It can be very fashionable to make an absolute determination–as if there are any absolutes–that a given year’s National Football League draft is a “good” or “bad” draft, as if there is any choice in the matter.
Every year you play a schedule, and you have a team composed of players. So every year, every team needs players.
Each season as well, there is a new crop of aspiring young players waiting to be drafted.
It is a given that some will succeed and others will fail, but some will always succeed.
If a draft is bad, but a certain team gets a great player, was it a bad one for that team?
In 1983 the Denver Broncos wound up with John Elway. Try telling any Bronco fan that 1983 was a bad draft. From where I sit, it looks like a pretty good one.
And just for the heck of it, let’s take a look at some Broncos and where they were selected in their respective drafts. This should serve to remind us all that anything can happen at any time.
Karl Mecklenburg was taken in the 12th round (the 310th overall selection), which no longer even exists.
Tyrone Braxton was taken in the 12th round and was just one pick away from being the last player taken, the fellow dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant” each year. He was the 334th player chosen; too small, too slow. Of course, he played on three national championship teams in college, so he must have made a tackle or knocked down a pass now and then.
Terrell Davis was a sixth round dhoice, the 196th player selected–so 195 guys were projected as better than Terrell Davis that year.
Shannon Sharpe, who becomes eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame next January, was chosen in the seventh round, pick number 192.
Longtime starting safety Steev Foley was an eighth round pick, the 199th overall, in 1975, and he did not even play safety in college. Foley was a quarterback, and the first time he ever played safety was for the Broncos.
Keith Bishop was the 157th player chosen in 1980.
Gary Kubiak was regarded by many as the best backup quarterback of his generation, and he was the 197th player chosen back in that 1983 draft.
Steve Watson, one of the favorite receivers of Elway and Kubiak, was not even drafted at all.
Much more recently, Rod Smith was never drafted. Not late, not by anybody. And in the entire history of the NFL, among undrafted wide received he is the all-time leader in reception, reception yards, and touchdown catches. And he was a key leader on two world championship teams.
Every team has names like this, success stories to go along with the misses that the media love to talk about.
There is still no way to measure heart, and it can be very difficult to project development with absolute certainty.
So when somebody says it is a good draft or a bad one, that statement is completely correct–except for the times when it is wrong.
When you are only taking one player at a time, it only takes one to equal that number.
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let’s not forget about Nalen….that guy was drafted in the 7th round and has been the rock up front for years….
One thing that i would put my money on, we sign an undrafted rookie free agent who ends up rushing 500+ yards for us his first season
Yeah and ill be pissed if we do sign an undrafted rookie free agent this year even if he does end up rushing for 500+ yards. Im tired of no name backs in denver’s backfield who last for one season then get traded away for a bad wide receiver and 6th round draft pick that gets traded away for another bad wide receiver.
How about Otis Armstrong and Tom Jackson in ’73 and Randy Gradishar in “74?
I agree with HukedOnFonicks:
Get us a bona fide grass burner. Oh sure, the guys we have now might have potential, but we need a serious leg man. I’m still not altogether sold on anyone in this draft.
i think jonathon stewert would look pretty wicked in orange and blue runnin people over
mendenhal is the man who would break a tackle and take it the distance though.
I think that the safety Tom Zibikouski (I know I spelled it wrong) from Notre Dame, is going to be the next John Lynch. Imagine in Tom came in and Lynch was there to mentor and train him for the future. It would be awesome
John-Jake-n-Jay
7;16,6
I’m not totally sold on any running back in this draft either. Maybe Felix Jones, but I don’t know. Denver knows how to find them, but I agree, stop trading them away all the time like they don’t matter. Denver fans can’t even go one year anymore and be able to tell you who the guy is going to be the next year. It’s gotten to be pretty ridiculous, Denver needs a long-term franchise guy that they can rely on for a long time to come. Maybe they will find a guy late in the draft again.
Hey, where’s Mason and his updates?
Rashard Mendenhall wore orange and blue in college. Let’s keep that tradition alive and well in the NFL!
The dictator otherwise known as shanahan must go he stinks. If they get Balmar the DT from UNC in the first round I quit. Mason was fired because this team cant afford him. Jackson the wr the masterdud picked up is as slow as a turtle. Fire the rat make Elway the GM and bring in a young mind as a coach. Shanahan stinksssssssssssssssss.
John Jake An Jay,ive been saying that for months now I agree totally it would really help our team and it would be nice to have a player no less a safety like that I really hope that happens I really do
The way i see it coaches and sports writters whos team pick late in the first round, and are looking for a player at a premeir position will always harp about the draft not being deep. Take jacksonville they say its not a good draft. look at what they want a pass rushing DE, DT,OL, S, by the time they pick in the first round all the preimer players at those positions will be gone, so they say its a weak draft.
Then take a look at the cheifs who need help at a lot of positions:DE,WR,OL,LB,CB,S,DT,RB. They can get a preimer player at a position of need, and there is good depth at the other positions they need.
So Herm Edwards says its a strong deep draft.
So it just differs from team to team, this is one of the best draft for RB’s from top to bottem maybe ever…seriously. But if you have great running backs on your team already it dosnt matter. Its a deep draft for wide outs, not really top heavy, but there are quality players available throughout. But do you think that matters to the colts or Greenbay no. So its all relative and you wont know if it was a good draft untill at least 3 years
i dont know how you can blame everything on shanahan bones1965.. hes made a lot of great draft picks (culter, dumervil, marshall, scheffler, foxworth) it goes on.. and the most productive guys come after the first round so you know hes doing something right. Were not getting Balmar either its gonna be Clady or a trade down
lynch4prez I agree that draft was the best I have seen in the 30 years I have been a fan. First off Foxworth in my mind is a stiff and has been a major disappointment, i know he does a blog but he simply doesn’t make plays. Paymah has far more talent than Foxy. As you list the guys above, I can share names like Claret, Middlebrooks, Oneal, Foster, Tovessi, Nash and the wideout from Marshall. Shanahan has done a crappy job of drafting and it is time for a General Manager to take over that part of the Team. Do you watch the Masterduds interviews he is above reproach, doesn’t admit mistakes and it’s his way or the Highway. Can you say 3 D Coordinators in the last 5 years. He is a great coach who needs to move on, he is a bad face for this franchise. Balmar is a total reach in the first round and if they draft him it will prove my point.
I have a lot of confidence in the Broncos talent evaluating personal, whomever that may be. I thought the last couple of drafts have been outstanding, considering the percentage of players that actually make it in the NFL. It will be interesting to see how it all works out,after all , the fans don’t really know much about what really goes on at Broncoland, we can only speculate. We could really use Mendenahl but I like Stewart for the Red Zone. I see that as a priority if the Broncos are not going to take the fullback position seriously.
I’d really like to know how far Ryan has progressed since last year and will he be the next left tackle for the Broncos?
I don’t mind the Broncos trading off running backs if they can get good value for them. They are really good at finding that kind of talent so why not build the rest of your team up ,seems like a smart move to me, they seem to pick up great talent every year at that position.
I think they will draft a kicker in the later rounds, wonder who they have their eye on to let Elam go?
Lots of talent on the o-line in this draft, I don’t think they will pick one early.
I’d like to see a large, mobile DT picked up somewhere, somehow……..
I only know one thing for sure, we will all say “why did they pick that guy” sometime during draft weekend……….
Looks like we got dewayne robertson for a good price. so good job to the guys who did the trade. It wont even cost us any picks this year.
Why is everyone bashing B Marsh. Yeah he made a bad mistake and smashed though a plasma screen with his arm but still, He was second in the league in catches last year and made so many good plays. Stop giving him crap, hes still incredible.
i second that, b-marsh is the dang man, and until he plays this season and we see if he doesnt do as good as a result of this ACCIDENT, then everyone should back off. Its not like he got caught with weed, illegal substances or got a suspension. he got injured during the OFF-season. 2 days till the draft!!!
The Chiefs trade sure was a surprise and has some intetresting consequences. It will definitely hurt them this year as they’ve lost an all pro D lineman. But…. If the pick well in this draft and if they have a decent quarterback (A very big IF.) in three years they will be a power to be reconed with. With the Broncos getting younger but experienced and the Raiders doing only God knows what the AFL West could easily be back to the powerhouse division it was just a few years ago.
i think we should draft either mendenhal or stewart we really need to improve our running game if we want to win. elway couldnt win the big one without it and cutler is not even close to elway. do i understand right that mason was fired???
Dewayne Robertson DT now a Bronco ! Excellent move! Young ,experienced and big! This will chang how they look at the draft, I think they will go for a playmaker early,hopefully a running back! GO BRONCOS!
Jonathon Stewart or Ryan Clady. bottom line.
oldsouthstander
You make a good point. But also in 3-5 yrs all those first, second, and third round draft choices will have the fat end of their contracts due and the Chiefs will be facing some salary cap issues. A constant upgrade, which I think is Shanny’s objective, makes much more sense.
I dont like the idea of taking a RB in the first round, sure we need better red-zone productivity but in my mind the O-line plays a big part in that, a lot of injuries up front last year could be a big reason to the struggles and without a line it doesnt matter who you have running to ball its not going to be the same.. look at shaun alexander once Hutch left the team.. larry johnson once Roaf and Shields hung up the cleats.. my opinion is fixing the O-line will fix the red zone problems.. Draft Clady
oldsouthstander- yes we may someday be a powerhouse division, i hope not, i hope we are just a powerhouse team, in the ACC (not L)
texasbroncofan1- yes mason and a group of others got fired to save money, which is the worst move made this off season by the front office, for masons sake and ours.
lynch4prez, you are right on about the OL. We have a bunch of talent in the rb category, now we just need that strong OL, then we can focus on getting a beast of a runningback. Clady is the right pick or Chris williams, only if we trade down and gain a 3rd rounder.
Draft Williams from Vandy he is smart and went against the best in a tough SEC. Draft Trevor Laws from Notre Dame in the 2nd round he was a monster who had 116 tackles as a senior. Royal in the fourth round the returner from Virginia tech and Jerome Simpson the WR from Coastal Carolina. Tasard Choice RB from G Tech would be a nice mix of speed and power but he will go in the 3rd round. Slaton RB from W Virginia will go in the 5th or 6th round.
The draft is very deep at OL. It’s pretty deep at running back too. We need a back that can wear down defenders, one that can hand out punishment and take a beating. Those type of backs are few and far between. After George Foster I don’t think shanny will pick a OL in the 1st round. I wouldn’t be suprised if they took the best kick returner in the first round. Devin Hester kicked our butt single handedly , I don’t think Shanny has fogotten that.
Soo, anyone know where Mason went? Did he pass away? I havnt been here in a while, please update me on the info please?
dont you think that drafting a punishing running back like stewart would help, he’s durable and i seem to remember we had a injury problem last year at the RB position. first henry, then young, then hall, they were all banged up. look, We’ll have nalen back this year and big ben as well i think there are plenty of good tackles that will be there in the 2nd round. and after.
Mason was laidoff or fired however u want to put it.
The Chiefs have a very interesting dilema as far as their first pick goes. They desperately need a quarterback and the also desperatly need a DE to replace thier departed all pro. Both will be available. Which way do they go? If the choose Matt Ryan, their Dline suffers, if they choose a D lineman, they’re stuck with quarterbacks that aren’t their quaterback of the future. Stay tuned and we’ll see.
Why don’t we offer the Chiefs a trade so we can move up and take McFadden? They can then get extra picks to fix their D-Line and take a QB other than Ryan in the second round.
I think we are only a decent LT and a superstar RB away from contending so we should focus on quality rather than quantity.
The cheifs are set with brodie croyle… And i think thier the only people confterbale with that, but hey they can keep him i like the sound of cutler vs croyle any day. i mean who do you think wins that game.
And now that we have addresed our Tackle problem im pretty happy wit the roberson trade. I think this move frees us up to look at positions that we might not have considerd earleir. Im think we might draft mendenhal, or trade down then pick him or stewart. Or draft a Oline men in the first trade up into the second round and pick a RB and a DB then pick a LB some where in a mid round, cause we need some youth at that position then get more line men in later rounds….
all of a sudden this draft just got a lot simpler for us bronco fans
Hay,
Is there any way we could possibly pick up jacob hester from LSU and get rid of travis henry cause if not this team isn’t going to go anywhere without someone else. The least we could do is make Selvin Young the “go to guy.” And if Mike wants to keep a good D-line he needs to stop trying to recreate the Orange Crush Era amd get Jarvis Moss, Elvis Dumervil, and John Engelberger on the line and just dimolish the QB. Thats just what I think.
-Ian
you are open to your opinion, but my opinion is that we can do some damage with the runningbacks we have, with a healthy OL, and a healthy henry and young one two punch, WAAABAAAAAM! AND WISSHAAAAW!
Shut up about running backs, no one cares. We can put the pope in the backfield and he would have 1,000 yards. We don’t need this guy or that guy.
Who the F is Eddie Royal and why did we draft him? NEVER MIND THE FACT that we signed COLBERT, PARKER, AND JACKSON in free agency! How about we address needs at the OTHER tackle position and maybe defensive tackle as well! Are you KIDDING ME?!
Who is Eddie Royal? He’s a so so receiver who is an excellent punt and kickoff returner. A real reach by Shanny, but….
If you listened to the comentators duruing the draft, all the OL and DL worthy of a second round pick were long gone. So while we still have OL and DL needs, the value of potential picks wasn’t there. Is Royal a stretch? Absolutely. It looks to me like SHasnny used thr xecond round pick to fill a need rather than taking the best player available. If Royal can be a better than average return man then the reach was worth it. Only time will tell. He does have blazing speed and is 20 pounds heavier than the other good return/receiver available.
The first round pick was, at least should be, perfect. Shanny filled a major need with the best player available. He gets an A+ for that one, a C- for Royal.
As much as I would of loved to have my boy Jonathan Stewart from Oregon… I support the decisions made 100%. We need to get Cutler comfortable so he can perform well and getting a OT is a great idea. The pick for Eddie Royal was good too because a return man is becoming more and more important in the NFL and he can work his way up and have a starting role as reciever, giving Cutler a good set of recieves w/ Marshall and Royal.
tell me why we didnt get bradon albert he fell right to us and we didnt pull the trigger on him this ryan clady got like a 7 on the wonderlic its got take him for ever to learn the system and we want this guy protecting jay’s blind side i dont think sooo….. plus albert finished his blocks. clady has a hard time finding hand placment i think we will paying for this mistake for years to come… i hope im wrong…. i like eddie royal he just wat we need im tried of are poor starting position we needed a devin hester type and we got it from him plus speed kills on offense he will spread the field and with jays big arm get it down there in a hurry. hopefully clady can hold his block long enough to do it…..
Another horrible selection C Boise St. Tasard Choice would have fit nicely or trade up and get Charles RB Texas. Beau Bell MLB Marcus Harrison DT Ark. They lose a number 3 pick because of Jimmy Kennedy. KC has moved in front of this team We are now the worst team in the division.
WHY GET A CENTER WHEN YOU HAVE HAMILTON YOU HAVE FELTON, YOU HAVE WEIGMAN WHO STARTED FOR 12 Years JUST SIGNED FROM KC. These people are idiots, The Goodman clan father and Son Stink. They like Sunquist dont know what they are doing. FIRE SHANAHAN PLEASE!
wait till we can see what these guys can do before you start bashing them.
i see tons of negetive opinions. sses44 said who in the blank is royal, just one question who in the blank was TD when we drafted him???? i think we should give these guys a chance before we knock them. someone may have seemed like a great pick becuase of a better college perfomance or the school they went to. but look at all the 1st and 2nd round picks that have never made it more than a year for 2. let the players play and see what they bring before we right them off, or shanny for a bad draft. besides if we really felt like we had all the answers then we should apply to be a scout with a team.
sess44,
Eddie Royal is the return guy we’ve been missing since i can last remember, i was thinking Trevor Laws for that pick or Xavier Adibi but i think this pick give us a possesion guy (Marshall), a burner (royal), and one of the best slot recievers (stokley).. and marshall is great after the catch and so was Royal.
cfact,
the pick of Clady is perfect, according to one of the analists on sirius NFL radio he had him ranked higher than Jake Long.. dont use the wonderlic test as how he’ll do as a pro, Dan Marino got somewhere around 12 on it when he took it.
In general i think the reason we didnt take a DT this year is because (and i feel this way too) its not the guys we have playing it was the system we were running last year.. i think the numbers will be a lot better this year
NO!… Do not fire Shannahan… that great man is the best thing that ever happened, and to say fire him is completely idiotic and stupid… I agree w/ texasbroncofan… just wait we’ll see… I’m excited to see the RB we got because he was a big time player until his injury and the corner from kent had a phanomenal junior season but had an injury making it hard his senior season… I really dig the picks and am very excited…
Best 7th round I’ve ever seen.
You guys need to pick up Carmody, Allridge, and Caulcrick.
Well the draft is over and it’s time for thr second guessing to start. Going into the draft the area needed to be addressed were:
Fullback
1) Defensive Tackle
2) Offensive Tackle
3) Offensive Line
4) Punter
5) Kicker
6) Punt and kickoff returner
7) Safety
Let’s see how they addressed these areas in the draft.
Defensive Tackle
F
Trading for a player who can’t pass your physical is not addressing the Broncos need for a dominating DT.
Round 1
Offensive Tackle
A+ with the pick of Ryan Clady
The Broncos not only got a player projected to be drafted much sooner, they addressed a major need.
Round 2
Kick and Punt returner
B+ with the pick of Eddie Royal. Royal was ranked as one of the best return men available in the draft. His ability as a pass catcher is suspect, but that not what he was drafted for.
Round 4
Offensive line
B+ with the pick of Kory Lichtensteiger. This probably is Nalen last year and the KC center is strickly to fill in when Nalen can’t play. Ben Hamilton was originally a center, but he’s now a starting guard whose career may be over.
Cornerback
C-
Not a needed position at the moment, but Champ is no spring chicken and Bly is very beatable on double moves. Jack Williams is undersized but could be a good 5th D back.
Round 5
Running Back
D- for RB Ryan Torian who was projected as 7th rounder by most “experts”.
Defensive Tackle
D- for Carlton Powell who was rated as a shakey 6th rounder at best.
Round 6
Linebacker
C+ for Spencer Larsen who was projected as a 4th or 5th round pick.
Round 7
Safety
D for Josh Basrrett who was ranked anywhere from 3rd rounder to FA. Major injury questions.
D for Peyton Hillis at fullback. The Broncos haven’t had a dominant blocking fullback in about ten years. The “experts” see Peyton as a running back with fullback size whose blocking is suspect at best.
Kicker
F for Shanahan. The top three kickers were drafted. Is he planning to bring Gene Mingo out of retirement?
Punter
D for Shanahan. The top punter was drafted. Praying that he can find a good FA?
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Now let’s see what FA’s we can sign.
its unfair to give grades before they even play a game in the NFL.. best to judge them after year 1 and year 3 then come back to this cause by then some of your D’s would end up looking like B’s and A’s
Does anyone else agree with me that Clady does not seem overly excited to play for Denver?