Denver Broncos History: The 2000-2011 Draft Report Card

Over the past week or so we've gone over each years draft since 2000. An entire decade +1 of draft picks. You've seen the breakdowns and you've graded the results. We have collected the voting grades and it's time to put it all into one report card; a report card of grades by the fans.

So here's how this works. After the jump I have provided each poll from years 2000-2011 with the exception of 2001 when we hadn't quite locked down the poll idea yet. I've provided a final grade based on a completely unscientific method taken straight out of Jane Doe the Science.. Lady. To give you a little insight into how that worked, I took the grade with highest number of votes in each poll and used that as the base grade. I then simply used the grade above and below to adjust some grades to a +/- if there was a strong secondary consensus one way or the other.

Pretty straightforward right? That's what I'm going for.

So, without further adieu, here are your final 2012 Draft Grades looking back over the past decade.

Year	Final Grade
2000	B-
2001	D
2002	B-
2003	F
2004	D
2005	D+
2006	A+
2007	D-
2008	B
2009	D
2010	B
2011	B+
Final GPA	2.3

The Denver Broncos draft history is a lock for the nearest community college. Breakdowns and commentary are next. In case you missed any of the draft years, I've included links to all draft classes reviewed from 2000-2011. Here's how this past decade broke down.

The 2000 Draft:

MHR Reaction:

• That was one of Shanny’s better drafts. He started going down hill from there I think. - bfree2bronc
• Gave it a B. Only because we had trouble keeping many of these guys past their rookie contracts. When we did this excercise last year, that was what struck me. Shanny’s reputation as a poor drafter wasn’t particularly true… he just often failed to invest in keeping enough younger vet talent around which created a bit of a revolving door without ever letting the team advance… - cjfaris
  

The 2001 Draft MHR Reaction:

Author Note: Due to the fact we missed the poll this year I am taking the liberty to assign this year a grade based on the general note of the comments. That grade is a solid D... probably should be a D-.

• Man, this really was a poor draft for us... - Scheck
• Scary stuff indeed... This really shows how a bad draft can set a team back. - broncofaninIL
• Needless to say there was talent in the 2001 draft, but unfortunately the Denver Broncos chose to go in another direction - Jezru

The 2002 Draft:

MHR Reaction:

• We essentially picked Champ Bailey and Tatum Bell with our second round pick in 2002. Can't get much better than that, if you ask me. The rest of this draft is fairly forgettable, though. Is the Clinton Portis pick enough to qualify this draft as an A? - Troy Hufford
• No one played past their rookie contract for the Broncos. Obviously you have to take into consideration what Portis brought in the trade. I think it’s a fail without Champ so I gave it a D. - broncofaninIL
• Any draft that enables you to acquire a HOFer to me is an A. - Beave35

The 2003 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• This had to of been one of the WORST in franchise history! omg I'm first!!! - Broncs55
• F. Truly an embarassment… the other Shanny drafts weren’t bad, but this one truly has almost no redeeming qualities… even if you take the injuries out, it would still look bad. - cjfaris
• This draft might be the biggest reason for our decline in '06. - Triz06

The 2004 Draft:

MHR Reaction:

• Not great. But Williams and Bell played at their value, and that makes this draft a decent one, though the mid and lower picks really struggled. - Topher Doll
• Grade was a D, but I give it a F for near total failure... - bfree2bronc
• In school anything under 65 percent was a fail, even if 1 or 2 of your answers was really good. - Baghdad. In Response: In France, anything over 50% is passing... That being said this was still a fail. - SoCalBronco1998 (Yes, we failed even by French standards)

The 2005 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• I think that this year is indicative of Shanny's impatience with his draft picks... I called it a C, but without Williams it was a F because Shanahan didn’t give the players time to mature before tossing them aside. - BroncoCanuck
• i say C as they drafted 3 NFL starters who got a second contract, but only 1 with the Bronco’s. - sbhchawk
• Clarret wasn't the biggest bust, not anywhere close. He was taken with a compensatory pick and the Broncos didn't have a 4th round pick. Meh. - ConradA

The 2006 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• This draft had the potential to be one of the best the Broncos ever did. Its hard to say if this draft was good because the best players out of this draft are not on the Broncos anymore. Cutler, Scheffler, and Marshall were great here and just as good at their teams now but are no longer here so is it a good draft? I still would grade it high. We got Dumervil and Kuper out of it as well. - Colby
• This was Shannys best draft. solid A. - Calikula
• I think this was the best draf ever for the Broncos... A for sure. - Fabio Broncos
• Can anyone thing of a better draft ever, by any team? I'm sure there is one, but still. - broncoboy326

The 2007 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• Wow what a bad draft. - Mike Agnew
• All reaches for a positions of need and a lot of character isues. - bleedbroncos
• D and a D minus at that. As beautiful as 2006’s draft was, Shanny did a total 180 in this one. - Calikula
• C because the first round was a terrible reach. It feels a lot worse because I’m reminded about a bunch of drafts where the promise of the defensive selections never materialized. - cosBroncosFan
• Moss and Crowder would have earned my "F," but Harris and Thomas brought it back up to a “D.” Just not a good draft at all. - AZDynamics

The 2008 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• The 2008 NFL Draft marked the beginning of the end of the Shanahan era in Denver. The solid acquisition of Clady, Larsen, and Royal, added to the productive pick of Hillis tends to balance out the misses on Lichtensteiger, Williams, Powell and Barrett. I would rank this draft as a C. - Brian Shrout
• I say A. Considering all but one are still in the league, pretty damn good draft. - ConradA
• This draft was where Shanahan changed his draft strategy, and started taking higher character players. It could have went down in history as one of the best of all-time if Shanahan didn’t get fired, and if guys would have stayed healthy. - PABroncofan
• Considering we only had 2 picks in the top 50 this was a better than average draft. I said A… but probably just a B+. - Triz06

The 2009 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• Reaches and busts all over the place. What a train wreck of a draft. - MrFNSunshine
• Gave it D, but could be an F if Ayers and Moreno flop this year. - AtomicLeo
• I voted D because we basically got 1 average starter and 2 role players. - Orange Rush
• I voted F because the only players left on the team are rotational players. - BroncoMath101

The 2010 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• Gave it a B. I think it would have been an A if not for all the wheeling and dealing of picks McD did. Get TT at 22 and wait til the second for DT. But a good draft nonetheless, and certainly better than 2009. - Calikula
• Too early to grade... Not bad so far though. Like to grade this at the end of next year. - metalman5050
• Don't understand how this could be graded anywhere above B-. I graded it a C - cohiker (In Response) "Wow, you're like the East German judge... all the other judges 8! East German judge 5." - BroncoCanuck (because that really made me laugh)
• It's too early to grade, honestly... Provisionally, I’d give this draft a B as long as Walton, Beadles, Thomas, and Decker continue to start for us. If one of them develops into a great player, then maybe it would be an A. If some of them drop out of the league or turn into career backups, the grade could drop. - Orange Rush

The 2011 Draft:

MHR Reaction

• Got to give the draft an "A" just because of Von Miller. He's a difference maker and those are hard to find. - ElwayFanJ
• We should also say it was the first year for EFX together and with as good as they did its impressive. I say they get a solid B. - CenCalBronco
• I just love how we picked 2nd that year now we are picking 25th. Gotta love the direction this team is going. - Earthtiger24