2. Trading up for Alphonso Smith in 2009
The Denver Broncos have made a lot of head-scratching trades throughout the team's history but I don't know if any trade is as embarrassing as the infamous Alphonso Smith trade during the 2009 NFL Draft.
Operating his first NFL Draft with the team, Josh McDaniels was full of hubris and had way too much power. He felt like he could do literally anything he want, so he did. He had already made a string of unpopular moves by this point but during the 2009 NFL Draft, he made a move that would be unanimously hated by everyone in Broncos Country.
All of a sudden, everyone watching the 2009 NFL Draft was surprised to see the Denver Broncos logo pop on the screen for the 37th overall pick. The Seattle Seahawks traded the 37th pick to the Broncos and the Broncos selected Wake Forest cornerback Alphonso Smith, only 5-foot-9 but a ballhawk, to be certain. He picked off 21 passes and had four pick-sixes in college.
Unfortunately, any excitement from selecting Smith was short-lived as the graphic revealing the terms of the trade popped up on the screen. The Broncos had acquired the 37th overall pick from Seattle in exchange for a 2010 first-round pick.
Come again?
The Broncos traded a 2010 first-round pick for the 37th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. That 2010 draft pick ended up being the 14th overall pick, which the Seahawks used on star safety Earl Thomas.
Even though the Broncos already had an additional first-round pick in 2010 thanks to the trade we're going to talk about next on this list, it was still a foolish use of draft resources. You're taking a loss even if you win the Super Bowl in that instance. It's not a good trade no matter what way you slice it and the Seahawks' GM at the time (Tim Ruskell) probably couldn't say yes fast enough.
What's worse? McDaniels would grow impatient with Smith after just one season. He traded him to the Detroit Lions in 2010 for a 6th-round pick and TE Dan Gronkowski. Now, we can't say that McDaniels was obsessed with Rob Gronkowski from his time in New England just yet. Gronk wasn't even drafted by the Patriots until 2010 so his NFL career was not even underway by the time of this trade. But perhaps McDaniels saw that his old boss drafted Gronk and felt like he needed to get a piece of that family as well.