In a draft class that just has not been seen as very talented, the Denver Broncos decided that their first and third-round picks were best-suited heading to the Miami Dolphins for Jaylen Waddle. In that trade, the Broncos swapped fourth-round picks with the Dolphins, so they moved up in that round.
Anyway, one huge reason why Denver did this trade was because of their limited roster holes - this team was good enough to win the Super Bowl last year and truly do not have many other opportunities to legitimately upgrade this roster.
And acquiring Waddle did fill a major need at wide receiver. Denver is currently slated to pick 62nd overall, which is at the bottom of the second round. While it would cost a lot, there is a chance that Denver could move up into Round 1. We've used some math to figure out how.
Could the Denver Broncos trade up at least 30 slots to get back into Round 1?
For this exercise, we'll use this draft pick trade value chart, based on Jimmie Johnson's model. This chart assigns a number to each draft pick, and that's its 'value' in trades. Here are the point values of all of Denver's picks this year, per this model:
62: 284
108: 78
111: 72
170: 23.4
246: 1
256: 1
257: 1
The Broncos trio of seventh-round picks are essentially worth nothing in trades, so you can forget about those picks being used in deals. The 62nd pick is valued at 284, and the 32nd pick, which is the last in Round 1, held by the Seattle Seahawks, is valued at 590 points.
For starters, the Broncos would absolutely have to incude picks 62, 108, and 111, which would total to 434 points. The Broncos would still then have to make up roughly 156 points to bring enough value for the 32nd overall pick. The 87th pick this year is worth 155 points, so it's essentially another third-round pick.
Denver does have a third-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, but you'd also have to fairly assume that a player could take the place of this remaining value. If Seattle was willing to move down with the Broncos, tossing in Troy Franklin could be a realistic deal.
Franklin broke out in 2025 and is clearly someone who is a capable receiver. Given that the Seahawks threw the ball quite well last year, but did have a top-heavy receiving game, adding Franklin could make a lot of sense.
But this is just one example. The main idea here is that it would absolutely cost the Broncos first three picks this year and another pick, roughly equal to a third-rounder for the math to work. It's not impossible for this to happen, but it's highly unlikely.
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