I’m honestly over the moon with this trade happening today.

It has been a long, bumpy ride through the outlands, Broncos Country. With one deft trade, George Paton has the Broncos back in the hunt.

For me as a fan, I’m absolutely bat-shit ecstatic to watch the Broncos play football in 2022. The quarterback that I thought was only a dream actually is coming to play for our team and it is going to change everything.

Opinion on the trade details

Seahawks receive:

2022 picks:

1st round (9th)

2nd round (40th)

5th round (151st)

2023 picks:

1st round pick

2nd round pick

Players:

Drew Lock

Shelby Harris

Noah Fant

Broncos receive:

Russell Wilson

4th round pick (114th)

I do not think for even a second that the Broncos gave up too much. We still have a stockpile of picks because of some really savvy trading by Paton to use with 1 2nd, 2 3rds, 2 4ths, a 5th, and a 7th round pick in 2022.

Wilson is a quarterback in his prime who could play for another 10 years. If this team can put an offensive line in front of him, we’ll be doing a lot of winning for a long time.

As far as the players lost, Shelby Harris hurts. We watched that guy turn himself into one hell of a player here in Broncos Country. He’s a beast up front and his ability to bat down passes is going to be sorely missed by this fan (I can argue he’s the best in the league at it).

Noah Fant on the other hand I think is a fine piece to trade away. I think Albert Okwuegbunam looks just as good as a route runner and can bring play-making ability to the TE position for us at the same level Fant did. I do think Noah Fant is an NFL quality starting tight end if you will scheme him for catching passes. We’ll see if he can ever round into shape for the Seahawks.

Drew Lock getting traded is addition by subtraction. Honestly, we probably threw in the 2023 2nd round pick so that the Hawks would take him off our hands. I wish him the best. I think he’s got a possible long career ahead of him being a backup quarterback in the NFL.

Priorities have changed

Now that the team has a legitimate quarterback starting for it, they will need to go after a few key pieces in free agency.

1) A starting right tackle

2) A starting edge player plus one rotational

3) At least one starting ILB

I do think our offensive line has some good players on it that looked poor due to lackluster coaching in 2021. I like Bolles, Risner, and Glasgow as a core. I think Cushenberry is average and we need a long term answer at right tackle.

Our pass rush is an absolute dumpster fire and needs more than one player. I’m a big fan of using a chunk of our cap space to sign a starting edge player. I’m also all about seeing Von Miller back home and in my dream world, he’d be a rotational player, not necessarily out there every down.

Our defense has been in dire need of an upgrade at ILB for years and we need it to happen now. It can help with pass rush, crossing routes, and tight end coverage if we get the right guy.

We’ll dig in more as the offseason goes on, but let’s hear from you, Broncos Country. I’m super curious to see what you would target as your top three positions to get in free agency.

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Russell Wilson to the Broncos -- Making sense of the Seahawks' trade, Denver's Super Bowl hopes with its new QB and what's next
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Christian McCaffrey trade: Panthers have high asking price for star RB - Sports Illustrated
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