The Broncos in the 17th Round and Wrapping up Their Draft History

Since the 17th round history of the Denver Broncos is pretty short, I decided to go back and revue the entire draft history series being completed today. This will congregate the results into one area for future reference.

To review and enable this post to stand alone, I have used a chart developed by Chad Reuters of NFL Draft Scout. Former Broncos General Manager Ted Sundquist had it listed on his site footballeducator.com.

The basis for success according to Mr. Reuters, is that a player who makes 56 (or more) starts in his first five years, has given the team he was drafted by a good return on their investment on his rookie contract. Even though the new Collective Bargaining Agreement now sets all rookie contracts at 4 year terms. There is an exception with the 1st rounders for a 5th year option.

Now for the 17th round.

10 players were drafted in the 17th round by the Broncos.

Only one of them appeared in uniform for the Orange and Blue. Boyd Brown, a Tight End taken with the 432nd pick in 1974, played from 1974-77. He appeared in 46 games and caught one pass for 14 yards.

In total, 266 players were drafted in the 17th round from 1967 through 1993.


One player was an All-Pro. Another went to the Pro Bowl once.

Somewhat surprisingly, 17 players were the primary starter at their position.
6 were the primary starter at their position for 5 or more seasons and one was a 10 year starter.

10 players started 20 or more games.
3 players started 56 or more games (1.1%).
1 player started 100 or more games.

17 players appeared in 50 or more games.
10 players appeared in 75 or more games.
5 players appeared in 100 or more games.
1 player appeared in 153 games.
224 players never appeared in any games for a 84.2% washout rate.

The results show the reason why the draft was shortened to it’s present length of 7 rounds. 84% of the players selected, didn’t pan out at all and only 1% were successful. The long drawn out process probably had a determining factor in abbreviating the process as well.

Here is where it all gets tied together. The next two Tables show the history of success for each round. The first Table is the overall totals for the league and the second Table will show the Broncos results.
Reading across the categories from left to right are the Draft Round, the amount of players drafted in that round, how many All-Pros were selected, how many went to a Pro Bowl, how many were the primary starter at their position for 5 or more years, how many started 56 or more games, how many never played in the league and how many were Hall of Famers. This took some extra time because I had not figured each round the same. So I went back and amended each round to include the years from 1967-2008.


NFL Draft Success

Broncos Draft Success

Here are the links to this series:

The Broncos 1st Round Draft Pick History

The Broncos 2nd round Draft History

The 3rd Round Draft Pick History of the Denver Broncos