Boom or bust season is here; start pounding caffeine early Thursday morning – the Denver Broncos likely won’t pick in the first round until after your bedtime.
Can you feel it? ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOT… err, Roger Goodell getting booed?
The NFL Draft, like most things involving the shield, has officially hijacked the month of April – at least in the sports world. Talk all you want about the playoff games on the hardwood and the ice or opening day in baseball, this is the main event of our calendar’s fourth month.
And with the draft officially getting stretched as long as possible, what happens in primetime on Thursday night (round one) will be all the chatter on sports talk radio waves come Friday, the weekend and the majority of next week.
People care about the next first round star their team may have drafted, not about some sixth round project out of a Division II school they’ve never heard of.
The Broncos may or may not get a star at pick No. 31, the last selection on Thursday night (thanks, Deflategate), but general manager John Elway’s done pretty well for himself in the first round, or with Denver’s first pick in the draft.
Here’s his track record: Von Miller (mega-star), Derek Wolfe (star in the making), Sylvester Williams (underrated), Bradley Roby (severely underrated) and Shane Ray (gobs of potential).
Elway’s found some gems in the draft’s late rounds, too. Guys like Julius Thomas (Fourth), Virgil Green (Seventh), Malik Jackson (Fifth), Danny Trevathan (Sixth) and Matt Paradis (Sixth) have all been key pieces on either one or two Super Bowl teams over the last three years.
But it’s the middle picks that take place on Friday, during rounds two and three, which have really befuddled Elway. As Mile High Sports president James Merilatt likes to point out, Elway might as well have played golf the second day of the draft some of the past few years.
Believe it or not, No. 7’s track record with picks Nos. 2 and 3 for the Broncos has actually gotten worse the last couple of drafts. Here’s the complete list of who Elway’s selected in those rounds (excluding Wolfe, who was the team’s first selection in 2012) since he took the reins of the organization:
2011 – Rahim Moore, Orlando Franklin
2012 – Brock Osweiler, Ronnie Hillman
2013 – Montee Ball, Kayvon Webster
2014 – Cody Latimer, Michael Schofield
2015 – Ty Sambrailo, Jeff Heuerman
Take a moment.
If you just ate breakfast and then read that list, whatever you chowed down on may be on its way back up.
Those 10 selections are, on the whole, not ideal.
There’s no need to break down all of those guys’ contributions to the Broncos (or lack thereof), but here are some notable summaries:
Rahim Moore – Maybe the most infamous Broncos player of all time and also arguably the only reason Peyton Manning didn’t win multiple rings during his stint in Denver. No one wants to re-live the Mile High Miracle; let’s move on.
Montee Ball – Fans groaned when Elway picked Ball over Pro Bowler-to-be Eddie Lacy; their gripes were correct from the start. While Lacy battles weight problems, Ball’s battling problems much more severe right now. Denver cut him after two underwhelming years, his life has spiraled out of control since.
Michael Schofield – About the only topic hotter in Denver last season than the QB situation was why in the world Michael Schofield was still playing. The kid from Michigan, somehow thrust into a starting role, was overwhelmed all year, including the brutal five sacks he helped allow in an embarrassing 15-12 loss to the Raiders at home.
Ty Sambrailo / Jeff Heuerman – Injuries happen, of course they’re a part of football, but Sambrailo and Heuerman did pretty much nothing in their rookie years to contribute to the Broncos Super Bowl run. They spent more than 20 games combined on injured reserve and Sambrailo played in just three contests, Heuerman in zero.
The point is, plain and simple, Elway needs to get better on the Friday of the draft.
Miss after miss in those early and crucial rounds will eventually catch up to him. In fact, it’s a minor miracle the team won the Super Bowl a year ago with so little production from mid-round guys.
Brock Osweiler, Kayvon Webster and Ronnie Hillman did help the Broncos win it all last year, but none of those guys was the best on the roster at their position, and all had done virtually nothing before 2015.
While you stay up late tomorrow, itching to find out who Denver will take at No. 31, go ahead and set the DVR for Friday’s portion of the draft as well. If recent history continues, the guys the Broncos take on that night won’t be future Ring of Famers, but every trend (good and bad) has to end at some point.
Maybe John Elway will get a good night’s rest after round one and be ready to buck his underwhelming Friday reputation.
It’s about time rounds two and three came with booms and not busts.