Denver Broncos draft thoughts: Trading up and projecting needs

The Denver Broncos have a tall order ahead of them this offseason. How might John Elway approach the 2017 NFL Draft and free agency?

Determining how to approach the NFL Draft shapes how you approach the entire offseason. As Vance Joseph as said, the Denver Broncos will look at the draft as icing on the cake following free agency, where he said they will conquer their most glaring needs.

Of course, every team wants to be primarily built through the draft. The Broncos have taken a bit of an unconventional approach to putting a roster together, but every team has their respective story. I don’t think any general manager in the NFL has done quite as good of a job as John Elway, though admittedly I like him a little more than others.

Still, what general manager in the NFL has signed Pro Bowl players (or Pro Bowl caliber players) as street free agents, unrestricted free agents, off of other teams’ practice squads, as college free agents, acquired through trades, or through the NFL Draft?

John Elway does it all, and the Broncos’ ability to identify talent through both free agency and the draft is almost unparalleled in this league.

The one area where the brain trust of the Broncos has struggled is identifying and developing talent offensively through the draft. Looking back at Elway’s draft classes since 2011, if you are very generous with your evaluations, Elway has picked just a handful of impact offensive players.

There are still high hopes for a number of players that have just completed their rookie seasons, and some that just haven’t developed as expected. Especially in the second and third rounds, Elway and company have struggled.

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This year’s draft is going to be very important, as it is every single year, but the Broncos have a minimum of four picks within the top 100, and if everything goes as expected, they will have five when all compensatory selections are eventually awarded by the NFL.

With those five selections in the top 100, the Broncos have to take advantage of the depth of this year’s draft class. I’ve been trying to put myself in the mind of John Elway and think about different scenarios for this team, but the picture won’t become very clear until free agency has completed.

Let’s take a look at some situations facing the Broncos, and how they might approach their draft and free agency strategy…