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Broncos give no draft love to the offensive line

Over the last five drafts the Broncos have spent the third least draft capital in the league on offensive line picks

NFL: Denver Broncos at Los Angeles Chargers Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

For the fifth straight NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos did not select an offensive tackle at any point during the draft. Unless you count Dalton Risner (who has never taken a snap at OT in the NFL) or Luke Wattenberg who is expected to be an interior offensive line player for the Broncos.

If you use the old draft pick value method (the Jimmy Johnson values) or the Fitzgerald-Spielberger values the Broncos have invested the third least draft capital in the offensive line over the last five drafts. The F-S values make it look a little less drastic because they assign much more value to day three picks than the JJ valuation chart, but it still shows that the Broncos have chosen to mostly build their offensive line through late round picks, free agents and undrafted guys. Note the values shown below are for 2018-2022 draft picks.

Below are the valuations of the offensive linemen that we have selected since the 2018 draft - inclusive.

Year Round Pick Player Position College/U. F-S value Old JJ Value
2018 6 183 Sam Jones G Arizona St. 360 18.2
2019 2 41 Dalton Risner G Kansas St. 1118 490
2020 3 83 Lloyd Cushenberry III C LSU 761 175
2020 6 181 Netane Muti G Fresno St. 366 19
2021 3 98 Quinn Meinerz G/C Wisconsin-Whitewater 676 108
2022 5 171 Luke Wattenberg OL Washington 394 23

Of course this timeframe leaves out the largest draft capital investment of the Broncos, drafting Garett Bolles with the 20th overall pick in 2017. The 20th pick has a values of 1482 by F-S and 850 by JJ. I’m sure the Broncos would jump up significantly if the study went back to 2017.

Do you think that the Broncos should have used more draft capital on the offensive line recently?

Poll

The Broncos have used _________ draft capital on the offensive line over the last 5 drafts.

This poll is closed

  • 35%
    Way too little
    (546 votes)
  • 50%
    too little
    (767 votes)
  • 12%
    the right amount
    (190 votes)
  • 0%
    too much
    (3 votes)
  • 0%
    way too much
    (15 votes)
1521 votes total Vote Now