Denver Broncos: Top 15 moves over the last three offseasons

Ranking the Denver Broncos top 15 moves since the 2018 offseason

The Denver Broncos finally appear to be back on the right track after four long years of rebuilding, rebranding, and finding a new identity as a team.

John Elway, Matt Russell, and the Denver Broncos’ front office have changed their drafting philosophy over the past three seasons, emphasizing mostly players with high character and leadership qualities, even prioritizing players who were college captains over others at their position groups.

While the Broncos may not be widely considered Super Bowl contenders in 2020 even by the entirety of the fan base in Broncos Country, the 2020 season will be a blast with the amount of young talent on the roster.

I want to take a look at the top 15 moves the Broncos have made over the past three offseasons, not including coaching moves. If that were the case, hiring Vic Fangio and replacing Vance Joseph would rank very high on this list, to be clear.

I want to look mostly at additions to the roster, though there are some moves in here that took some faith on the part of John Elway to make. Some of these are seeds that have recently been planted, while others are not fully blossomed yet.

Even with some projection in this list, these moves have put the Denver Broncos in a position to compete in the AFC West with the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Here are my top 15 moves for the team since the beginning of the 2018 offseason.

15. Claiming Diontae Spencer off waivers (2019)

The Denver Broncos had a serious issue in the kick and punt return game before the arrival of return specialist Diontae Spencer in 2019.

Spencer was overlooked coming out of McNeese State in 2014 despite running a blazing 4.34 in the 40-yard dash with a 40-inch vertical jump.

His diminutive 5-foot-8, 173-pound frame led him to the Canadian Football League, where he became one of the elite return men in the game.

Spencer’s prowess as a receiver and returner in Canada earned him a spot on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster in the 2019 offseason, and he used that as an opportunity to audition for all 31 other teams as well.

In case anyone ever wants to try and tell you that preseason play doesn’t matter, let it be known that it was Spencer’s preseason tape that got him a regular-season spot on the Broncos’ roster.

When the Steelers opted to cut Spencer, he wound up in Denver and he became a Pro Bowl alternate as a return specialist in 2019.

The Broncos brought Spencer back for another season as an exclusive rights free agent in 2020, and he figures to have a good shot of being the team’s primary return man again.

14. The AAF signings (2019)

After the 2018 NFL season, the Alliance of American Football attempted to become the next professional football league and while they didn’t have the best business plan, they had a decent football product.

Decent enough that a lot of their players ended up getting signed by NFL clubs when the league went under midway through its season.

The Denver Broncos took notice of a number of players in the AAF and signed them to team-friendly one-year contracts. Among those players were defensive lineman Mike Purcell and cornerback De’Vante Bausby.

Both Purcell and Bausby became starters for the Denver Broncos in the 2019 season, though Bausby was lost at one point to a spine injury and had to go on injured reserve.

Purcell was a starter for the majority of the season for Denver and racked up 48 tackles and eight tackles for loss.

Both of these players were re-signed by the Broncos in 2020, and Purcell even received a second-round tender by the Broncos after his tremendous 2019 campaign.

13. Signing Melvin Gordon (2020)

I completely understand why many in Broncos Country were vehemently against signing a running back in free agency.

With that said, this move could wind up being substantial for the Broncos and I like it for a variety of reasons.

Gordon is a very skilled all-around back, and when the Broncos needed someone other than Phillip Lindsay over the past two seasons to make an impact in the running game, they struggled to find it.

The team had obviously hoped Royce Freeman could be the ‘smash’ to Phillip Lindsay’s ‘dash’ but that hasn’t materialized the way they had hoped, so Melvin Gordon was signed to a two-year deal in the 2020 free agency period.

Gordon is a big, strong back with speed and tackle-breaking ability. He struggled some in 2019 as the Chargers got Austin Ekeler a lot more involved in the offense overall, but part of Gordon’s struggles can be attributed to a holdout after his tremendous 2018 campaign.

Gordon’s peers thought extremely highly of him after the 2018 season where he ran for 885 yards in 12 games, racking up over 1,300 yards from scrimmage and 14 total touchdowns.

Gordon has been one of the best backs in the NFL at running against a stacked box of eight players or more, and in fact was the best in the NFL in that regard in 2019. He can also catch passes, pass protect, and he gives the Broncos a veteran presence at the offensive skill positions they have lacked.

Plus, he comes over from the Los Angeles Chargers and will finally get to feel what it’s like to play in front of a home crowd.

At least, we hope.

12. Re-signing Todd Davis (2018)

Back in 2018, the Denver Broncos made a very shrewd move to re-sign linebacker Todd Davis to a three-year, $15 million contract.

Davis’ annual salary of $5 million per season ranks 23rd in the NFL at the inside linebacker position, and it’s safe to say he’s vastly out-performed that pay grade.

Since 2018, Davis has started 44 of a possible 48 games played with 330 total tackles and 16 tackles for loss.

Not only has Davis been productive as a tackler, but he’s been tasked with getting in all of the calls for the Broncos as the leader in the middle of the defense.

https://twitter.com/Broncos/status/1020352811756765184

Davis is still only 28 years old even though he’s been with the Broncos since the 2014 season, which doesn’t feel that long ago but it really was. John Fox was still the team’s head coach when Davis was initially brought aboard.

Not only has Davis been a very good player for the Broncos on the field, he’s been tremendous for the community of Denver with all of his off-field endeavors.

This was just an all-around wise move by the Broncos to pay such a discounted rate for a highly productive inside linebacker. Many have tried to replace him in Denver over the last three seasons, but no one’s been able to do it.

11. The Demaryius Thomas trade (2018)

Trading players who will go down as team legends is not always preferred or recommended, but the Denver Broncos did what they had to do in the case of Demaryius Thomas.

What’s crazy to think about is that this almost didn’t happen. If Case Keenum had been able to hit a wide-open Thomas in stride on a Monday Night game against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, the story here could have been significantly different.

The Broncos and Texans swapped seventh-round picks in the trade, but ultimately it ended up being Demaryius Thomas for a fourth-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

That selection would go on to be used by the Broncos to move up with the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2019 NFL Draft to acquire the 42nd overall pick and select quarterback Drew Lock.

In a losing season, trading Demaryius Thomas to a contending team felt like insult to injury for Broncos fans, but he ended up getting hurt in the Texans’ playoff run and cut the following offseason before landing with the New England Patriots. The Patriots traded him to the New York Jets.

Now, Thomas is a free agent and Drew Lock is looking like the next franchise QB of the team.

10. The Emmanuel Sanders trade (2019)

The Broncos found themselves in another tough situation in the 2019 regular season.

Emmanuel Sanders was one of the only consistent sources of offense on the team over the past couple of seasons, but he was also in a contract year and one of the only coveted players on the roster around the league.

The San Francisco 49ers swooped in and made a deal with John Elway and the Denver Broncos during the 2019 regular season, sending third- and fourth-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft to the Broncos for their former Pro Bowl receiver.

Sanders helped the 49ers to the Super Bowl last season and was a significant impact player for them, but he left in free agency to go play for the New Orleans Saints.

The Broncos sent a fifth-round pick along with Sanders to the 49ers to get the third- and fourth-round picks.

The third-round pick the Broncos received from the 49ers was used to select defensive lineman McTelvin Agim out of Arkansas.

The fourth-round pick was parlayed and traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for former Pro Bowl cornerback AJ Bouye.

In essence, the Broncos traded half of a regular-season of Emmanuel Sanders for what could be four seasons of McTelvin Agim and at least two seasons of AJ Bouye.

9. The Jurrell Casey Trade (2020)

The Denver Broncos had a clear need on the defensive line heading into the 2020 offseason with all three starters hitting the free agent market.

Although they ultimately failed to acquire their number one target (Houston’s DJ Reader, who signed in Cincinnati), the Broncos acted quickly and made one of the best trades in John Elway’s tenure, regardless if it works out or not.

The Broncos acquired five-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jurrell Casey from the Tennessee Titans for the low, low price of a seventh-round pick.

You never know how desperate teams are to add cap space, but watching the value they get in trades for veteran players is one way to find out.

The Titans were obviously very desperate this offseason to retain quarterback Ryan Tannehill along with running back Derrick Henry, and Casey got in the line of fire.

It’s hard to do better than this with a seventh-round draft pick. The success rate of seventh-round picks is not great anyway, so getting a veteran player who can come in and have an immediate impact while also being a leader and captain-type in your locker room?

This was a phenomenal trade no matter what ultimately happens.

8. Double-dipping at WR in 2020

I don’t care if neither Jerry Jeudy nor KJ Hamler has taken an NFL field at this point. The decision by the Broncos to double-dip at wide receiver to kick off the 2020 NFL Draft is one of the best moves the team has made in recent years.

The Broncos have seen the effect of having multiple dynamic offensive weapons from the losing end. The Kansas City Chiefs have set the standard in the NFL for offensive excellence in recent years.

That was once the Denver Broncos when Peyton Manning was running the show, but it hasn’t been that way for six years at least.

The Broncos knew they needed to upgrade their offensive weaponry in 2020, and they did exactly that by adding the speedy Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler to a group that already includes Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant.

With Pat Shurmur calling the plays in Denver in 2020, the Broncos will certainly be using 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three receivers) as their primary setup this season and having Jeudy and Hamler will give opposing defenses fits, even when they’re not getting the ball.

7. Signing Kareem Jackson (2019)

With all due respect to everyone who played in the original No Fly Zone, it’s a shame we never got to see Kareem Jackson play with that unit.

Jackson’s NFL career has been outstanding, and while he spent the vast majority of it in Houston, his impact in Denver last year was tremendous.

Jackson has played outside corner, nickel corner, and safety in the NFL, but he was outstanding in 2019 as a strong safety for Vic Fangio and the Denver Broncos.

He racked up 71 tackles last season with the Broncos and had the game of his life against his former team, the Houston Texans.

Although Jackson was suspended at the end of the 2019 season for an offseason DUI incident, he’s a veteran leader for the Denver Broncos and was an outstanding free agent signing for John Elway and the Broncos in 2019.

6. Signing Alexander Johnson (2018)

During training camp in 2018, the Denver Broncos made a transaction that popped up seemingly out of nowhere.

The team signed linebacker Alexander Johnson, AKA “AJ” Johnson, a former Tennessee Volunteers star who had been out of football since the end of the 2014 college season.

He was acquitted of rape charges in 2018 and subsequently was pursued by a wide variety of NFL teams including the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins.

The Broncos signed Johnson to a three-year contract and basically gave him a redshirt for the 2018 season.

In 2019, he again made the regular-season roster but didn’t play much in the early stages. That is, until he was inserted into the lineup after four games of the Broncos struggling to find their way defensively.

He instantly became a star for Denver’s defense, racking up 93 total tackles in just 12 starts with five tackles for loss, an interception, two forced fumbles, four quarterback hits, and 1.5 sacks.

Johnson has now become a key piece of the Denver defense and one of the team’s most important players for 2020.

5. Drafting Bradley Chubb (2018)

It’s hard to say a team got a ‘steal’ in the NFL Draft when that player was the fifth overall pick in his class, but the Denver Broncos got a steal with Bradley Chubb in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Widely expected to be the first defensive player off the board as a clean prospect with high productivity and playing a premium position, the Denver Broncos were shocked to find Chubb sitting there for them when they selected fifth overall in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Chubb was as-advertised in 2018, racking up 60 tackles, 12 sacks, 21 QB hits, and 14 tackles for loss.

Chubb was expected to take a huge leap in 2019 and establish himself as one of the league’s premier defensive players when he tragically tore his ACL against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the fourth week of the season.

Losing Chubb was obviously a huge blow to the Broncos, but he will be back in 2020 and will again be expected to be one of the team’s key pieces defensively.

The Broncos won’t soon forget their good fortune when Chubb slipped past the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft.

4. Drafting Courtland Sutton (2018)

The Denver Broncos were in need of a lot of playmakers leading up to the 2018 NFL Draft.

After ‘stealing’ Bradley Chubb with their first-round pick in the 2018 draft, the Broncos selected SMU wide receiver Courtland Sutton with their second-round pick.

The pick was somewhat surprising given the Broncos still had multiple years left with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, but they stuck to the ‘best player available’ strategy and it has paid off for them tremendously.

Sutton has quickly become the WR1 for the Denver Broncos and made the Pro Bowl as an alternate in 2019 after he caught 72 passes for 1,112 yards and six touchdowns.

Sutton’s ability to make big plays is truly one-of-a-kind and his 2019 season is one of the most impressive individual efforts you will ever see from a wide receiver.

The Broncos selected Sutton with the 40th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and he’s already significantly out-played his draft slot. He’s a star.

3. Signing Phillip Lindsay (2018)

After selecting two running backs (Royce Freeman and David Williams) in the 2018 NFL Draft, the Broncos signed Phillip Lindsay among their 2018 undrafted heap.

Lindsay was a star for the Colorado Buffaloes program whose stellar college career wasn’t good enough, apparently, to get him an invitation to the 2018 Scouting Combine.

He was forced to display his talents for NFL teams at the CU pro day where he ran a blazing 4.39 in the 40-yard dash and posted a 35.5-inch vertical jump, showing off his explosiveness.

Lindsay’s impact on the Broncos was felt immediately.

He went from no Scouting Combine invite to number one back on the Broncos and Pro Bowl selection in the blink of an eye.

Lindsay became the first rookie running back in NFL history to go undrafted and then make the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

He has run for over 1,000 yards in two straight seasons for the Broncos and has become arguably the most beloved player on the team.

In terms of value, Lindsay could arguably be the number one move on this list.

2. The 2019 NFL Draft trade down

The Denver Broncos held the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, and many assumed they would take either a linebacker or quarterback with that selection.

The most frequent mock draft selections were Michigan linebacker Devin Bush and Missouri quarterback Drew Lock with a smattering of other suggestions sprinkled in.

The Broncos came this close to drafting Devin Bush, but the Pittsburgh Steelers made them a trade offer they couldn’t refuse.

Pittsburgh decided to send the Broncos their first- and second-round picks in the 2019 NFL Draft along with their third-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft for the right to draft Bush.

After trading back 10 spots with the Steelers in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft and then moving up a few spots in the second round using their selection and the Texans selection we mentioned previously, this is the haul the Broncos came away with for the right to select Michigan LB Devin Bush:

• TE Noah Fant
• QB Drew Lock
• C Lloyd Cushenberry

All three of those players are projected to be starters for the Broncos in 2020, and trading one starter for three starters including potentially a franchise QB is a deal you make 10 out of 10 times.

The Broncos had no idea this is how the trade would play out, but they are looking like geniuses for making it at this point and it’s a move that has set the team up tremendously well for now and into the future.

1. Drafting Drew Lock (2019)

It’s still pretty early to say this is the definitive best move of the last three years for the Broncos, especially considering Lock still has so much to prove, but I’m going to project a bit and say that it is the best move of the last three years and perhaps since the Peyton Manning era ended.

Lock helped lead the Broncos to a 4-1 finish to close out the 2019 season after injuring his thumb in preseason play, his only loss coming on the road in a blizzard against the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Lock was a key factor in the Broncos playing well down the stretch, including one of the most impressive performances you will see from a rookie in his start on the road against the Houston Texans.

In fact, it was an unprecedented start.

No rookie QB before Lock had a road start with 300 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

Lock was dealing in that game.

The Broncos saw enough from Lock in five games and in practices to mold their entire 2019 offseason around him. They brought in firepower offensively as well as some key pieces on defense, but every move this offseason had Drew Lock in mind, including the hiring of Pat Shurmur as offensive coordinator.

Lock has become a key leader for this Broncos team in a short time and he appears more than poised to seize the opportunity he has earned.

Lock exudes confidence while also maintaining a level of humility that is admirable of a young star quarterback.

Looking back on the 2019 NFL Draft, it makes no sense why a quarterback with Lock’s physical talent, intangibles, work habits, and experience against SEC competition was not selected in the first round.

The Broncos were very fortunate he was still there with the 42nd overall pick.

That selection and move up to get Lock will hopefully go down as one of the biggest NFL Draft steals in Denver Broncos history.