Thread: Elway's 7 drafts on the offensive side of the ball

Originally Posted by Tbolt

Well, for one, I think people 'over rate' just how knowledgeable sports GM's are in general.

Elway has done a good job managing the cap, and working FA. Can't evaluate/draft the Offensive side of the ball. You would think whatever metric he applies to Defense would work on Offense too, but apparantly it doesn't work that way. Ironically Shanahan was Aces on drafting Offense but completely sucked on the Defensive side. Again, just strange you can be so good on one side of the ball and so bad on the other.

Shanahan didn't draft his great teams, he got them via FA. In those days few teams were competing for FAs since it was new and lots of teams insisted on drafting and developing their own players instead of paying established veterans. Shanahan was able to sign HOF LT Gary Zimmer, pass rushing DE Neil Smith, and LB Big Alfred Williams, FAs like Tony Jones, Ed McCaffrey, etc., etc. Today doing that would bust the bank. No team could afford it.

When his original players aged and retired Shanahan was unable to find equal quality replacements in FA because other teams were competing with him and driving up the prices, and because the team was mediocre, so penalized to always pick in the middle of the draft. He failed spectacularly with various picks too which hastened his departure. But, his biggest failure was the failure to draft a QB who was able to save his job.

Orlando Franklin was a good pick, I’d take him now and plug him in at LG.

Jeremy Beal was a DE.

Klis with the troll job:

http://www.9news.com/mobile/article/...best/494620918

Counting games started/played? Lame.

Btw, some have always been pointing out the fact that the P*triots suck at drafting too.

Originally Posted by Jaded

Counting games started/played? Lame.

I know right? Just because a draft pick never played doesn't mean he was a bad draft pick!

Originally Posted by foco

That would actually be a good snarky point if the Steelers and Patriots front offices didn't exist. Must be some sort of East Coast magic.

The Steelers and Patriots are perfect examples of how the NFL works. They have Hall of Fame QBs. If you have a HOF QB you can make up for a lot of misses in both draft and FA.

Notice that when Peyton was here, the OL looked a lot better than now? Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch don't make anybody look better than they are: quite the reverse.

Well, the Paxton Lynch era is now officially at an end. They can't force the poor lad out there again after this performance! He is just totally beaten down and broken. They might as well release him, although I'm sure Elway will try and keep him around for another season, holding down a backup QB spot. But, he will be praying he never has to get in a game.

Originally Posted by MOtorboat

Klis with the troll job:

http://www.9news.com/mobile/article/...best/494620918

Klis picked a single statistic: the number of games the draft picks have played. That's not totally irrelevant but the number of games started doesn't tell you anything about how good that player was. A below average player who doesn't have any competition on a bad team starts for 2 years = 32 games "started". But, because he sucks that doesn't mean much.

A more useful measure is how many first and second round players Elway drafted have become dependable starters (more than 2 seasons starting).

His draft history isn't great, but it isn't terrible either if you look only at first and second round picks:

2017:
LT Garrett Bolles - Bolles sucks, but he's a rookie they threw into the fire at LT. He'll get better with more experience.
DE DeMarcus Walker - Walker hasn't seen the field, but he's promising.

2016:
Paxton Lynch - Paxton was a bust, but he was highly regarded.
Adam Gotsis - Gotsis looked useless last year but is starting this season.

2015:
Shane Ray - Not playing well this year, but he has shown tremendous promise and he is starting
Ty Sambrailo - Sambrailo's career in Denver was shortened by injuries. Still a busted 2nd round pick.

2014:
Bradley Roby - Starting nickel CB so a success there.
Cody Latimer - FAilure as a #3 WR but special teams ace, so a disappointment as a 2nd rounder, but not useless.

2013:
Sylvester Williams - Both totally useless.
Montee Ball - Both totally useless. Worst Elway draft!

2012:
Derek Wolfe (2nd)
Brock Osweiler - Once again, a useless bust, but that's not surprising given his draft position late in the 2nd round. Taking a QB there is trying to pull off an inside straight in poker. Great if it works, but normally it doesn't. The Broncos needed a QB and nobody thought to take Russell Wilson until the 3rd round.

2011:
Von Miller - Obviously Hall of Fame career
Rahim Moore - Bust and out of football
Orlando Franklin - He started the last 2 years for the Chargers after being cut by Denver, and is currently backing up in DC. It's strange calling him a "bust" when he's a better player than anybody on the current Broncos OL at RT.

So, to sum up, Elway "wasted" two picks on QBs when Denver needed a QB. But, neither QB taken was badly thought of by other teams. About 1/2 of all 1st round QBs bust.

Rahim Moore and Montee Ball were terrible 2nd round picks. There are lots of other players taken ahead of Broncos draft picks, who would have been better.

But, all in all it looks like Elway's drafting was a "C" - if you ignore the QB busts. And it's proving impossible to predict when these QBs are going to be any good nowadays.