We are now just days away from the 2026 NFL Draft and the Denver Broncos front office staff are locked in. With very little premium draft capital, they have a very narrow window to hit on their sole pick in the first 100. They’ve been here before in back-to-back drafts in 2022 and 2023 where they landed premium talent in edge rusher Nik Bonitto and all-pro returner Marvin Mims Jr.
General Manager George Paton was asked about that experience they gained having such a late first pick in a draft and
nailing it and he noted that they are ‘homed in’ on a group of guys in that 45th to 75th pick range.
“It’s very similar to what we have done,” Paton said on Thursday. “We are really homed in let’s say from 45 to 75. Just really homed in on that group of players. Not that we haven’t gone through the process in the first round like we always do, but now this just gives us time to really focus on the players there and go through every scenario possible. If you are left with five of these players or six of these player or none of these players left. Going through every possible scenario so on draft day you aren’t surprised. We haven’t been surprised yet, and we’ve been happy with the results.”
The last part of that comment is also significant. If a scenario plays out where none of those players they are ‘homed in’ on are left, we could see them move back and try to accumulate additional mid-round picks to compensate. Otherwise, we could also see them package up some of those late picks to move up to get one of those five or six players high on their board.
Either way, I feel pretty confident they’ll find a way to hit big on that one premium pick they do have.
