The Denver Broncos are a few weeks removed from compiling their 2022 draft class and the hope will be that each of those nine players becomes a major contributing factor to the team.
Of course, that is wishful thinking too. The draft is a selection process filled with risk and teams taking gambles on what they think a player can and will do, but in more situations than not, that doesn’t actually happen.
Many great novels could be written regarding the biggest busts in the history of the draft. The names of JaMarcus Russell, Ryan Leaf and Tony Mandarich get tossed around every time that subject comes up.
When it comes to the Broncos, looking at the last 10 years of drafts, who are some of the failed draft picks that come to mind. To be perfectly honest, there were several to choose from.
In order to be labeled as a “draft bust” here, a player had to be selected in the first three rounds between 2012-2022 but for those taken in recent years, the jury is still out. However, a guy like McTelvin Agim could soon find himself on a list like this one.
I managed to narrow it down to six players and here there are, ranked in descending order.
Broncos biggest draft busts since 2012: Brendan Langley
This guy had no business being drafted in the third round, but the Broncos decided to use the No. 101 overall pick of the 2017 draft on him, even though most analysts had him ranked much further down the board.
John Elway saw something in the long, athletic corner at the time but he never panned out for the Broncos and was just a terrible draft pick.
Langley played in 16 total games for the Broncos and never made a start at cornerback. Instead, the team used him as a return man briefly and then attempted to convert him to wide receiver, but that didn’t work either.
The Broncos cut him and he was chosen in the XFL draft in 2020 by the Houston Roughnecks and was later given a spot on the practice squad of the Seattle Seahawks, a stop that lasted about three weeks.
He is currently a member of the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL but as far as a professional football career goes, he has basically done nothing.
Broncos biggest draft busts since 2012: Ty Sambrailo
It would have been nice if the selection of Ty Sambrailo worked out for the Broncos because the team desperately needed better play from the offensive line when he was chosen. But he didn’t come close to being the guy the team thought it was getting with the No. 59 pick in 2015.
Sambrailo made just seven starts for the Broncos in two seasons before the team had seen enough and traded him to the Atlanta Falcons. He spent three seasons there before playing for the Tennesee Titans for two more.
He called it a career last October.
Sambrailo played at Colorado State, making him a popular draft choice in 2015. But he was never quick enough to handle edge rushers at the professional level or strong enough to keep them at bay either.
He struggled mightily with the Broncos and was slightly better in his next two stops but he should have never been a second-round draft choice, though he was considered one of the better offensive tackles in the 2015 class.
Broncos biggest draft busts since 2012: Montee Ball
Montee Ball was an absolute stud running back in college, so it made sense for the Broncos to select him in the second round of the 2013 draft.
After gaining over 5,000 yards on the ground and scoring a ridiculous 77 rushing touchdowns for the Badgers, it looked like the Broncos were getting a guy they could ride for the next several years.
In his rookie season, he looked fairly decent, providing a one-two punch out of the backfield alongside Knowshon Moreno. But he fell off big time in 2014, gaining just 172 yards on the ground that season.
That led to several questions coming into the 2015 season and the Broncos answered those by cutting Ball ahead of the start of that regular season. He was unable to beat out guys like C.J. Anderson and Juwan Thompson, two players who were undrafted.
Ball was not given a chance in the league again until three months later when the New England Patriots signed him to their practice squad. But that didn’t last long as a domestic violence arrest that offseason basically ended his playing career.
Broncos biggest draft busts since 2012: Cody Latimer
In 2014, the Broncos were looking to add to their wide receiving corps and give Peyton Manning another weapon in the passing game. Cody Latimer looked like a great selection at No. 56 overall that year.
To put it mildly, he wasn’t a good selection.
Latimer never caught on with the Broncos and there was always talk that Manning didn’t trust him to get the playbook down and be where he needed to be on the field.
In addition to that, the team held onto him for far too long.
Latimer was with the Broncos for four long seasons where he ended up catching a total of 35 passes. He did make some plays on special teams and that was the argument to keep him on the roster but a second-round pick needs to be more of a contributor.
Latimer would end up playing for the New York Giants for two seasons before having a short stay with the Washington Football Team but as far as second-round wide receivers go, this guy was basically terrible.
Broncos biggest draft busts since 2012: Carlos Henderson
Remember all of the hype surrounding this guy? And judging by what you could see on film, it all seemed warranted. In fact, it looked like the Broncos may have gotten the steal of the entire 2017 draft with this guy.
That was just a tad off.
Henderson was an electric talent who could really make things happen with the ball in his hands and in the preseason when he actually suited up for the team, that seemed evident.
But a torn ligament in his thumb landed Henderson on injured reserve for his entire rookie season. The following summer, he was a no-show at camp for the team as he was dealing with a personal matter and then came the suspension for violating the league’s policy against substance abuse.
It was all downhill from there and the Broncos waived Henderson ahead of the 2018 regular-season opener. They signed him to the practice squad the next day but that lasted less than two weeks and he was released completely.
Henderson ended up never playing a regular-season down in the NFL and he could go down as one of the biggest “what if’s” in Broncos history.
Broncos biggest draft busts since 2012: Paxton Lynch
You know where we were going with the No. 1 pick on this list, right?
You can easily make the argument that Paxton Lynch is the biggest draft bust in Broncos history and within the last decade, it’s not even close. He was chosen with the 26th overall pick in 2016 and the Broncos actually traded up to make sure they could get him.
Now granted, when the pick was made, there was plenty of excitement. Lynch had been a passing machine at Memphis and Broncos fans were stoked to get him on the roster. But he never transitioned to the next level as he simply didn’t seem to have the work ethic necessary to be a starting quarterback or truthfully, even worthy of a roster spot.
Lynch was unable to beat out Trevor Siemian in back-to-back offseasons to win the starting quarterback job but if the Broncos’ brass was honest, even undrafted player Kyle Sloter looked a lot better than Lynch when he was on the same team.
The Broncos gave Lynch every opportunity to be the guy but he ended up making just four starts for the team before the Broncos decided to cut ties.
Both the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers decided to give Lynch a try to be something but he never saw action for either team and was out of the league.
He currently plays for the Michigan Panthers of the USFL and if you haven’t watched him play there, you can find some clips that will remind you just how bad he is.