Keys this year,” he said.