The Denver Broncos have made some poor draft choices over the last 15 years.
Recently, Pro Football Focus put out an article in which they named the worst draft pick in each of the first 32 draft slots made since 2006, the year PFF started grading players.
Unfortunately, the Broncos appear on this list three times. If you look at the list, many of the same teams routinely pop up and those teams, such as the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, have gone quite some time without sustained success.
If you look at my list of the five worst first-round picks in team history, you’ll see that I have no argument with two of these players. However, with one of them, I will argue.
The Broncos have made some solid first-round picks since 2006, such as Ryan Clady, Von Miller, and Bradley Chubb. But the following three players earned the distinction as the worst pick in their respective slot since 2006.
Jarvis Moss, No. 17 overall in 2007
No argument here. This guy was just a bad draft pick all the way around and he managed to stick around the organization until 2010 despite early indications that he was a huge bust.
For his career with the Broncos, Moss had just 3.5 sacks and ended up playing in just 34 games with the team before being cut during the 2010 season.
Tim Tebow, No. 25 overall in 2010
It’s easy to hate on Tebow, many people enjoy doing so. It’s also understandable that his low career completion percentage put him low on PFF’s charts. But is he the worst No. 25 overall pick of the last 15 years? Not in my mind.
Artie Burns was selected at No. 25 overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2016 and he’s not only not on that team anymore but has done little with his career. Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, drafted in 2019 by the Baltimore Ravens, is another No. 25 overall pick I’d take Tebow over. 4
It’s fun to put Tebow on the list of “worsts” for some, but he did some good things for the Broncos’ organization that can’t be rated by any metrics.
Paxton Lynch, No. 26 overall in 2016
Nope, no argument here. In my opinion, he’s the worst first-round pick in team history. If the Broncos had a pick to do-over since the 2006 season, it would certainly be this one.
Lynch was just atrocious and never looked the part or worked for the part of a professional quarterback. He’s still only 27 years old and it appears that his playing days are over.
He played in a grand total of five games for the Broncos and threw all of four touchdown passes. That’s what the team received for a first-round pick that it traded up to get.