It’s not very often a draft pick can make me jump up and down for joy. When the Broncos took Ashley Lelie way back in the day, I was ecstatic. For whatever reason, he was the player I wanted when I was 12 years old.
When the Broncos got Tim Tebow, I felt as though I myself had been drafted by the team. I remember sitting there on draft night, and when Tebow popped up on the screen talking on the phone to the Denver Broncos’ front office, I leaped out of my seat, still holding my already flimsy laptop, which due to the force of gravity pulling on the top half and my holding on to the lower half, broke into two pieces.
There may have been some streaking around the neighborhood that night…(OK, not really)
When John Elway made the call to go up and get Shane Ray, the edge rusher out of Missouri, you can rest assured knowing that I leaped out of my chair, fist pumped, and started shouting like the Broncos had just scored a game-changing touchdown. In fact, as a Chicago Bulls fan, it wasn’t that far off of this kind of feeling.
When the Broncos drafted Shane Ray, it was sort of like a game-changing touchdown. The course of the game for the Broncos has shifted with this pick. Make no mistake about it, Ray is an incredible football player. I don’t know what all has been said or written about him, but I know what I’ve seen with my own eyes. If possession of marijuana pushed Ray down the draft board and he has that incident so far in the rear-view mirror that it’s no longer a factor, this is a player that can — and will — be a cornerstone piece of the franchise for years to come.
As fate would have it, I feel I have pretty extensive knowledge and insight into the Shane Ray pick due to the fact that, in my efforts to cover the 2015 NFL Draft at NFLMocks.com, I was put in charge of evaluating the ‘edge rusher’ class, which involved Ray, of course. I put a lot of effort into studying these guys, all the way from the first one selected (Dante Fowler Jr., Jaguars) to the undrafted players like Harvard’s Zack Hodges.
After all was said and done, I ranked Ray behind only Clemson’s Vic Beasley among edge rushers in this class, and I felt Beasley had a case to be the third overall pick in the draft. I didn’t see any way Ray would get out of the top 10 picks with his first step and ability to close on the quarterback. Here’s what I wrote.
“I think Shane Ray has the chance to be the best pass rusher from his class. I came away from film study of Vic Beasley and Randy Gregory incredibly impressed, but Ray is in that same class, despite what other people are saying. I’m not sure how much his lack of size is going to hinder him at the NFL level, but this is — to me — a top 10 selection and a guy who is going to be a high impact player from day one.”
When you listen to other people talk about Ray, the main concern you hear (other than off the field) is regarding his size, but Ray is an incredible talent. This is a guy who is relentless after the quarterback, or whoever is carrying the ball, and now he has a lot of people to prove wrong for passing on him in the draft. So how does this pick help the Broncos? It’s a lot more than just getting a guy that I believe has top 10 talent.
For me, the excitement stems from the fact that in the NFL, you can never have enough of a pass rush, and the Broncos have bought into that. John Elway’s top draft picks have been defense every year he’s been with the Broncos as a GM. Outside of Bradley Roby, every one of those picks has been on the defensive front seven.
Ray has the potential to form a deadly edge rushing duo with Von Miller for the future, but at least for one year, the Broncos will get to see him working with DeMarcus Ware also, something that will be a real treat for fans of the team. When the Broncos drafted Ray, it was fun dreaming up scenarios to try and get him on the field with Miller and Ware at the same time.
Thinking of these guys all wreaking havoc at the same time on the same field is something that I’m sure the Broncos’ draft room was thrilled with, and something we’ll all have the privilege of watching moving forward.
The prospect of adding Ray became a reality on the Monday before the draft, before anyone had heard anything about his run-in with the law. He fell in a live mock draft on ESPN where the NFL Nation bloggers teamed up to pick for the teams they each cover.
Ray fell into the Broncos’ laps with the 28th overall pick, and reporter Jeff Legwold snatched him up. Just a few days later, that proved more prophetic than anyone could know at that point, and one of the most exciting realities was realized.
The Broncos needed an impact player with their first pick, and they may have gotten more. They may have gotten one of just a few guys in this year’s draft that has ‘superstar’ qualities. A rare first step. Explosiveness to get to the quarterback from a variety of angles. The ability to finish. A relentless approach to his craft. Incredible effort. He doesn’t bend around tackles like Von Miller, who can seemingly warp his body to a less than 45-degree angle to get around the edge, but Ray wins in a variety of different ways that are unique to him as well.
The SEC Defensive Player of the Year and consensus All-American combines speed with force, and he’s had an absolutely incredible journey to the NFL.
The sky is the limit for Shane Ray. With the Denver Broncos, he’s playing alongside superstars that have established themselves in this league among the greatest in the world at their craft. I’m betting that he will do the same before too long.