Thread: Broncos draft grade: A

I would disagree. The only tackle with any late 2nd value after Bolles, Ramczyk and Robinson were gone was Moton. And that dude is straight right tackle material. As "bad" as the top 3 LT's are played out to be, the drop off after them is twice as bad.

Originally Posted by CoachChaz

I would disagree. The only tackle with any late 2nd value after Bolles, Ramczyk and Robinson were gone was Moton. And that dude is straight right tackle material. As "bad" as the top 3 LT's are played out to be, the drop off after them is twice as bad.

Agree with this. If you wanted a LT (especially a potential Day 1 starter) it had to be one of the top-3.... and even then the "LT" part of that might be in question.

I think all 3 will be LT day one with bolles and Robinson being the better of the 3. Just glad we got us a LT and can finally put a end to the QB worrying about getting smacked in the back every play, and quite frankly I think well have a top 10 OL this year, it's improved all across the board imo.

The only real battle will be Watson vs sambrello for the RT spot and I think both are more than capable since sambrello finally bulked up and got stronger which he needed and he's healthy 100%, Watson always had the talent but injury issues. Should be interesting in camp!

Originally Posted by Cugel

The Grade on Bolles is: *Meh* - incomplete. He could be really good, but the fact he fell all the way to #20 tells you that he was not as high on any team's draft board as the top tackle in the draft normally is.

ALL Tackles fell that far. And the highly touted Cam Robinson didn't even get drafted until round 2. That should tell you something. Out of all of the Tackles in this years draft maybe Bolles has the most upside.

Originally Posted by CoachChaz

I would disagree. The only tackle with any late 2nd value after Bolles, Ramczyk and Robinson were gone was Moton. And that dude is straight right tackle material. As "bad" as the top 3 LT's are played out to be, the drop off after them is twice as bad.

I agree with you completely coach. When you look at the way that the draft played out. There was so much depth at other positions and so little depth at tackle that you had to draft a tackle in the first round if you really wanted one that could potentially be a starter.

Three LT's had first round grades on them. Unfortunately if you took the first one, the one you deemed best, that one would have been the third through fifth LT in prior years.

I wanted Ramcyzk, who was the most skilled of them all. Maybe the least talented. People are saying he's already being a RT, but forget that NO already has a good LT. All I know is that we didn't literally take the BPA, and I don't like that. But in this instance, it was the only logical move that existed. It's hard to ding the pick when a legit guy was taken. The rest of the draft was money. I was going nuts when we didn't take Butts as early as I thought, but Elway read the draft board clear as day. The teams that had already taken a TE had other issues to address. The teams that were ahead of us mostly had the TE position taken care of, so they were less likely to roll the dice on a mending guy.

The only pick I don't like is the third rounder. You should be able to find special teams players later in the draft.

That second round pick...man that was money.

The way they (coaches) are talking is Langley is going to be all pro when they are done with him. So im willing to see how he progresses as the year goes on.

Originally Posted by Von Kinger

Three LT's had first round grades on them. Unfortunately if you took the first one, the one you deemed best, that one would have been the third through fifth LT in prior years.

I wanted Ramcyzk, who was the most skilled of them all. Maybe the least talented. People are saying he's already being a RT, but forget that NO already has a good LT. All I know is that we didn't literally take the BPA, and I don't like that. But in this instance, it was the only logical move that existed. It's hard to ding the pick when a legit guy was taken. The rest of the draft was money. I was going nuts when we didn't take Butts as early as I thought, but Elway read the draft board clear as day. The teams that had already taken a TE had other issues to address. The teams that were ahead of us mostly had the TE position taken care of, so they were less likely to roll the dice on a mending guy.

The only pick I don't like is the third rounder. You should be able to find special teams players later in the draft.

That second round pick...man that was money.

Great assessment King

This was a draft for guys with nasty attitudes on the field, who are great competitors and who have growth left to get in their games. That played out all the way through Mr. Irrelevent. Bolles is a nasty guy who gets flags for it. They might have to teach him the finer points of the position but he's got the athleticism and attitude to make it work. Walker is a hungry pass-rusher who likes to dine on manflesh...er, QBs, and has definitely done that the last 2 years. Carlos Henderson was one of my draft sleepers and Elway said he was their 5th WR, which is pretty impressive when you see where the first 3 went. He should be able to play outside as well as in the slot and while killing it in the return game.

Langley might be a special teamer right now, but if he's coachable he's got a ton of natural talent. I was completely indifferent to him until I saw all the twitter mock drafters lose their shit about him being gone (because they wanted to snipe him in the 4th). I still can't make a call on him based on his ability, but I don't think Denver overdrafted him. He wasn't gonna be there in the fourth and Butts made it to the 5th. So I hope that scouting call works out. Butt has the right attitude and is another guy who fell for health reasons. If he's healthy in October he's EXACTLY what the Broncos have been missing in the middle of the field.

McKenzie is my least favorite pick of the draft, and it's pretty impressive when a slot guy and kickoff return demon who is ultra-productive on offense is somebody I'm not a huge fan of. High expectations I guess, but he can absolutely turn into a starter and key roster piece too. De'Angelo Henderson should get good work on ST, and as a change-of-pace guy out of the backfield (or at least fresh guy with good wheels). I love the way he catches the ball and his open field movement is terrific for a guy built like a fire plug. He should be fun.

And then Chad Kelly: a guy with the brains of a hyena and the arm of a Greek god. If he can do something about his idiocy and stay healthy he's got the physical talent to be a starter in this league without question. That's damn impressive out of the last pick in the draft (if only Elway had felt that way about La'el Collins a couple years ago and used a 7th on him).

It's a draft without glaring weaknesses or immediate superstars, but they could have several starters and rotation players with everyone making roster. What's not to like? If we're lucky it'll compare to the 2006 draft class (Cutler, Scheffler, Doom, Kuper, Marshall and Hixon). God, I can only hope it does.

Bring on Rookie camp.

G, I think that the Collins none selection might have influenced Elway this time around on Kelly.

Collins who? The cowboys linemen?

Originally Posted by Von Kinger

G, I think that the Collins none selection might have influenced Elway this time around on Kelly.

Collins agent threatened to hold out and potentially re-enter next draft if any team had taken him after the 3rd round. Teams avoided Collins for that reason along with the whole name popping up in a murder case right before the draft.

Originally Posted by UnderArmour

Collins agent threatened to hold out and potentially re-enter next draft if any team had taken him after the 3rd round. Teams avoided Collins for that reason along with the whole name popping up in a murder case right before the draft.

It was known that he wasn't involved in the murder. That had been established, IIRC. If he was going to play as a UDFA, which is what he signed as, I doubt he would have actually held out. Regardless, taking him on a seventh would have been a low risk (almost no risk) with insanely high reward.

I think any draft grade that happens right after the draft is suspect, since we're not really going to know anything for a while.

That being said, I really liked what we did in this draft. I wasn't really thinking about Walker for our second round pick, but I like it. We always need pass rushers, but instead of drafting another OLB, we took a solid DE who can rush and hopefully defend the run (a poor man's Wolfe would be fine with me for now). I LOVED the Carlos Henderson pick - I disagree with King about him being dismissed as a special teamer. He is a 200 pound WR who had great production in college. He broke 48 tackles last year. He should immediately contribute and be our default slot guy from day one. I also loved the Butt selection (the value there is great) even if he can't be up to speed right away. Also loved Kelly as Mr. Irrelevant. The risk/reward ratio is way in our favor at that pick.

If I'm nitpicking, we probably drafted Langley too early, but if he develops the way they think he can, I can see it. I also would rather have not drafted the next Trindon Holliday when we could have used maybe another OL or DL for depth there. But we'll see.

But this draft will be remembered by the first rounder - if Bolles is at least a solid starter, we did well. If he sucks, we'll regret not drafting Foster or moving up slightly for Howard. I'm on the record as wanting Cam Robinson if we had our pick, but I think Bolles will work out fine. I always loved the attitude. Let's find out if that translates to the NFL.

Can't wait to see this team in action this year.

Originally Posted by Von Kinger

It was known that he wasn't involved in the murder. That had been established, IIRC. If he was going to play as a UDFA, which is what he signed as, I doubt he would have actually held out. Regardless, taking him on a seventh would have been a low risk (almost no risk) with insanely high reward.

Right, it was clear from the start that he had zero involvement by there local police department. I wish we had took the flyer on him in the later rounds.