Denver Broncos: Is K.J. Hamler bound to be a bust?

Denver Broncos fans won’t have the chance to see K.J. Hamler on the field until 2022 following a season-ending injury.

Hamler suffered a torn ACL in the Week 3 win over the New York Jets, about the only negative aspect of an otherwise dominant win. That injury will put the 22-year old wide receiver on the shelf for the rest of the year and will force him to undergo some tough rehabilitation.

Hamler may even be held out of preseason next year, meaning the first time we could see him in a Broncos uniform again would be next September. Though the team has bigger goals to accomplish this year, the NFL is a league in which you must always look ahead.

Last April, the Broncos selected wide receiver Jerry Jeudy with the No. 15 overall pick of the draft. The team was widely expected to take a wide receiver and to get Jeudy at No. 15 was considered by many to be a steal.

They then had the No. 46 overall pick in that same draft and with their next pick, selected Hamler, another wide receiver. That caused many fans to ask what the team was doing. Why draft another wide receiver that quickly?

Hamler was one of the fastest wide receivers in the class and he put up some impressive numbers while at Penn State. Though he wasn’t necessarily a “need” in the second round, the Broncos building their wide receiving corps with two young wideouts was not terribly frowned upon.

But now, with hindsight providing perfect vision, it is fair to ask if it was a bad pick.

In 16 career games, Hamler has caught 35 passes for 455 yards and three touchdowns. His numbers could obviously be much worse, but more was certainly expected from him, especially when Tim Patrick, a former undrafted free agent, seems to be a much more reliable target within the offense.

Was Hamler selected too high in the draft?

Who else could the Broncos have taken with the No. 46 overall pick? Here are just a handful of names:

Chase Claypool, Trevon Diggs, Jeremy Chinn and Antonio Gibson. In the case of Diggs and Chinn, both players would have looked great in this Denver defense.

It’s tough to throw in the towel already on Hamler. He could come back better than ever. But in watching him play 16 games in the NFL, here’s what we know. He’s on the smaller side, he’s highly inconsistent and questions about how durable he can be are certainly fair.

So, is he a draft bust? It’s too early to put that in concrete, but it is also a fair question to ask.