The Denver Broncos needs heading into the 2026 NFL Draft could not be more obvious, and it's great that the team finds itself in this position. After a weird offseason where the team brought back most of their own guys but traded for wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, the roster needs, while few, are clear.
Denver should be looking at drafting for deliberate need later this month, as the best player available method only works until other positions start getting neglected, and we've seen that with tight end and inside linebacker, specifically.
And perfectly enough, both positions appear to be quite deep in this year's draft class. which should give the team no excuses to get those positions fixed. However, at tight end in particular, there is one notable prospect who the Broncos must stay away from despite the enticing profile.
Denver Broncos must stay far away from tight end (or wide receiver?) Eli Stowers in the NFL Draft
The Broncos are going to be meeting with Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers, but some teams are viewing him as a wide receiver:
An interesting note on #Vanderbilt's Eli Stowers: While officially he's a TE, several teams are evaluating him as a WR.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 7, 2026
At 6-foot-4, 239, his build can be compared to Mike Evans. Stowers, by the way, visits the #Broncos next week, and he's done #Rams, #Titans, and #Cowboys. pic.twitter.com/B2VwS2Uzjn
For this entire NFL Draft process, Stowers has been viewed as a tight end, but it should raise red flags that teams are viewing him as a wide receiver. Even inside Ian Rapoport compared his build to Mike Evans, a big-bodied receiver who could end up in the Hall of Fame one day.
But Stowers truly isn't the type of tight end prospect Denver needs to target. Not only does he not have special teams experience, but he's not a good blocker and just might not have that ever in his game. His athletic profile, though is truly historic, as he jumped over 45 inches in the vertical and over 11 feet in the broad jump at the NFL Combine.
His 4.51 forty-yard dash is also incredibly fast at his size, but at 6-4 and 239 pounds, Stowers is truly a unicorn, but not only do the Broncos not have a need for this type of player, but even at wide receiver, the room is spilling over with talent after the Waddle trade.
Not only that, but with limited NFL Draft capital, the Broncos aren't really in a position to take a risk like this. Sure, you can't teach athleticism, especially at his size, but there's going to be a very specific way in which Stowers is going to find success in the NFL.
The Broncos should instead have their eyes on someone like Max Klare of Ohio State, a tight end who is a high-end athlete and possesses functional run blocking ability. Sure, Sean Payton has an affinity for those big-bodied pass-catchers, but the first year of the Evan Engram experiement, who is a similar player to Stowers, didn't really amount to much.
Stowers would be a fun player to take if the Broncos had a third-round pick and could get some decent value with the selection, but there really isn't even a chance that he drops to the team's 62nd overall selection. It's best to stay away from the Vanderbilt product.