Denver Broncos: John Elway’s top 10 NFL Draft steals

9. Virgil Green, TE

Draft info: 204th overall pick (7th round) of the 2011 NFL Draft

In John Elway’s first draft class, he came away with two gems at the tight end position.

First, the team selected Julius Thomas (more on him later) out of Portland State.

Later on, they took advantage of the depth of the class and drafted Nevada’s Virgil Green, the top target of Colin Kaepernick with the Wolfpack.

Green was the second-to-last pick for the Broncos in Elway’s first draft with the team but has played more career games (100) than anyone other than Von Miller in his NFL career.

Green fell in the draft process from a third-fourth round grade to the seventh round due to injury concerns, and he’s shown pretty good durability to this point.

He developed into one of the best blocking tight ends in the league early in his career and played key roles on special teams for the Broncos before finally becoming a 16-game starter for the first time in his NFL career in 2017.

Green’s statistical production didn’t match up to the predictions many had for him coming out of college, but as a seventh-round pick, the Broncos got 100 games, 71 receptions, 804 yards, and four touchdowns from Green in his seven years.

For a player who was mostly a backup tight end, those numbers are not bad and Green’s role as a blocker during some of the Broncos’ best years offensively cannot be ignored either.