The Denver Broncos finished the 2026 preseason with a winning record after blowing out the Minnesota Vikings at home. For the third year in a row, Sean Payton's Broncos close out a winning preseason slate.
The team can now turn their attention to getting as healthy as possible and ready for Week 1 of the regular season, against the Kansas City Chiefs. Denver should be able to win that one given how much more talented they are, but divisional games are always a handful and filled with uncertainty.
Well, while many of the roster spots are locked up, some Broncos players were battling for their NFL future on the field on Friday. However, the Broncos also did see a notable former high draft pick of theirs get and stay on the field for a pretty lengthy period of time, perhaps bringing into question this pick even more.
Denver Broncos 1st-round pick from 2025 played 30 snaps in the preseason finale
Cornerback Jahdae Barron, the team's first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, was on the field for 30 defensive snaps. Thirty!
Denver D snaps include 8 from Cooper. pic.twitter.com/SpGmxm8RuJ
— MikeKlis9NEWS (@mikeklis9news) August 29, 2026
Barron actually ended up playing more snaps than Sai'vion Jones, Jordan Jackson, and Tyler Onyedim. Both Jones and Onyedim are young third-round picks and surely need the reps for their own development.
Furthermore, Barron saw just about the same amount of snaps as some players who may not even make the final 53-man roster in Taurean York, Sean Fresch, Parker Robertson, and Miles Scott. Those four players all got 31 snaps.
This feels like a major issue, right? Why is the Broncos highly-touted first-round pick from a year ago still needing 30 snaps in the final preseason game of his second year? From the beginning, the pick just felt... odd.
The Broncos clearly took a best player available approach with Barron, even though he had no path to playing time as a rookie due to how loaded the unit was an is, and naturally, both Ja'Quan McMillian and Riley Moss had career seasons in 2025. The Broncos gave McMillian a pretty sizeable raise for 2026, and, once again, Barron does not have a clear path to get on the field.
Sure, the Broncos felt like Barron wasn't going to be available at pick 20, so they likely viewed it as a steal, but these are scenarios where things can get a bit blurry. Taking the best player on the board is generally a good thing, but when it's at a position that sports elite, top-3 NFL talent, that type of pick just does not fit.
And as for Barron himself, beyond the players ahead of him, it doesn't feel like there's been real development happening. If that were the case, why would he need 30 snaps in the third preseason game?
Barron's career has not started off like he thought, in my opinion, and I am not sure the Broncos weren't hoping for more at this point. Maybe things change when the 2026 season begins, but even when the Broncos are in DB-heavy looks on defense, thats when guys like McMillian and even Kris Abrams-Draine come in.
According to Pro Football Reference, Abrams-Draine has allowed a 71.4 passer rating in coverage during his career. Barron is at a 98.8 rating in coverage. Perhaps a switch will somehow flip in year two, but his presence on the field for 30 snaps just doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement of the player.
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