With the Denver Broncos’ 2023 season and Sean Payton’s first year as head coach in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look to the future and evaluate the team’s strengths and weaknesses heading into an offseason with many tough decisions ahead.
Now in the team-building phase, with limited cap space, the Broncos’ staff will look to attain talent through the NFL draft. But with each decision being so crucial to the team’s future success, what positions should Denver most desire in the first round?
1. Quarterback
A shock to nobody, improving at the quarterback position should and will be the Broncos’ first priority this offseason.
A tiring conversation to all of Broncos Country at this point, the quarterback position is simply the most important position on the field.
Until the Broncos finally put a stop to the revolving door at quarterback (which has been spinning, without fail, since 2015) with a quality option, their chances of becoming a sustained winner decrease dramatically.
A positive difference between this offseason and those in the past, though, is that the Broncos finally have continuity through their offensive coaching staff.
Coach Payton and his staff have also done well with quarterbacks in the past, making this version of the Broncos better suited to find and develop the signal caller.
Many will make the argument that Payton and the Broncos should wait to draft a quarterback, ultimately using the pick elsewhere to help build an infrastructure beforehand. Still, there is never a bad time to draft a quarterback that the staff thinks will become a franchise-caliber player.
The question fans should rather be asking themselves is, what position the Broncos should look at if there isn’t a quarterback they feel comfortable drafting.
2. Offensive line
At first glance, the offensive line doesn’t look like much of a need coming off their best season in quite some time, but on a closer look, there is a ton of uncertainty going into the future.
For example, center Lloyd Cushenberry is a free agent this offseason, left tackle Garrett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz are free agents in 2025, and left guard Ben Powers’ contract is fairly easy for the team to get out of in 2025 as well.
That means four of the Broncos’ five starting offensive linemen could be off the team by next offseason.
Luckily for Denver, this is a great time to need a lineman.
In Daniel Jeremiah’s latest ranking of the top 50 players in the NFL draft, he had eleven offensive linemen making the list and seven of those were in his top 20.
On top of that, positional value matters when considering a first-round selection, so the Broncos should be looking for an offensive tackle early, as it is the substantially more expensive and harder-to-find position. That said, with a trade down, they could consider an interior player as well.
3. Offensive Weapon
Although this ranks third, it was tough to not put the need for an offensive weapon second, because of just how barren the talent pool is at both wide receiver and tight end.
Regardless of the ranking, though, the need is undeniable, as the Broncos are entirely deprived of an elite playmaker.
The core of Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy is a fine starting point for the team, but neither has shown the ability or much potential of being a true No. 1 wide receiver and that has shown in the team’s offensive production.
At the end of the day, both receivers are better off as secondary or tertiary options to a superior primary target.
The only reason this ranks behind the need at offensive line is because of just how deep the wide receiver position has been and continues to be in the NFL Draft.
While it is also a strong offensive line class, if the Broncos want a day-one contributor at the tackle position, they must select that player in the first round. In contrast, it is much more common to find contributors in the middle rounds at wide receiver.
4. Defensive Line
If we were to narrow our scope and focus only on next season, the defensive line might top this list, as the Broncos only had one single player, across their entire line, play at an above-average starting level
The reason this ranks so low amongst the Broncos’ needs is tied heavily to the position ranked first on this list.
Even if the Broncos decide that no quarterback is deserving of their first-round selection, they should do as much as possible to make sure that eventual quarterback of the future is as comfortable in the offense as possible, upon his arrival.
Nevertheless, defensive line help is still very much needed. Considering that, last season, they fielded a starting line of Nik Bonitto, Jonathan Cooper, Baron Browning, DJ Jones, and Zach Allen, they truly could use help along either the interior or exterior of this unit, to aid both the anemic pass rush and porous run defense.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, it doesn’t look like this draft has many options in the first round to address this need, with only two defensive line players making Jeremiah’s top 20.
5. Cornerback
Looking at the production the Broncos got opposite Patrick Surtain, cornerback is deserving of being considered a need but not enough of one to justify a first-round selection.
At the end of the day, the draft is all about taking the best player available and improving your roster, but taking a corner at pick No. 12 would be a huge indictment on their usage of past investments.
Just last offseason, the Broncos traded up to select Riley Moss out of the University of Iowa with a third-round pick, and the year before that, Damarri Mathis was their third-highest-drafted player. Taking a player at the same position with such a high pick this year would already be admitting defeat, to an extent, on both Moss and Mathis.
The smarter investment to address this need for the Broncos would be to take a lower-risk swing in free agency, to add competition to the room, much like they did with Fabian Moreau last offseason.
A vet could add just enough stability to buy yourself time in Moss’s development.
Additionally, not every rookie is ready for year one playing time. Giving up on Moss this early in his career would be unfair to the player, as he may just need time to improve until becoming starting caliber.
