The Denver Broncos could have Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons high on their draft board.
As you search around for mock drafts heading to the draft, there are already some that have the Broncos selecting Parsons with the No. 9 overall pick. Mel Kiper’s first official mock draft has that pick and interestingly, Parsons is the first defensive player off the board in that draft.
The pick makes sense for the Broncos, a team that needs more playmakers on defense. Parsons is the kind of athletic freak that Vic Fangio could have a field day with at the linebacker position, but he is far from a perfect prospect for a couple of reasons.
Parsons was a five-star recruit coming out of college and chose Penn State despite being recruited by a host of major college programs. As a freshman, he led the team in tackles and became the first freshman in school history to ever achieve that.
His sophomore season was a terrific one. Parsons racked up 109 tackles and five sacks and was probably the best linebacker in the nation that year, being awarded with the Butkus-Fitzgerald Award to cap the year.
Parsons then opted out of the 2020 season, which means he hasn’t taken the field since the 2019 Cotton Bowl, played about 13 months ago. But that’s not the biggest concern.
Isaiah Humphries, a safety who has since transferred to California, made some pretty serious allegations against Parsons and a few other teammates that have led to a lawsuit against the university.
The details of the incident won’t be detailed here, but you can read the report. We’ll just say that they are, well, not good.
As far as what Parsons can do on the field, there’s a lot to like. He came to Penn State as a defensive end before being moved to middle linebacker, so he clearly has some pass-rushing ability. He is a fantastic athlete and a terrific downhill defender. His pass coverage might be a little suspect as he was not asked to drop back too often with the Nittany Lions.
The Broncos have Alexander Johnson and Josey Jewell, who is coming off of a good season, but the team could get creative with Parsons and move him all over the 3-4 alignment due to his speed and ability to pressure the passer. He could be especially valuable if the team makes the difficult decision to move on from Von Miller.
Do the risks outweigh the reward here? That will be for George Paton to determine, but he will need to do some serious digging if he wants to bring Parsons aboard.
One detail of note is the fact that Yetur Gross-Matos is also named in the allegations made by Humphries and was still a high second-round pick in the most recent draft. Of course, not as many details about the incident were likely known at that time because that came long before the report by ESPN.
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If Paton deems the allegations serious enough, he could remove Parsons from his board altogether.
Off-field issues are always a tough thing to navigate when it comes to the draft. Recently, Reuben Foster looked like the next big thing at linebacker, but off-field issues have basically killed his career. On the other hand, look how many teams let Randy Moss get by them in 1998.
The Broncos may also not consider linebacker to be a first-round priority, as cornerback is a much more pressing need. That said, do players such as Patrick Surtain and Caleb Farley have a higher ceiling than a guy like Parsons, who has legitimate All-Pro potential?
These are some interesting questions heading into the draft and for one reason or another, Parsons is a name to keep tabs on for Broncos fans.