Quarantine has left me bored out of my mind, and there’s only so much Overwatch and Madden one can play. As a result, I’ve done a lot of draft work, and while I mostly do mock drafts, I’m starting these new article types where I cover a few draft topics I want to pay attention to.

Javon Kinlaw at 15?

Thread on Javon Kinlaw pic.twitter.com/S6oVpsgvlg — NFL Film Review (@NFLFilmReview) April 8, 2020

Before free agency, I’d say Javon Kinlaw at 15 would be a slam dunk, exactly what the doctor ordered, home run pick, but our trade for Jurrell Casey, and resigning Shelby Harris muddles our need for D-Line. Is it still a need? Kind of, Jurrell Casey, Mike Purcell, and Shelby Harris aren’t exactly spring chickens, and Jurrell Casey is the only starter under contract for 2021 and beyond. It’s also likely that if the Broncos don’t trade up, Kinlaw might be BPA at 15 if he falls.

The Broncos also might be one of the most ideal locations for Kinlaw, he had a lot of very rough snaps and college, and really needs to work on polishing the technical aspects of his game before he can tap into his potential, Vic Fangio, Ed Donatell, and Bill Kolar are one of the best coaching trifectas to get that out of Kinlaw.





The best-managed teams in the NFL load up on the defensive line, and especially focus on depth. The Ravens recently acquired Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe to boost an already strong defensive line, the Colts valued DeForest Buckner enough to send their first-round pick for him, and the 49ers cruised to their Super Bowl appearance behind a terrifying D-Line rotation of Nick Bosa, DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead, Dee Ford, and Solomon Thomas. If the Broncos are serious about wanting to win in 2021, then they need to be serious about building D-Line depth.

Kinlaw can start the season out as a rotational piece for the Broncos if he’s not ready to start, and take up more snaps as he gets more acclimated to the NFL, and take over starting duties in year 2. Javon Kinlaw is my favorite prospect in the upcoming drafts, and personally I’d be extremely excited to see Kinlaw in orange and blue.

Henry Ruggs and Jeremy Chinn

Jeremy Chinn - Southern Illinois



- 6'3''

- 221 lbs

- 4.45 40 yard dash



Per @LanceZierlein

Strengths:

- Good size/athleticism combo

- Good ball skills

- Position versatility



Weaknesses:

- Lower competition level

- Needs to improve football IQ

- Slow to read keys at times pic.twitter.com/OtYDbFRKIx — Halas Hall Brawl Podcast ™️ (@HalasHallBrawl) April 10, 2020

As we inch closer to the draft, reports from insiders are pretty unanimous that the Broncos love Alabama’s Henry Ruggs, and recently Jeremy Chinn has been a name thrown around for us in the second round. Jeremy Chinn is a name thrown out from left-field, all offseason we’ve been hearing the offensive line and cornerback as our biggest needs outside of receiver, how does a safety make sense?





Chinn is more than just a safety, he’s almost a little version of Isaiah Simmons. If the Broncos are looking for an antidote for the Tight Ends in our division, Chinn could be a great selection. His stock has been rocketing up draft boards recently, it’s really been neutered by his play at a small school.

Henry Ruggs to the Broncos has been covered to death, there’s really nothing else I can add to the discussion. He makes a lot of sense for our offensive scheme and needs. I don’t know how comfortable I am trading up for him in this insanely stacked receiver class, but I also can’t say I’d complain if we ended up with him. Personally, Jerry Jeudy and CeeDee Lamb are higher up on my board, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them.





I’m not convinced that we’re "all in on him" since this time last year, we were all convinced that there was no way the Broncos would pass on Drew Lock at 10, and that it would be more likely that we end up trading up for him. It seems almost impossible Henry Ruggs falls as far as Drew Lock did just due to the nature of their positions, but I’m not convinced the Broncos have decided Henry Ruggs is the only player we should target in the first. We know now that Lock was the #1 QB on the Broncos draft board last year, and the only reason they passed on him was the trade for Joe Flacco. Ruggs is probably Denver's favorite receiver based on all the reports we've gotten on the team loving him, but don't be shocked if the Broncos go in a different direction round 1.





Broncos like Fant. If they trade down, look out. — Woody Paige (@woodypaige) April 25, 2019

Most importantly, it’s still way too far from the draft to put any stock in reports about the Broncos draft plans. Last year if I recall correctly, Woody Paige first reported the Broncos being interested in Noah Fant a few days before the draft commenced if they traded down. And even those reports would have been "wrong" if the Steelers decided to not trade up, and we end up with Michigan’s Devin Bush. It’s most likely true that the Broncos are interested in both players, and if I had to guess, I think the reports trace back to what the Broncos think will most likely happen during the NFL Draft, and who will be available where perhaps they use similar software to The Draft Network’s Mock Draft Machine and Henry Ruggs and Jeremy Chinn end up being the highest-rated players on their board at there picks.

I’m probably looking too far into this, but I hope we don’t put too much stock in these reports. I’m extremely interested to see what insiders like Paige and Mike Klis report in the upcoming days about the Broncos draft strategies.

Isaiah Simmons

Isaiah Simmons is a player that has been linked to the Broncos a couple of times, but not often. Simmons is widely considered a top 5 player in this class, so it makes sense, he’s way out of our draft range, you’ll almost never see him available at 15. Sow why am I talking about Isaiah Simmons here?





I think there’s a possibility that like Derwin James a couple of drafts ago, teams will pass on Isaiah Simmons because they don’t know what to do with him. A coach I trust to maximize Simmon’s talents is Vic Fangio. Giving Vic Fangio Isaiah Simmons is a match made in football heaven, honestly a pairing that could give Isaiah Simmons a golden jacket worthy career. Inside Linebacker is getting overvalued as a need for us, Alexander Johnson is a stud, and Todd Davis is a fine starter, but a good player should not stop us from chasing a great player.

I can’t see him falling to 15, I think the Raiders are his absolute floor. But if he falls towards the end of the top 10 picks, I’d start calling around and seeing if we can snag him. Every year there is a surprise player falling in the first round, and I would not be surprised if Simmons falls further than expected.

Community Mock Draft Summary

Denver Broncos offense in 2019

3rd down: 30th in the NFL

Redzone: 28th in the NFL



LSU WR Justin Jefferson in 2019

3rd down: 27 targets, 24 receptions, 17 1st downs, 6 TD

12 Redzone TDs (Most among draft eligible WRs)



I'd say this is a pretty good fit. — Daniel Jeremiah (@MoveTheSticks) April 11, 2020

Link to the mock if you'd like to follow along: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OPPE0e8QjKu-akw9cJrNfyYGqg5a2plHD0grJy4Kxfs/edit#gid=120880662

I’ve GMed for us in three of these recently, and have another big important one coming up. Ideally, I’d like to write about these as their own article, but considering I haven’t even finished the rough draft for the first one, I’m going to have to speed the process up a bit.





The first round was a nightmare scenario for us, there are about 12 prospects I’d feel comfortable with the Broncos taking at 15, not a single one of them was available for us when we were on the clock. Instead of panicking and taking CJ Henderson or Justin Jefferson, we leveraged Oregon’s Justin Herbert being on the board to squeeze a third out of the Dolphins to secure him. At our new pick, we scooped up LSU’s Justin Jefferson. Justin Jefferson is a player that has been undervalued by the Draft community since he’s not a member of the "big 3" but he’d be a great fit with the Broncos, a sentiment that’s been made more popular in the last couple of days. Jefferson would have tremendous success as a big slot receiver in the NFL, and his red-zone touchdown success could help out the Broncos relatively disappointing performance at the end of drives.





In the second, we picked out Bryce Hall and traded up for Lucas Niang. Both are prospects I’ve written about in the past, and my sentiments there still stands. Hall could almost instantly step in as a starter at cornerback, and Lucas Niang is a nice developmental piece for Munachak to mold. I had been talking with the 49ers about a trade for Solomon Thomas, but those trade deals stalled over the exact specifics. To compensate for this, we drafted Justin Madubuike. I talked earlier in this piece about why D-Line rotation is important, and that was the mentality we had for this pick. Madubuike would thrive as a rotational piece for us that can develop into a starter later. Matt Hennesey was the guy we almost drafted in Madubuike’s place, but he miraculously fall to our next third-round pick. Broncos lack a true center on the roster, and Hennesey could step into that role almost immediately.





In the latter rounds, we took a swing on the versatile weapon Lynn Bowden, stopped Brandon Jones from falling too far in the draft, and looked at just BPA for Justin Strnad, Keith Ismael, and Darrell Stewart. The final rounds of these community mocks almost always suck since any sleeper picks are scooped up very quickly, so you end up with a lot of names getting drafted that you’ve never heard of.

This draft went pretty well for us, the first 14 picks really sucked for us, but I felt we managed to turn the draft around after that. I don’t love every pick, and I can almost guarantee you that you don’t love every pick either, but that’s not the point of these mocks. For me, I always like seeing how my perspective on the draft gets challenged, prospects I don’t like and think will fall end up drafted way harder than I expect, players I feel very confident will be on the board when the Broncos are on the clock aren’t. Teams will make moves I would never do for them in my own mocks, namely the Dolphins skipping over Justin Herbert in this mock.

Uniform Redesign

Powder blue and orange?



I am aroused pic.twitter.com/vlLbyUitmN — Nick Kendell (@NickKendellMHH) April 2, 2020

This has nothing to do with the draft, but I just want to talk about it with the Buccaneers and Falcons recently revealing their new uniforms, and the Browns, Chargers, and Patriots soon to follow. The Broncos have not had a uniform change since 2012, almost a decade ago, when the orange uniforms were made the primary home uniform.

And forgive me if this is a controversial opinion, but the current Broncos uniforms look outdated as hell, and an update is desperately needed. I’d even go as far as to say that the logo could use an update as well. I’d like the Broncos to take an approach similar to the Buccaneers, take an older jersey, and clean it up for modern designs. Approaches like the Falcons and the Buccaneers old alarm clock uniforms will get outdated quickly, looking back at the classics is the way to do it in my mind. Take the jerseys from 1968-1996, update it, and we’ve got a great uniform. The color rush uniforms are a good start, but I’d also like to see the blue lightened up closer to a sky blue than a navy blue. It’s unlikely we see any update until Brittany Bowlen takes over ownership, but I can dream.

Conclusion

The draft is steadily approaching, and little tidbits are coming out, like the Jets and Raiders apparently both having CeeDee Lamb as WR1. It’s interesting seeing how the NFL landscape will develop in the upcoming days, and I’m excited to see how this draft develops for the Broncos. Last year I was shocked by us passing on Lock three times, and I expect more surprises in this draft.