Denver Broncos: Duke Dawson trade impacts roster outlook

The Denver Broncos reportedly have acquired 2018 second-round pick Duke Dawson in a trade with the New England Patriots. How does that impact the roster?

The New England Patriots are ruthless, and the Denver Broncos may have gotten themselves quite the bargain.

These two teams don’t often come together on trades, but the Broncos and Patriots hooked up on one, sending 2018 second-round pick Duke Dawson — a defensive back out of Florida — to the Mile High City.

The Broncos have struggled to find clarity at the fifth cornerback position, and Dawson now will fill that role.

Of course, this trade news came in immediately after we published our final roster prediction.

According to Rap Sheet, here are the terms of the trade for both teams:

This is a very interesting trade for a couple of reasons.

The first reason being, Dawson has yet to play in a regular season game for the Patriots. It’s rare for a second-round pick to be traded after just one year with the team in general, but for a guy like this to not even play a game?

That’s pretty crazy.

The Patriots placed Dawson on IR to start last season, so he lost half his games anyway, but he was activated after the eight week period and never played.

As a slot corner at Florida, Dawson was a fascinating prospect with plenty of upside despite limited athleticism compared to some of his teammates there.

Most draft outlets had him as an early day three selection, but the Patriots didn’t want to risk him not getting to the bottom of the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft, so they took him 56th overall.

Scouting report via NFL.com

"Compact, strong slot corner who can beat up finesse receivers when he’s allowed to crowd and disrupt the route release. Dawson can match and blanket underneath, but hip tightness shows up when he’s forced to turn and run from a backpedal. Dawson can handle himself in man or zone coverage and is ready to work when run support calls. He has some length and speed limitations, but he has the instincts and cover talent to become a starting nickel cornerback.NFL.com"

At 5-foot-11, 198 pounds, Dawson is a well-built corner who ran a 4.47 in the 40-yard dash at the 2018 scouting combine. Although his athleticism was not noted as a strength on tape, he was able to put together a strong workout.

How does this impact the roster?

If the Broncos are only planning on keeping nine defensive backs, I think Dawson is the ninth. One particular player this could affect who was apparently on the bubble is Su’a Cravens, who tweeted out on Thursday his roster spot is seemingly in question.

If the Broncos are not keeping Cravens as their fourth safety, then this move to trade for Dawson would seem to indicate Cravens is currently on the outside looking in and a guy like Trey Marshall could make it instead.

Overall, I think this is a really nice trade for the Broncos, who had a ton of success finding players in the 2018 draft class to fit their culture.

If Dawson can live up to his potential — which he still has plenty of time to do — this trade will be a huge steal.

If he doesn’t live up to his potential, moving down from the sixth round to the seventh is borderline inconsequential.