Denver Broncos 2021 NFL Draft: Cornerback at No. 9? Not so fast
The Denver Broncos are heavy favorites to draft a cornerback with the ninth overall pick. That being said, the NFL Draft is very unpredictable to a point. Anything can happen.
As Benjamin Allbright points out, the Broncos very well could be looking somewhere else—not at cornerback. Possibly not even picking in their current slot.
Caleb Farley seems to be mocked to the Broncos the most times out of any other prospect. He’s the perfect fit for the Broncos and Vic Fangio’s defense, but what if he’s not there? What if he is there but the Broncos see an opportunity to go in a better direction?
It is widely expected that Drew Lock will be the quarterback of the Denver Broncos in 2021, barring he loses his job to a player the team chooses to bring in as competition.
The ultimate question there is, will there be a quarterback available that they really love? Do they love that guy more than a more immediate need like cornerback or linebacker?
Maybe they like a guy such as Zach Wilson enough to move up somewhere in the 2 to 5 range.
The fact is that even if they currently believe in Drew Lock, the opportunity of adding a player that they love in the 2021 NFL Draft will only happen once.
Another position of need is the right tackle position. In this instance, I’d imagine they would try to move down and accumulate more picks. It’s also possible that they are in love with Penei Sewell.
The Broncos did sign Garett Bolles to a contract extension, so if they were to draft Sewell, he would be plugged in as the right tackle—not left. That would be perfectly okay if you ask me.
The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting, with free agency kicking off in nine days. It is possible that the Broncos fill that cornerback hole in free agency, making that position in the first round possibly not as much of an urgent need.
That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t draft a cornerback early — it simply means that they can add other talented players while still liking cornerbacks in, say, the second or third rounds.
Drafting the best player available is typically what teams seem to like to do in the early round of the NFL Draft. The big question is, what players are at the top of their draft board?
Many thought that the Broncos would be loving De’Vante Bausby after he showed some solid play in limited action in 2019. He ended up being waived and picked up by the Arizona Cardinals.
He was later signed back by Denver and didn’t quite show much in his return to Denver.
However, maybe they are still high on Bausby going forward.
We will just have to wait and see how the first couple of picks play out in April. Stay tuned.