The Denver Broncos have not been successful at drafting quarterbacks. Could this be the year they finally hit the mark?
There are a number of quarterbacks that are projected to go in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft: Dwayne Haskins, Drew Lock, Kyler Murray, to name a few.
The Denver Broncos hold the 10th pick and are in need of a quarterback.
But will they go that route in the first round? We won’t know until the selection is made, but here is a little bit of history of quarterbacks headed to Denver via a draft selection.
Since the retirement of Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway, the Denver Broncos have selected 12 (!) quarterbacks in the draft. Some were decent/ok (Jay Cutler, 2006; Trevor Siemian, 2015).
But the best quarterback the team has had since Elway retired? None other than Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.
It seems as though the best course of action for the team in regards to finding their quarterback of the future is through free agency.
I want to take a look at the guys drafted after the retirement of Elway as a player.
The Denver Broncos have not been successful at drafting quarterbacks. Could this be the year they finally hit the mark?
1998: Brian Griese, 91st overall. Okay, this is cheating a little bit, as Griese was drafted the same year as Elway’s final season. However, Griese ended up starting 52 games for the Denver Broncos after 1998.
Griese has had the longest career of any Broncos quarterback post-Elway. That started nearly 20 years ago.
2000: Jarious Jackson, 214th overall. Jackson was drafted in the seventh round of the 2000 draft. He played just five games in four seasons in Denver. After his rookie season, he went to NFL Europe and came back to Denver for the next three years.
2004: Matt Mauck and Bradlee Van Pelt, 225th and 250th overall. Neither of these quarterbacks selected in the 2004 draft amounted to anything. Van Pelt was passed on the depth chart in 2006 by rookie Jay Cutler and Van Pelt ended up as the third-string quarterback.
By 2007, both quarterbacks were out of the league.
2006: Jay Cutler, 11th overall. Cutler was possibly the best quarterback selected by the Denver Broncos post-Elway.
If it weren’t for Josh McDaniels, who the Broncos hired as their next head coach after letting Mike Shanahan go, Cutler very possibly could have led the team to playoff wins.
Sadly, though, that was not going to happen, as McDaniels shipped Cutler off to Chicago, and traded away wide receiver Brandon Marshall and tight end Tony Scheffler, who were also selected in the 2006 draft.
2009: Tom Brandstater, 174th overall. Brandstater’s résumé does not amount to much. He had just two pass attempts during his brief NFL career. Both were incomplete passes.
2010: Tim Tebow, 25th overall. Hey everybody, remember Tebow Time? Tebowmania? Tebow had a very difficult time throwing the football. In two seasons as the Broncos quarterback (23 games), Tebow completed 50% and 46.5% of his attempts.
He was traded to the New York Jets in 2012 after the acquisition of Peyton Manning.
2012: Brock Osweiler, 57th overall. Osweiler was not terrible, but he sure wasn’t the answer the Broncos were hoping for.
The second-round pick, who stands at 6’7”, had an awkward delivery, as the nose of the football often aimed down towards the turf. He did decently during the Broncos’ Super Bowl run in 2015 when Peyton Manning had to sit with a foot injury.
After that season, he signed a massive contract with the Houston Texans, but that essentially backfired for Houston.
Fast forward to 2017 and he was in a quarterback competition with Trevor Siemian, who arrived in Denver in the seventh round of the 2015 draft.
In 2017, Osweiler played just six games for Denver.
2013: Zac Dysert, 234th overall. Dysert was drafted by the Broncos in the seventh round of the 2013 draft but never saw any action, as he was the third-string quarterback.
2015: Trevor Siemian, 250th overall. Siemian had some success as the Broncos starting quarterback. He didn’t see the field as a rookie, but during his second season, He completed 59.5% of his passes and had an 18-10 Touchdown-Interception ratio.
He currently is the backup quarterback in Minnesota to Kirk Cousins. In reality, he is probably going to be a career backup. He was just good enough for the Broncos at the time.
2016: Paxton Lynch, 26th overall. Coming out of Memphis, Lynch seemed like a good pick. However, the Broncos traded up to draft him, ahead of the Dallas Cowboys, who selected Dak Prescott later on in the draft.
Lynch was sadly a bust. He was unable to beat out Siemian and Osweiler and remained as the third-string quarterback. The Broncos pulled the plug on the Lynch experiment after just two seasons.
2017: Chad Kelly, 253rd overall. Kelly looked to be a promising quarterback during the 2018 preseason. He looked sharp.
If it weren’t for bad off-field decisions, he would probably still be the team’s backup quarterback. Heck, there was probably even an opportunity waiting for him to start for the Broncos, but sadly he threw that away when he caught himself in trouble after a Halloween party.
Final Thoughts
The Broncos, who traded for Joe Flacco this offseason, very well could draft a quarterback in this year’s draft, or they can wait until next year.
Flacco is on the wrong side of 30, and Case Keenum didn’t work out.
The team may need to trade up in the first round from the tenth pick if they want to secure one of the top quarterbacks. The arrival of Flacco doesn’t mean they will hold off, but that is also a possibility.
All I know is that eventually the Broncos are going to get this right in the draft. They have to. It is important to take a young player and develop him into a starter so he can be your guy for 10-12, maybe 15 years.