The Denver Broncos are looking to the future with no playoffs in 2019. Who might they pick in the 2019 NFL Draft? Here’s a fun scenario.
Just two years after their most recent head coaching search, the Denver Broncos are back to the drawing board.
John Elway’s first hire as head coach in 2011 was John Fox, a coach who brought stability to a team that desperately needed an experienced voice in the locker room. In 2015, Elway brought in Gary Kubiak to replace Fox, a hire that proved to be an immediate success as Kubiak helped lead the Broncos to their third Super Bowl in franchise history.
In 2016, Kubiak’s last season with the team as head coach, the Broncos went 9-7 and narrowly missed out on the playoffs.
Kubiak was forced to resign from his position after the 2016 season due to health concerns, and the Broncos hired Vance Joseph — a defensive coordinator candidate in the 2015 season — to take his place.
Two years later, Joseph and the Broncos have won just 11 games with a chance to win a 12th, and an 11-21 or even 12-20 record over two seasons is simply unacceptable for the standard that has been set in Denver. As a matter of fact, the Broncos are guaranteed their first back-to-back losing seasons since the early 1970s.
Regardless of the hand Joseph was dealt as head coach (and he inherited a pretty bad offensive situation), that’s not an acceptable outcome.
The Broncos are looking to the future in 2019 with eyes on their head coaching job and quarterback position as the two greatest needs.
In terms of the future of the franchise, there’s very little clarity until the Broncos find an answer at those two spots.
Elway and his front office will look to build off of a phenomenal 2018 rookie class which included a Pro Bowl selection in Phillip Lindsay. Bradley Chubb — the team’s top pick — has 12 sacks, and the Broncos appear to have found starters or key contributors in all of the top four rounds.
How will they build off of that? Right now, Denver will be picking anywhere from sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft to the mid-late teens. Considering how well the rest of the season has gone, it’s reasonable to assume that pick will be higher to the sixth overall spot.
Let’s take a look at another 2019 mock draft scenario heading into the final week of the regular season.
First Round: Daniel Jones, QB, Duke
Alright, walk with me on this scenario here.
Let’s say the Broncos end up with a pick inside the top 10 after losing to the Chargers over the weekend.
What if they end up with a top 10 selection, and trade down with some team looking to move up from the late teens or early 20s, and acquire a 2020 first-round pick in the process?
That has been the going rate — or something equivalent — to move up in the NFL Draft in recent years. We’ve seen teams do it for quarterbacks and we’ve seen teams do it for pass rushers. If you want to make a big leap in the NFL Draft order, you have to pay up.
So in this scenario, the Broncos move outside of the top 10, but they acquire a first-round pick in 2020 and an additional mid-round pick in 2019, we’ll say the third round.
After moving down, the Broncos take Duke’s Daniel Jones, a very underrated underclassman who just played arguably the best game of his college career against Temple.
Jones was spreading the ball around and picking apart one of the stingiest defenses in the country, putting on a show for NFL talent evaluators.
The hype for Jones should continue to grow as the 2019 NFL Draft draws near as he spent his entire college career learning from Duke head coach David Cutcliffe, the quarterback guru Peyton Manning has worked with since his college days at Tennessee and someone Manning has kept a close relationship with to this day.
Jones will have a huge advocate in the Broncos’ building in Manning, who still lives in Denver and keeps in close contact with the team.
As much hype as there is right now for Drew Lock, it wouldn’t shock me in the least to see the Blue Devils’ quarterback get the call from Denver when the 2019 NFL Draft rolls around. All of the connections are there, and Jones is pro-ready.
Second Round: Dexter Lawrence, DL, Clemson
Lawrence has previously been the subject of a Denver Broncos mock draft here on Predominantly Orange, but a recent failed drug test keeping him out of Clemson’s playoff semifinal game could bleed into the NFL Draft process.
Would teams pass him over into the second round? If they did, is there any way he would last to Denver’s pick?
The Broncos could look to use some of the additional assets they have from the hypothetical trade down in this situation and move back into the first round for a player like Lawrence who would fit perfectly with Derek Wolfe, Shelby Harris, and Adam Gotsis.
Lawrence is as athletic as you can find a 6-foot-4, 350-pound player. He’s a force in the run and pass game and should be a top 20 draft pick, but you never know what will happen to players who fail drug tests when it comes to NFL teams.
Teams will do background checks to see if Lawrence is worthy of this kind of selection after he let his team down with the failed test.
Third Round (first pick): Amani Oruwariye, CB, Penn State
Dane Brugler of The Athletic has Oruwariye ranked as the 10th-best cornerback prospect in the 2019 NFL Draft.
I think that’s too low.
With seven of his eight career interceptions coming over the course of the past two seasons, Oruwariye’s low NFL Draft rating could be the Broncos’ gain.
Denver certainly needs ballhawks at the cornerback position and depth behind Chris Harris Jr. with the possibility of losing Bradley Roby this offseason.
Even if Roby returns, the Broncos have a need for quality depth as they have experienced a ton of turnover at the position, using Justin Simmons as a cornerback at times because of their wide variety of injuries.
Oruwariye has the experience John Elway coveted in prospects last year, and the production to match. Even if he doesn’t test as well as first-round players, this is a guy who could come in and contribute right away.
Third Round: Stanley Morgan Jr., WR, Nebraska
This pick, remember, was acquired in our hypothetical trade down with whatever team moved up in the first round before the Broncos picked Daniel Jones.
In the later portion of the third round, the Broncos select yet another wide receiver.
With Courtland Sutton and DaeSean Hamilton showing growth over the course of their rookie seasons, as well as Tim Patrick’s emergence as a part-time player and spot starter, Denver has some players at the position but the offense took a huge hit when Emmanuel Sanders went down with his injury.
Given the fact he faces a long road to recovery and the Broncos may not be able to afford his price tag without him playing games, the team could again be in need of a receiver.
Watching more of Morgan’s game, it’s clear he’s going to be considered one of the better route runners coming out of this year’s draft.
Morgan also has soft hands and is able to blow by defenders in the open field.
With Sutton on the other side of the field and DaeSean Hamilton in the slot, Morgan could complete what would be an impressive trio of young playmakers at the position.
Final Thoughts/Moving Forward
Ultimately, this would be a stellar draft class for the Broncos.
As the draft process moves along, this could end up being far-fetched, but using third-party big boards (Dane Brugler, The Athletic; The Draft Network) this seems like a solid scenario for the Broncos.
Not only would they be able to move down in the first-round and still select a quarterback prospect of the future, but they secure an additional first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, which is considered to be loaded with talent.
That pick came along with a third-rounder in the 2019 NFL Draft as well, and in the first three rounds, we addressed the team’s top needs assuming they use some of their salary capital to address the offensive line (re-sign Billy Turner and/or Jared Veldheer; re-sign Matt Paradis).
The Broncos are not super far off from competing, they just need a quarterback and coach. Simple enough, right?
It’s hard to find the right mixture at those two spots in the NFL, but it’s not like it will never happen. Even though many are down on the 2019 draft class, I actually really like all of Dwayne Haskins, Drew Lock, Daniel Jones, and Will Grier. There are some other players with a lot of college experience who offer potential as well, but those are probably the top four guys at this point.
The 2020 class looks enticing, but the Broncos can take advantage of a perceived ‘weak’ class, draft someone with one of their top two picks, and evaluate again next offseason if they need to take another shot.
This is a decision they absolutely have to get right, but there’s not just one right answer. As we’ve seen from 2016-2018, there are a number of really solid young quarterbacks coming from the college ranks every year (Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott, Mitch Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes, DeShaun Watson, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, etc.)
It’s not like the cupboard for the 2019 NFL Draft is completely bare even with Justin Herbert going back to school. There are still good players available and the Broncos can get one.
As we showed in this scenario, they can also get creative and maybe stack up some draft capital in the process.