The Denver Broncos 2026 draft was disappointing.
Yes, they traded their first-round pick for Jaylen Waddle, which was a phenomenal move.
That left them with a second-round pick, and when multiple of their would-be players were plucked off the board, they moved back to the third. They settled for defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim, and the rest of the draft was a disappointment too.
Denver Broncos 2026 draft disappoints, team’s selections ranked 26th
NFL Draft grades are great when they support your team, and they are nonsense when they are critical of it.
Sure, grades coming immediately after the draft are silly. They’re guesses, predictions, assumptions about how players will pan out.
And when all the grades came in from across the nation, the Broncos were seventh-worst among all NFL teams.
This visualization from Rene Bugner shows just that. Denver is down in 26th, with the grading scale going from softest to hardest in terms of how each publication grades teams.
2026 NFL Draft Team GradesIn my annual draft grades round-up, I have compiled 24 different evaluations and calculated the GPA for all 32 teams.I sorted the evaluations by GPA as well. From left (soft) to right (hard graders).Thanks to all who give out grades every year!
— René Bugner (@renebugner.bsky.social) 2026-04-27T11:34:46.358Z
What we can see here is one A-, 11 Bs, 11 Cs, and a D+. The Denver Broncos 2026 NFL Draft GPA calculates out to 2.51, which is a B-.
Personally, I’d go a little further in the negative direction and give the disappointing draft a C-.
As I said in the intro, the Broncos first pick was the biggest disappointment of them all. Onyedim was the 11th-best defensive tackle in the 2026 NFL Draft per ESPN, and their No. 111 overall rated player.
Of course, those rankings come with a grain of salt, but also, the first five defensive tackles selected were 1-4 and 6 per ESPN’s rankings. In other words, NFL teams saw the talent at the position the same way ESPN’s analysts did.
And therefore, Onyedim was a reach.
I say that knowing that sometimes a team will go get a player that fits their system no matter what anyone else thinks of him. That happened last year with Pat Bryant. He went at No. 74 to Denver but was their No. 163 overall player. There were a ton of receivers graded higher than Bryant when the Broncos took him.
But, he fit what Sean Payton wanted in a receiver and that seemed to work out at least decently well in his rookie season.
So, that’s not to say Onyedim won’t work out, but as for now, it looks like he’s competing for a backup position with Eyioma Uwazurike and Sai’vion Jones. Ideally, your top draft pick would come in and be a starter.
Yes, the Broncos got a bit unlucky, too.
Both linebacker Max Hill Jr. and tight end Max Klare were stolen in the two picks before the Broncos’ spot at No. 62. But it seems like they weren’t overly sold on either of them, instead just waiting back and seeing if they fell to Denver.
So, missing out on one of those impact players, likely to do something right away, is another reason why this was a disappointing draft for Denver.
On the positive side, the Broncos addressed needs
While I didn’t love the Onyedim pick, the next two-of-three picks were great.
Jonah Coleman is a big and bruising back who will backup J.K. Dobbins in the event that Dobbins is injured this year, as he has been every year of his career to this point. It was a perfect insurance policy for the Broncos after whiffing on multiple other free agent backs and trades for backs.
Justin Joly is the other pick I really liked from this Broncos draft. Joly represents another need, this time at tight end. Yes, the Broncos now have seven total tight ends on the roster—they drafted another later—but they don’t have a guy who could be the future at the position.
Joly is that. He will likely come in and get some snaps here and there, with Evan Engram as the starter and other guys like Adam Trautman ahead of him on the depth chart. But if Denver moves away from Engram after 2026 when his contract runs out, Joly may get a lot more snaps or become the starter.
The Broncos also got offensive tackle Kage Casey, who may be moved inside. That will help sure up the middle of the line in the near future, too. And they found depth pieces at safety and linebacker, too.
The short and sweet of this Broncos draft is they added depth to all parts of the roster. That’s huge when considering Denver was one game away from making the Super Bowl last year. They already have a championship roster, so keeping it rejuvenated going forward was important.
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