Top 4 players for Denver Broncos to completely avoid in 2023 NFL Draft

The 2023 NFL Draft kicks off this Thursday night from Kansas City. Though the Denver Broncos and the rest of Broncos Country are going to sit through the first two rounds without seeing any new Broncos, the team still needs to avoid some later-round pitfalls.

The Broncos only have five picks in this draft and with several needs still on the roster, they can ill-afford to make any bad choices.

It's always difficult to predict which prospects are going to pan out and which ones are going to be in and out of the league quickly. Picking a player like Paxton Lynch can set a franchise back for a bit. Though the Broncos don't have a first-round pick this year, they need to hit on the ones they do have.

Here are four players the team should steer clear from in the draft.

2023 draft prospects that Broncos should avoid

The Broncos could certainly use another pass-rusher and there is a chance that Andre Carter could someday be a good one, but it's probably not going to be as a rookie.

He can get after the passer, as evidenced by his 14.5-sack season in 2021, though that number dipped to just 3.5 last season. But that is going to change at the next level because he is going to need to transform his body by adding size in order to hold up against what he will see at the next level.

For a player who had some issues with blockers in college, he will get flat out pushed around in the NFL.

He is also not the best run defender and even had some tackling issues that will need to get ironed out.

This isn't to say that Carter won't eventually turn into a good professional football player. He certainly could. But after not getting much out of Nik Bonitto, a second-round pick last season, the Broncos don't need to throw another early pick at a player like this.