Who could the Denver Broncos have drafted instead of their current class?

The Denver Broncos came away with a solid value draft class. Who could they have drafted instead of their current class? The Broncos' draft was nowhere close to perfect, but it was solid overall I think. They worked the draft board quite a bit and came away with a solid core of players that could all be contributors on day one.

Instead of their current class, who could they have drafted instead? Well, here is the current class that George Paton and Sean Payton came away with:

-WR Marvin Mims Jr (63)
-LB Drew Sanders (67)
-CB Riley Moss (83)
-S JL Skinner (183)
-C Alex Forsyth (257)

To make life easy, let's say that the Broncos are going to keep their current placements in the draft. They worked the draft boards and deviated from their original picks, which is why you see three picks in the top 100 and only two more picks after that in the latest rounds.

Denver traded up a couple of times and had to pay a bit of a price to get Mims and Moss, but regardless, I think the value is solid.

So at pick 63, who could they have drafted? One player that sticks out at a position of huge need is Zacch Pickens, who went at pick 64 to the Chicago Bears. He's got good size and the ability to apply interior pressure. That perhaps would have been a better fit than Marvin Mims Jr.

At pick 67, the Broncos made a weird pick in Drew Sanders, but they could have taken Nathaniel (Tank) Dell from Houston, a smaller receiver with decent speed who had back-to-back 1,300-yard campaigns at college in Houston.

Mims is probably the better prospect, but I think Denver targeting the DL with the Pickens pick would have been a smarter decision.

Denver then traded up to pick 83 to select Riley Moss from Iowa. Well, the Broncos have a need at running back as it's not known whether Javonte Williams will be healthy for week one and the team only signed Samaje Perine for the backfield in 2023.

How about instead of Moss, the Broncos pick Devon Achane instead? He went at pick 84 to the Miami Dolphins and has 4.32 speed compacted into a 5'9", 185lb frame.

He rushed for 1,102 yards in his senior season at Texas Tech. He also caught 36 passes so he's a receiving threat. That could have been a nice fit for Sean Payton's offense in Denver.

Pick 183 for the Broncos was JL Skinner, a safety from Boise State. I actually like a couple of picks better than Skinner, but the one I'd have liked to see the most would have been Luke Wypler, a center from Ohio State who went seven picks later to the Cleveland Browns.

Wypler is an athletic prospect who is solid against the run and would have had a great shot to have started during week one. They could have taken Jaleyn Duncan, a tackle who went a few picks later to the Titans, or even Kayshon Boutte, a wide receiver who went to the Patriots, but I'd have liked Wypler the most.

Their final pick came at pick 257, the second to last pick in the draft, and the Broncos took Oregon center Alex Forsyth with this pick. How about instead of Forsyth, the Broncos draft Eli Ricks, a surprisingly undrafted cornerback who signed as an UDFA with the Philadelphia Eagles.

It's quite shocking that Ricks went undrafted, but he did, and Denver should have drafted him at 257 since he was still there.

Here's who the Denver Broncos could have drafted:
-DL Zacch Pickens
-WR Tank Dell
-RB Devon Achane
-C Luke Wypler
-CB Eli Ricks

That seems like a solid "what could have been" draft class to me. Denver hits on various roster needs with each pick and gets players who all could have made noise come week one.