Will the Denver Broncos move up in the 2025 NFL Draft?

That’s the report coming out of Adam Schefter on Monday, saying Denver’s been calling around.

Meanwhile, few others have been interested in moving up this year, and Sean Payton has a history of doing so.

Will the Denver Broncos move up in the 2025 NFL Draft, specifically the first round?

Sean Payton likes to move up in the draft. In fact, he loves moving up in the draft.

According to DenverBroncos.com, Payton moved up 22 times in his last 13 drafts. He’s also moved down only three times.

The report that Denver is looking to move up continues to build, as general manager George Paton said he’s talked with almost every other GM in the league already. But that is also typical of any draft.

“We’ve made calls — this week you make a lot of calls and then next week [are] the more serious calls,” Paton said Thursday. “‘Hey, if this player is here, we want to move up,’ or what have you. I’ve talked to most [general managers] in the NFL to set the table or set the plan of, ‘Hey, if your player is here and you move up, what’s the range?’ You start talking parameters. It gets more serious next week and then really draft day. Sometimes, you haven’t heard from a team and someone just really wants to come up and they are aggressive [because] their player is there.”

It should be noted, that while Sean Payton loves moving up, George Paton is more likely to move down than up. He’s moved up twice and back four times as the GM going back to 2021.

But will the Denver Broncos move up in the 2025 NFL Draft, specifically the first round?

After going back and looking through Payton’s drafts with the Saints from 2011-2021, New Orleans moved up five times in 11 drafts. That’s 45.5% of the time.

Who did they move up to get?

2011, RB Mark Ingram

Traded 2011 2nd and 2021 1st for No. 28, which they used on Ingram. He had a great 12-year career, mostly with the Saints, as a deft runner and receiver.

2014, WR Brandin Cooks

Traded their 1st (No. 27) and 3rd (No. 91) to the Cardinals for No. 20 and selected Cooks. Cooks played three years under Payton and enjoyed two with 1,100 yards and 8-plus touchdowns.

2015, ILB Stephone Anthony

Traded Jimmy Graham and a 4th (No. 112) for Max Unger and a 1st (No. 31). They used the pick on Stephone Anthony, who started his entire rookie season before fading into obscurity.

2017, OT Ryan Ramczyk

Traded Brandin Cooks and a 4th to the Patriots for a 1st (No. 32) and a 3rd (No. 103). They moved back into the first round to land Ramczyk who seemed like the best tackle of the class. That same draft Denver took Garett Bolles at No. 20. Ramczyk earned First-Team All-Pro in 2019 but ultimately retired after only seven years in the league.

2018, DE Marcus Davenport

Traded 1st (No. 27) and 5th (No. 147) and 2019 1st (No. 30) to the Packers for 1st (No. 14). They used that pick to take Davenport, who didn’t really pan out. At least, not as a first-round talent. He had 21.5 sacks for the Saints in five years before moving on to Minnesota and Detroit.

Moving up doesn’t guarantee a star player

As we see from those times Payton moved up in the first round, grades and evaluations of players can still be off.

Davenport and Anthony were busts. But Ingram is the second-leading rusher in Saints history, just recently surpassed by Alvin Kamara. Cooks was good for them before being traded as part of that Ramczyk draft, who was a great tackle before retiring unexpectedly.

Ultimately, the coach and GM need to have a great feeling about who they’re moving up to get. Because picking earlier in the first round is pricey.

So, will the Denver Broncos move up in the 2025 NFL Draft?

It depends on if their target guy is around, likely in the teens, since that wouldn’t be a massive jump up the board.

Running back Ashton Jeanty looked to be a target for a while, but that was before Dallas started targeting him at No. 13. Now, some have Jeanty going as high as No. 6, which is too rich for Denver’s blood.

They could move up to take one of the top tight ends, Colston Loveland or Tyler Warren. Depending on what big board you check out, Warren and Loveland are either No. 1 or 2 at the position this year. Most boards have them in the teens, some have both of them in the Top 10. So, it seems likely they’d have to move up for one of those guys. Daniel Jeremiah says the Broncos “have a love affair” with Loveland, too.

While Denver signed veteran tight end Evan Engram this offseason, Loveland or Warren could be the future of the position in the Mile High City. And as we’ve seen with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, a top-tier tight end makes a huge difference in a team’s offense.

Another player the Broncos could move up for is Emeka Egbuka, the receiver out of Ohio State. Mina Kimes loves the prospect of Denver taking the 6’1″ receiver as an intermediate route runner. Some big boards have him as high as 18, others have him in the 30s. So they might not have to move up to take him if he’s their guy.

And then there’s running back Omarion Hampton who’s received some hype as of late and moved up boards. Daniel Jeremiah has him at No. 13 overall, meaning Denver would need to trade up. But it’s certainly possible he falls to No. 20.

The first round of the 2025 NFL Draft kicks off on Thursday night at 6 p.m. MT.