The 2009 NFL Draft will finish up today, with rounds 3-7 starting at 8 a.m. MDT.
As it stands, the Broncos don’t have a pick until the 14th pick of the fourth round, No. 114 overall. We will update this blog every time the Broncos select a player in the draft, so continue to check back throughout the day.
10:15 a.m. MDT: So here we are — the fourth round has rolled around. Just about a dozen more picks until the Broncos are on the clock. We’ll have the pick as soon as it’s made.
10:26 a.m. MDT: I’ve been informed that first-round selections Knowshon Moreno and Robert Ayers are at the facility, getting their first look at a building they will grow very familiar with. We’ll have pictures of their arrival and video of their press conference later in the day.
Right now it’s pick No. 105 — Denver will make its selection at No. 114. We’re getting close.
10:55 a.m. MDT: The Chargers have made their selection at No. 113 and the Broncos are officially on the clock.
10:59 a.m. MDT: Looks like the pick is in…and it’s safety David Bruton out of Notre Dame. Back with more on him in a minute.
Bruton showed his potential to be a playmaker at the next level in his first season as a starter in 2007. He finished with 85 tackles, three interceptions and 4.5 tackles for loss. As a senior last season, his statistics improved — he amassed 91 tackles, four interceptions and two forced fumbles.
A team captain for the Fighting Irish, Bruton is a leader, and his speed and athleticism could make him a solid starter and a great special teams player in the NFL.
It was his showing at the Combine that was truly impressive and showed the potential Bruton has to be a big-time player.
Among safeties at the Combine, he finished second in the 40-yard dash, seventh in bench press repetitions, tied for first in vertical jump, first in broad jump, tied for second in the three-cone drill and first in the 60-yard shuttle.
More on the team’s first selection in the fourth round to come.
11:42 a.m. MDT: The Broncos are once again on the clock, as the Arizona Cardinals have made their selection.
11:46 a.m. MDT: The pick is in. With the 132nd selection of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Broncos take guard Seth Olsen from Iowa. More on the pick in a minute.
Olsen, at 6-foot-5 and 306-pounds, seems to enjoy the physical hand-to-hand combat inside the trenches. He leaves Iowa as a first-team All-Big Ten selection. He played primarily at right guard in 2008 after earning honorable mention All-Big Ten honors at right tackle as a junior.
Olsen has spent much of his time on the right side of the line, starting the past two seasons, but he has also seen some time at left tackle.
He certainly has versatility with his ability to switch positions on the offensive line, and he showed some of his agility by placing in the top 10 among offensive linemen at the Combine in the three-cone drill.
More on the team’s second pick in the fourth round later.
The team’s next selection is the 13th of the fifth round — No. 149 overall.
12:11 p.m. MDT: The Broncos just traded back into the fifth round, pick No. 141. Stay tuned.
12:14 p.m. MDT: And the pick is in…With the 141st overall selection in the 2009 NFL Draft, the Broncos pick up Kenny McKinley, wide receiver out of South Carolina. He’s the all-time leading receiver in South Carolina history. More on the pick to come.
McKinley left South Carolina as the school record-holder for receptions and receiving yards, also finishing second on the school’s all-time touchdown catches list.
His 207 career receptions are third in SEC history — he became just the fifth player ever in the conference to haul in more than 200 catches. He also became just the 12th player in the prestigious conference’s history to record more than 2,700 receiving yards.
South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier called McKinley the best receiver he has ever coached.
McKinley began his career as a Gamecock as a true freshman, when he started six games and ranked third on the team with 25 catches for 291 yards and a touchdown. He also returned 18 punts for a 4.6-yard average.
As a sophomore, he started all 13 games to kick off a streak of 33 consecutive starts. He caught 51 passes for 880 yards and five touchdowns, in addition to averaging 8.9 yards on 17 punt returns. He even threw a 22-yard touchdown pass.
He played with turf toe for most of his junior season — he ended up undergoing surgery after the season — he still made second-team All-SEC with a conference-leading 77 catches for 968 yards and nine touchdowns.
Potentially part of the reason the highly-productive receiver slipped to the fifth round was because of injuries. He entered the 2008 season as a preseason All-American, but missed three games and most of a fourth due to a right hamstring strain. He still managed to earn All-SEC honorable mention honors, however, with 54 receptions for 642 yards and four touchdowns. He was invited to the Senior Bowl, but re-injured his hamstring after impressing scouts early in practices.
More to come on the team’s fifth-round pick to come.
1:52 p.m. MDT: After trading to the first pick in the sixth round, the Broncos select quarterback Tom Brandstater from Fresno State. More on the selection in a minute.
At 6-foot-5, Brandstater is one of the tallest quarterback prospects in this year’s draft. A three-year starter at Fresno State, he has the range and arm strength that NFL teams are looking for in a quarterback.
Brandstater closed out his career ranking fifth in the school record books in pass completions and fourth in pass attempts, while ranking sixth all-time with 6,857 yards passing and 7,006 yards in total offense. His 47 touchdown passes placed him seventh in Bulldogs history.
He was the unquestioned leader of his team, and set an example both on the field and in the classroom — Brandstater graduated before his junior season and is finishing up work on his Master’s degree. That intelligence is evident on the field, as he didn’t make many mistakes as a collegian.
As a sophomore, the quarterback earned the first of three Academic All-WAC honors, starting 10 of 11 games and completing 54.5 percent of his passes for 1,490 yards and 13 touchdowns.
As a junior who had already earned his degree, Brandstater began garnering national recognition. He finished 23rd in the NCAA with a 140.49 passing efficiency rating, averaging 213 yards per game. He closed out the season with 2,654 yards and 15 touchdowns to only five interceptions, completing almost 63 percent of his passes.
As a senior, he improved his numbers further, throwing for 2,664 yards and 18 touchdowns.
He is also surprisingly mobile for his size — he finished third among quarterbacks at the Comnbine in the three-cone drill and fifth in the 20-yard shuttle.
More on the team’s sixth-round pick to come.
4:10 p.m. MDT: The Broncos are on the clock with — barring a trade — their final pick of the 2009 NFL Draft. It’s been a big crop so far, let’s see who tops it off.
4:13 p.m. MDT: And the pick is in. It’s Blake Schlueter, a center out of Texas Christian University. More on the pick in a minute.
Schlueter was named second-team All-Mountain West Conference as a junior and a senior, the same two seasons he was named a team captain at TCU. He made the watch list for the Rimington Trophy, awarded to the nation’s top center, as a junior, and placed second for the Horned Frogs in knockdown blogs and overall blocking grades that season. He started all 12 games in which he played as a junior.
As a sophomore, he was named honorable mention All-MWC in his first season as a starter — he started all 13 games and topped the Frogs with 63 knockdown blocks, only allowing one sack on the year.
He saw action in all 12 games as a redshirt freshman, as well.
More on the team’s seventh-round selection to come.
4:34 p.m. MDT: Head Coach Josh McDaniels will step to the podium momentarily to discuss the team’s 2009 draft, seemingly signifying that no trades are forthcoming, and the Broncos’ draft has officially come to a close. You can watch the press conference streaming live on the main DenverBroncos.com site.
The 2009 Broncos’ draft class consists of 10 players — six on offense and four on defense. We will have a wrap-up of the second day of the Broncos’ draft later this evening, and another look back at the draft tomorrow. Thanks for sticking with our coverage all weekend.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: 2009 NFL Draft
The one thing we really needed was another RB… Don’t get me wrong, I really like Moreno, but what we REALLY needed was some monsters up front on D… Ayers can’t do it all himself…
Say hello to sub-500…better get used to it…
Interesting to hear McDaniels’ take on the draft and that they got players that could be productive on special teams.
It is hard not to be jealous of him when he has got the job you would all love doing and gets paid for it too.
Speaking personally I don’t hink he has got the side some of you think he has. I think he is straight with us but obviously has to “play the game” against the other teams so he has to keep his picks secret and also throw off other teams if he can. The fact that it was a very successful draft for him is good, but as he says none of the rookies have done any reps as a pro footballer and only time will tell how good they turn out to be.
Who reckons that it will be a Broncos v Bears superbowl? Now that would be very interesting.
Man, I know I’m one of the few….but I really am liking this draft.
George Bush I can respect that take because that’s what I said earlier. He said what he said to get the guy’s he wanted that’s it that’s all. So I’m tryna tell people they can hope it pays off I’m not. He needs to know their gonna pay off. Pat not gonna fire me! I hope we win the Superbowl. They could all be bust(I don’t think they are) as long as we win I’m good!
Chris Baker 6-2 326 lbs plays DE and NT had good stats in college including 8.5 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss and 62 tackles overall. Broncos signed him today. Why did he go undrafted? He seems like he is pretty talanted. He also did well at the combine. Hopefully he can make an impact in the run defense. Oh, he also is familiar with the 3-4!!!
Lynch4prez has it right.
Cassel has to put up or shut up this year, and the jury is still out.
Remember Bubby Brister? He covered for Elway when the Broncos were unstoppable and won games. Nobody was salivating to give him a billion dollar contract though.
Cassel filled in with the best team in the league and did alright, not great; just alright. That’s not superstar material. He may develop, but he’s still a question mark.
9-7 will be a gift, and that’s if two of those wins are because the faiders are in even worse shape.
Assuming they can keep an RB healthy all year, I still don’t see an improvement over last years offense. If ALL the RBs go down again, this offense isn’t even going to come close.
And the D is still just as suspect as it’s been the past few years. There will be teams lining up to pad their rushing average. To win nine games the offense is going to have to score 30 points a game.
bronco in exile, where did this CASSELL stuf come from?
broncofanlvnm He was thrown off Penn State for getting locked-up. 2 Assult charges that why he went to Hampton. He is a ok kid though. It’s our gain.
If you wanna know more about him. Ask Greatness007. He the one who talked to him about comming to The Broncos.
PhotoHoundAK, you said we need to draft monsters on the D line. You and some other guys need to understand that you can draft these so called monsters but unless they’re familiar with the 3-4 or willing to learn everything new then they are worthless. Take Brian Orakpo, we would of loved to take him, but guess what? He wasn’t familiar with the 3-4 and he didnt like playing in the 3-4. If thats not enough he even said he was glad he wasn’t drafted by the Broncos because he didnt want to play in the 3-4. We got some decent guys signed from FA, so whether you want to believe it or not were going to have a better line and better defense this season. So stop being negetive about about it, stop saying were going to be below .500 because we all know theres only one team that we need to focus on and thats the Chargers. Raiders and Chiefs will be .500.
Tom Brady late round draft pick
Tom Brandsetter late round draft pick makes you wonder doesnt it ???
Take the first 6 letters of both their names
Both picked round 6
Tom Brady is 6’4 217
Tom Brand is 6’5 220
Orton may wanna watch his back he could end up being Tom Bradysetter