The Denver Broncos shot and missed on a number of WRs in the 2017 NFL Draft, but Brendan Langley can right all of the wrongs this offseason.
Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio said at the NFL owner’s meetings in Arizona that he has not watched film of his current players from last season to evaluate their fit for the roster, stating a desire to shape his own opinion of every player firsthand.
This is an awesome strategy and one that perhaps no player on the roster will benefit more from than former third-round pick Brendan Langley.
Langley was a third-rounder in the 2017 NFL Draft out of Lamar University. He transferred there after initially starting off his collegiate career at Georgia.
Langley was moved from wide receiver to the cornerback position at Lamar, and it was a position switch that got him noticed by NFL teams and ultimately drafted high.
The move to corner got Langley noticed by NFL teams, but he’s always been a wide receiver at heart, and after two years of things not clicking, the Broncos are moving him back to his natural position.
Langley is trading the no. 27 jersey for no. 12, and hoping to provide the Broncos with the deep threat the offense so desperately needs.
This is one of the coolest developments of the offseason.
https://twitter.com/trllang/status/1113075409107673090
Langley’s motivation is renewed. He’s much more ‘at home’ playing receiver. We’ll get a chance to see how he fares against some of the best defensive backs in the game in Broncos practices (Chris Harris, Kareem Jackson, and Bryce Callahan are pretty darn good) but Langley was apparently giving the Broncos’ defensive backs fits last year when working as a wide receiver on scout team.
The Broncos went into free agency needing some speed at the receiver position, and Langley can certainly provide it. He ran a 4.43 at the 2017 Scouting Combine.
If Langley somehow works out, it will be vindication for the Broncos after two failed draft picks at the receiver position in Langley’s 2017 class.
The team used a third-round pick on Carlos Henderson, who is out of the NFL after going on IR his rookie season and then not showing up to training camp in his second year.
Isaiah McKenzie — a fifth-round pick in 2017 — was on and off the Broncos’ roster last year and ultimately decided to take an opportunity in Buffalo with the Bills.
Langley was not even drafted to play receiver, yet three years into his NFL career, he now has an opportunity to be a solution for the Broncos at a position that needs someone with deep speed to step up.
He said in the video above he is coming for a starting position, and that’s a lofty goal, but it’s not impossible if the Broncos don’t use a top pick on a receiver. Emmanuel Sanders is coming back from an injury and may not be ready for the start of the season, and Langley could end up being WR4 and WR3 by default if Sanders isn’t ready.
Those are lofty goals considering Langley is just switching back to the position, but he’s been adamant that he’s not a cornerback turned wide receiver — he’s a receiver turned corner. He’s just now going back to the position he feels most comfortable in.