The Denver Broncos have already blown it up

The social media presence that Broncos Country has is a sight to behold.

It can get very toxic at times, which is understandable since the Denver Broncos have not been relevant since 2016.  Since we have obviously lost more games than we have won, fans have constantly called for the firing of coaches, and the trading of players, constantly labeling it as “we have to clean house,” or, “we need to blow it up,” but the truth is, we already have.

The Broncos tried to mask this by quickly filling holes via free agency and the NFL draft, and often tried to fix the quarterback situation with a seasoned veteran.  In today’s NFL, it is pretty clear when a team is “tanking,” as they often trade their assets for draft picks and trot out a third stringer at quarterback.

The most recent example of this was the 2019 Miami Dolphins.  They started 0-7 and were clearly not competing, as they traded many of their good players away for high draft picks.  Fortunately, they ended up a year ahead of schedule, as they are now 7-4 and firmly in a playoff spot.

In a normal world, the Dolphins would have made some improvements this year, but still would have been a year or two away from being relevant again.  We saw other examples of this as well.  The Cincinnati Bengals were more or less “tanking” last year, and the Arizona Cardinals were clearly not trying to be competitive the year before they drafted Kyler Murray.

The moral of this story is, it is pretty easy to tell when most teams are or already have blown it up.  The Broncos took a much different approach, trying to remain competitive as the years went on, and this was and is largely due to John Elway’s competitive nature.

He would never fully commit to a rebuild, and if I recall, people threw the term “retooling” around to say that the Broncos were simply tweaking a few things.

But if you look at the roster turnover, only two players remain from our Super Bowl 50 roster, kicker Brandon McManus and future Hall of Fame edge rusher Von Miller.  The evidence is there, the Broncos have already blown it up.

The roster turnover is truly remarkable if we really look at it.  And mostly due to Elway’s strong drafts as of late, the Broncos have a promising young core that still needs to develop.

I understand that the quarterback situation is still in the air, but it is hard to not be excited about some of the players that Elway and co. have drafted.  Let’s take a look at how the Broncos blew it up, by first looking at the draft.

The most notable contributor and young star the Broncos drafted is safety Justin Simmons.  He is an All-Pro, and not much more needs to be said.  There were a few other players that contributed to the team like Andy Janovich and Connor McGovern, but they are no longer with the team. Simmons is a cornerstone piece for this team, and is sure to be locked up long-term when we reach the offseason.

The 2017 NFL draft was less kind to us, but it looks like we found a late-blooming stud in left tackle Garett Pro Bolles.  He has played as good as anyone this year, and was recently rewarded with a hefty contract extension.  DeMarcus Walker was our second-round pick, and he has carved out a nice rotational role with the team.  I think the Broncos will at least make him an offer this offseason, as he is set to be a free agent.

The 2018 draft was much better for the team, and has netted us a couple more cornerstone pieces.  Bradley Chubb has been very good this season after coming off a torn ACL, and Courtland Sutton was poised to have another strong year, but also tore his ACL and is out for the year.

After being a backup for most of his career, Josey Jewell has really stepped up this year and has been a quality starter.  Running back Royce Freeman is solid, but as the RB3, I do not expect him to be in the team’s plans in the future.

2018 was one of Elway’s strongest drafts.  Both Sutton and Chubb are poised to be perennial Pro-Bowlers if their upward trajectory continues.

2019 was another solid draft for the team.  I could make an argument that the team’s first four picks are all in the future plans; Noah Fant, Dalton Risner, Drew Lock, and Dre’Mont Jones.  All four players have shown promise, and if Drew Lock can figure this quarterback thing out, this draft will be a grand slam.

I am particularly excited to see Jones going forward, as he could become a Week 1 starter next year if Shelby Harris and Jurrell Casey are not brought back.

2020 is still too early to tell, but we can make some solid educated guesses here.  Depending on who you talk to, Jerry Jeudy is our WR1.  He was often regarded as the top receiver in the 2020 draft, in what was called the deepest receiver draft in a generation.

K.J. Hamler is a speedster and has been reliable all year. Michael Ojemudia, while being a healthy scratch the past few weeks, has played about as well as you could as a rookie defensive back to play.  Rookie center Lloyd Cushenberry, according to Vic Fangio, has gotten better every week.

There is also a chunk of players who have not seen playing time or have played very sparingly, McTelvin Agim, Justin Strnad, Netane Muti, Derrek Tuszka, and Albert Okwuegbunam.  The verdict is still out on these players, but I expect most, if not all of them to see meaningful playing time in 2021.

All in all, there are roughly 15 Broncos recently drafted who are already in the team’s future plans, or have a really solid chance to be.  Many teams like the Buffalo Bills have pieced together a winning team mostly in free agency, and teams like the Broncos and Minnesota Vikings have relied heavily on the draft for their players.

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The truth is, the Broncos have already blown it up.  They are on their second head coach since Super Bowl 50, and have totally overhauled the roster.  If someone believes we should blow it up again, what would that mean?

Would that mean firing Elway after greatly improving his drafting abilities, and subsequently firing Vic Fangio?  Or would it mean trading most of our assets for draft picks?

I am truly not sure what the “blow it up” crowd desires.  They claim that Elway can’t draft, which is blatantly wrong.  They claim that Fangio isn’t a good coach, which is wrong, and they already want to give up on Drew Lock.  To me, a chunk of this crowd simply want something to complain about.

At the end of the day, we are all Bronco fans and want to see the team succeed, but shouting from the rooftops that we need to blow it up is redundant. We already have, and we will soon see the benefit.