McShay names Riley Moss the Broncos’ best value pick of the 2023 NFL Draft

The Denver Broncos needed to make the most of their five picks in the 2023 NFL Draft and they largely did just that with multiple trades to get five players that could be impact guys down the road. They were all value picks, but which of the five would be considered the best value pick of the class?

That is a question that Todd McShay of ESPN set about to answer for each NFL team this week. For the Broncos, he settled on third-round pick Riley Moss.

Riley Moss, CB, Iowa (Round 3, No. 83)

It’s tough to really nail a draft when you have five picks and nothing before No. 63 (which Denver had to trade up to get on Friday night). The pick that stood out most to me was Moss, a 6-foot-1, 193-pound cornerback. Pat Surtain II is of course a star locking down one of the Broncos’ cornerback spots, but opposite him? Denver is looking for answers. So I can get behind a ball hawk at No. 83.

Moss totaled 11 interceptions and 23 pass breakups over his five seasons at Iowa. He’s a little tight, but he has the speed to turn and run with pass-catchers and the instincts to read the QB in zone looks. His frame allows him to compete with big receivers, but I could see him moving inside to a nickel role. Maybe he kicks back to safety, too, where Kiper has him projected. Regardless, Moss has the traits to really help this defense.

McShay clearly loved this pick, but I feel like he missed the mark a bit considering the whole point of this process was to find the ‘best value pick’ of the class. The Broncos gave up a 2024 third-round pick and their 2023 fourth-round pick to move up to select Riley Moss. That just doesn’t seem like a good value to me. Don’t get me wrong, Moss seems like he could be a good player. Good ‘value’ and good ‘player’ are not the same thing.

If I had to strictly look at the best value pick by the Broncos last weekend, I would have to go with Boise State safety JL Skinner. Some analysts had him in their Top 50 draft board and while that may have been overly optimistic considering many other analysts had him graded as a third or fourth round pick. Even so, the Broncos got him with the 183rd overall selection in the sixth-round.

To me, that shows me the Broncos got great value with their pick here. I would have gone that route over Riley Moss, especially with how much draft capital the Broncos had to give up to move up to get him.

What do you think about this? Discuss in the comments below and let me know who you think the ‘best value’ pick was for the Denver Broncos.