Broncos analysis: Denver likely to count on several from this draft class in quest to rise to AFC contention ...Middle East

George Paton sounded almost gleeful on Friday night.

After a wheeling, dealing Friday night for the Broncos that featured three trades, 17 total draft picks that changed hands, and, ultimately, three Day 2 picks, the club’s general manager outlined his rationale for trading down twice from No. 51 before picking running back R.J. Harvey at No. 60.

“We felt like moving back would set the tone for the day, would give us flexibility to do what we want to do for the day,” Paton said. “And it did.”

The trend continued Saturday, too.

In fact, moving back and navigating around the board became an overarching theme for the Broncos over the course of the NFL draft’s final two days.

They got a top-of-the-board kind of talent Thursday night in Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron. Then they set about trying to squeeze any extra juice they could out of a draft group that perhaps on paper lacks pizazz, but which Paton and head coach Sean Payton believe can help serve as the final phase of an offseason spent trying to vault from upstart playoff qualifier in 2024 to bona fide AFC threat this fall.

The recipe for any contender is this: Fill your most obvious needs in free agency and then use the draft to ensure your roster never gets too thin in too many spots.

This class won’t draw rave early reviews, but it has a chance to satisfy that aim.

Barron wasn’t a position of obvious need, though it wouldn’t surprise if he becomes a key part of Vance Joseph’s defense and does so quickly.

In a deep class of running backs, Denver knew it couldn’t feasibly land Ashton Jeanty and opted against trading back for TreVeyon Henderson. They did so in part because they’d also fallen in love with Harvey and were able to maneuver around the board while still landing him. They added a receiver who fits the Payton mold in Pat Bryant at No. 74 and then made an aggressive move to land defensive end Sai’Vion Jones before Day 2 ended. On Day 3, the Broncos took edge rusher Que Robinson in the fourth round, punter Jeremy Crawshaw in the sixth and a flier on tight end Caleb Lohner — a five-year Division I basketball player — deep into the seventh round.

Payton said recently that all draft picks at some level come down to a value vs. need proposition, and this draft class bounced back and forth between those.

It also sets up as a clear melding of the ways that Payton and Paton like to operate and a furtherance of the comfort level they’ve built with each other over three drafts.

“We’re aligned in how we want to build this team,” Payton said last week. “We both have a clear vision with what kinds of players and what types of people we want to bring into that building.”

Overall, their first two drafts have produced nicely.

All 12 of the players they picked over those two classes are still on the roster going into the 2025 season. All of them, except perhaps 2024 seventh-round offensive lineman Nick Gargiulo, have paths to substantial roles this fall. They range from Bo Nix as the clear-cut starting quarterback and franchise cornerstone to ascending wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. to potential special-teams stalwart JL Skinner.

For the incoming group, this much is clear: Payton and Paton have become efficient at identifying roles for each player they select. That doesn’t make it the most exciting set of seven players, or a group that will draw the same kind of transformational expectations as the one headlined by Nix last year.

All the same, if the Broncos are going to get where they want to go this fall, they’ll probably have to get contributions from a handful of rookies.

“It’s not an accident that these are (high-character) type of players,” Payton said Friday night. “We talk about it all the time: Our locker room is counting on this now. There’s a responsibility that we have each selection to bring them like-minded players that plan on winning and are used to competing and have that football DNA.

“This is a difficult league and if you don’t have it, it challenges you quick.”

Barron is the clear-cut favorite to play early, but Harvey will be counted on, too. Bryant will have every chance to crack Denver’s receiver rotation. If Crawshaw’s worth a sixth-round pick, then he should beat out veteran Matt Haack for the starting punting job.

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Then there are the intriguing projects. Jones could be an early contributor, but he is a clear look to 2026 and beyond with defensive linemen John Franklin-Myers and Malcolm Roach each entering the final years of their deals and behind Zach Allen in line for contract extensions.

Lohner is the ultimate flier, a Division I basketball player who could fade out of the league quickly or turn into the next Julius Thomas.

Now Denver’s headlong into its offseason program and the rookie class will be in the fold in the coming weeks. Do they have enough to play deeper into January?

The last few days will provide the eventual keys to at least some portion of the answer.

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