Denver Broncos: 4 intriguing small-school sleeper UDFAs

The Denver Broncos had a bunch of post-draft UDFA signings and a number of deep-sleeper players from small schools. Here are four intriguing ones.

The Denver Broncos often look to big-time college programs for their draft choices, which isn’t uncommon for NFL teams, but they tend to look at small-school players less than most teams in the NFL.

Over the past two years, the Broncos have made 16 selections in the NFL Draft, and not one of them has come from a DII, DIII, FCS, or even low-level FBS program.

The last ‘small school’ players the Broncos drafted were Lamar’s Brendan Langley (whose college career began with the Georgia Bulldogs) and De’Angelo Henderson, a running back out of Coastal Carolina. Those two players were taken in the 2017 NFL Draft, but so far, to no avail for the Broncos although both players are still in the league (Langley in Denver, Henderson with the Jets) entering the final year of their rookie contracts.

Even among last year’s UDFA crop, the Broncos shied away from small school guys, opting instead for proven power five players who were experienced team captains at their respective schools (for the most part).

That shift in strategy has worked wonders in terms of just the quality of players the Broncos are bringing in, but there’s nothing wrong with taking shots on small school guys with talent.

As a matter of fact, it’s quite fun to see what the scouting department puts together when it comes to small school gems, and the Broncos’ scouting department has worked overtime to find some of the talent that was brought in after the 2019 NFL Draft.

Some of the skill players they brought in on offense played at schools I had never heard of prior to their signing.

Let’s take a deeper look at four of these guys who came from schools you probably didn’t know existed, let alone had NFL talent running around the practice field.