Todd McShay makes a bad mock draft pick for Denver Broncos

ESPN’s Todd McShay revealed his first mock draft of the 2020 NFL Draft season and made a bad pick for the Denver Broncos in the first round.

The Denver Broncos have plenty of needs heading into the 2020 offseason and 2020 NFL Draft, but safety is probably not one of them. Someone might need to tell ESPN NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay.

That’s right, despite being 5-9 this season, the Denver Broncos likely have the best safety duo in the NFL in Kareem Jackson and Justin Simmons, two players who have been excellent all year for Denver.

Simmons is on an expiring rookie contract, but the Broncos will find a way to keep him around whether they have to use the franchise tag or give him a long-term deal. Because of Simmons’ play in Vic Fangio’s defense, I think we’ll see the Broncos lock him into a long-term deal sooner rather than later.

Despite the Broncos’ success at safety this season and what appears to be a strong duo going forward, at least for a few years, McShay’s first mock draft pick for the Broncos was LSU safety Grant Delpit.

Delpit has actually been mocked to the Broncos a few times that I’ve seen, and I’ve sort of discounted all of those picks for a lack of understanding of Denver’s roster and current needs. I’ve also seen plenty of people dropping Delpit, specifically, out or near the bottom of their first-round rankings with his injury and tackling issues this year.

Despite his tackling issues, I think Delpit is a very good defensive back and a ballhawk who has eight interceptions in three seasons along with 23 pass breakups, and a nose for the football. He also showed in 2018 that he can be effective as a blitzer, racking up five sacks.

I don’t think Delpit is a bad prospect, but McShay has the Broncos picking him 12th overall (even though they’re currently projected 10th) and ahead of just about every receiver besides Jerry Jeudy and CeeDee Lamb, Tristan Wirfs who is going 30th in this mock to the Patriots, AJ Epenesa who is going 29th, and a number of other good players who went behind Delpit.

I’m sure he was just looking for a good spot to slot Delpit, and he must think he’s one of the top 10-12 best players in this class. But he’s not a fit for Denver unless the Broncos are going to move Kareem Jackson to the cornerback position after laboring to get him into the strong safety spot in Fangio’s defense.