The Broncos’ 2020 draft class is in the books and it appears to be a pretty solid one.
They finished the class off with the second-to-last and fourth-to-last picks of the entire draft, using them to select defensive end Derrek Tuszka out of North Dakota State and wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland out of Florida, respectively.
The fact the Broncos were able to draft Tyrie Cleveland with the 252nd overall selection just shows the incredible depth of this wide receiver class. Cleveland has 4.4 speed, finished top-10 in the broad jump and vertical among receivers at the combine and has good size for the position too at 6’2”, 209 pounds.
Despite having all the physical tools, Cleveland is a raw prospect. He struggled with drops in college, and while that was much less of an issue in 2019, he could still use some improvement there. Also, while he had a fairly diverse route tree in college, he is by no means a crisp route-runner, so he should be paying close attention to Jerry Jeudy in training camp.
After Cleveland, came Tuszka, who was an outlier compared to the rest of the Broncos’ draft. This year, Denver seemed to bank on athleticism and speed over production, but Tuszka does not fit that mold.
Tuszka is a subpar athlete for an edge-rusher with shorter arms than you’d like, so Denver could choose to move him inside, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in production and technique.
He racked up 29.5 sacks for the Bison over his collegiate career, averaging just under 10 a season. He doesn’t get to the quarterback with speed like Von Miller, or power like Bradley Chubb, but instead relies on his hands to keep opposing offensive linemen from engaging.