Now that the NFL draft is in the books, our attention turns to the lockout and speculating on how good the Broncos new players are.

We all know the draft is an inexact science. Teams do their best to rank the players and take the ones they believe will be good. But no one yet knows who will turn out to be good.

Looking back over the draft, I came away with several impressions.

1 – THE BRONCOS DID A GOOD JOB FOR FOR WHERE THEY ARE AT. Head coach John Fox was one of the Broncos’ front office personnel who regularly kept perspective throughout the three-day draft.

“We came into it with a lot of needs and I think we were not going to fill them all in this process,” head coach John Fox said after the draft ended.

Amen.

We know the Broncos have some serious rebuilding to do. I think they took a good first step in that process. They were able to pick some players they had rated highly, they acquired a couple of extra selections and they infused the defense with much needed talent and speed.

Given their needs are many, they did a good job addressing a good number of those needs. I know that may not seem like much, but to me, it is crucial to getting a good start on the rebuilding process.

2 – THE BRONCOS TOOK TALENT OVER NEED. This is perhaps the greatest debate in draft philosophy. I believe a team needs to pick the best player they think is available. Talent wins games in the NFL and the Broncos have to increase their talent level.

For example, Denver was able to pick safety Quinton Carter in the fourth round. The Broncos had Carter as the second-highest ranked safety in the draft behind Rahim Moore, whom the Broncos had already drafted.

Sure, the Broncos could have taken a less talented player who plays a different position. But why not take another safety you think is really good? Let’s face it, the Broncos could use two really good safeties.

The key in being successful with this drafting philosophy is to correctly evaluate players. If the Broncos did that, then their draft class might be even better than we think.

3 – THE DRAFT WAS JUST THE FIRST STEP. I have to keep reminding myself that the Broncos still have free agency, and potentially trades, to shore up other areas of need.

Clearly, defensive line remains a huge need and running back isn’t far behind. While I recognize the need is great in these areas, I also know that there is a long list of free agents in both position groups.

While I wish the Broncos had drafted a top-notch defensive lineman, I will wait to see what they get done in free agency, whenever that begins. It’s not easy to wait, especially with all the labor uncertainty. But before thinking about what the upcoming season might hold, I have to see what personnel moves the Broncos make.

I know many of you have weighed in on the draft but feel free to offer your thoughts.

Thanks for reading,
Mike

Tags: 2011 NFL Draft

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Mike Rice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.