Denver Broncos mock draft: Sean Payton goes all in on offense

At the end of the 2023 season, Sean Payton made a pretty polarizing move when he decided to bench starting quarterback Russell Wilson in favor of Jarrett Stidham, citing the offense's need for a "spark". That "spark" didn't exactly come with Stidham in the lineup, but the message was clearly sent.

Even though the offense got it together for a stretch of games to keep the Broncos in the playoff mix for a large portion of the 2024 season, their performance wasn't nearly good enough. Although the offense was markedly improved in terms of what we had seen in the atrocious nightmare that was the 2022 season, it wasn't up to head coach Sean Payton's standards.

What will Payton and the Broncos do this offseason? I want to take a look at a wild scenario involving Payton and the Broncos trading off a number of big-name players, loading up on 2024 NFL Draft assets, and reloading on that side of the ball with an all-offense draft class.

1. 12th overall: Olumuyiwa Fashanu, OT, Penn State

Any non-quarterback with the 12th overall pick for the Denver Broncos is not going to be the most popular mock draft selection, but you'll get a good idea of why we're making this move in a little bit. Spoiler alert, it involves Garett Bolles no longer being on the roster.

Even if Bolles comes back to Denver in 2024, the tackle position may need to be addressed. Luckily for the Broncos, this year's NFL Draft class is loaded on the offensive line, especially among the top 40-50 players. It would be a great year for the Broncos to have multiple top 50 picks to spend on big men offensively, but if you could only get one from this class, Olu Fashanu from Penn State is not a bad one.

This guy looks like a future franchise cornerstone at the left tackle position who would start for the Broncos from Day 1.