The Sean Payton era has not gotten off to a great start, as the Denver Broncos are now 1-5 after falling to the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday Night Football.
There is plenty of turmoil surrounding the team at the moment, so let's take a break from all the uncertainty and look forward to the 2024 NFL Draft with a seven-round mock to kick off a full-blown rebuild for the Broncos.
We'll be using Pro Football Network's simulator for this mock, and there will be no trades this time.
Denver Broncos 2024 NFL mock draft: 7-round projection
Denver gave up a lot for Russell Wilson and signed him to a huge contract. But with each passing week, those moves are looking more and more like gigantic mistakes.
Wilson has thrown 12 touchdowns to four interceptions this season, but he's averaging just 7.1 yards per attempt, and while he is performing better than last year, he looks nothing like the player the Broncos thought they were adding. Wilson will be 35 in November and, although cutting him this offseason would lead to an impossible dead cap hit, it would save the team a lot of space both in 2024 and even more so down the road. So it is possible for Denver to cut its losses and move on.
Enter Drake Maye. The 21-year-old has been one of the most prolific passers in college football over the past two seasons and has the makings of a franchise cornerstone. He possesses excellent size at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, a cannon arm, and the ability to make plays off-schedule. He shows good pocket movement and a soft touch downfield and displays a good understanding of the finer mental aspects of the position.
Caleb Williams went first overall to the Chicago Bears in this mock, but the Broncos are more than happy to come away with Maye, setting their franchise on an entirely new course.
The Broncos could use some more talent on the defensive line, and Jenkins would certainly add that. The son of former All-Pro Kris Jenkins Sr., Jenkins Jr. doesn't have the rare size of his father, but he is an excellent prospect in his own right. Since becoming a starter for the Wolverines, Jenkins has logged 70 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and three sacks in 20 games as an interior lineman. He could very well end up as a first-round pick in April, but for now, he's available at the Broncos' second selection in this mock.
Denver has many needs, but the defensive line is one of the bigger ones. Given the team currently runs a 3-4 scheme, Jenkins likely wouldn't slot in as the nose tackle, but rather as a base end opposite Zach Allen. Jenkins is listed at 6-foot-3, 305 pounds on Michigan's roster, so that frame would work just fine as a DE.
The team's defensive line has totaled just 3.5 sacks on the year, with 2.5 coming from Allen, and adding Jenkins would not only improve the effectiveness of the down linemen, but also help out standup rushers Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper.
Jenkins won't be transformative for Denver, but that's not exactly what you're looking for from a third-round pick at the outset of a rebuild. What Jenkins would provide is a young and talented defender who could be a foundational piece of the defensive line moving forward, and that would be excellent value, especially given the team's lack of draft capital as a result of trading for their current head coach and quarterback.
The Broncos spent a third-round pick on Greg Dulcich a year ago, and the UCLA product has a lot of receiving talent that has yet to be fully utilized. He stands 6-foot-4, 245 pounds and is much more a receiver than a blocker. So it would be worth looking into adding another skillset to the room, and that's where Spann-Ford comes in.
Pittsburgh's Darnell Washington currently holds the title as the NFL's biggest tight end at 6-foot-7, 264 pounds, but Brevyn Spann-Ford out of Minnesota is listed at a hulking 6-foot-7, 270 pounds. That's like having an extra offensive lineman on the field who is always eligible as a reciever. It's rare for a physical specimen like Spann-Ford to enter the draft, and even rarer to find someone like him at this point in the fourth round.
Another son of a former Pro Bowler (and another Carolina Panther, for that matter), Muhsin "Moose" Muhammad III doesn't possess the greatest physical tools, but he's a smart and capable reciever who is reliable in the short and intermediate levels, which is something this offense could really use.
Especially if the Broncos opt to trade away some pass-catching talent this season, Muhammad could help to deepend the position group.
It feels like Kareem Jackson has been a quality starter for 50 years (or 14, same difference), but at 35 years old, his career is approaching its close. Denver needs to bring in someone to help build a succession plan at safety.
Lathan Ransom has been a key cog in the Buckeyes' secondary for the past three seasons, and his versatility would be useful in Denver.
Even though this is his fourth season in Happy Valley, Jacobs is still a project, but at this point in the draft, the juice is worth the squeeze for the Broncos. He's listed at 6-foot-1, 235 pounds and is a very good athlete for the position, showing the ability to be utilized as a blitzer and showing off sideline-to-sideline range. Denver would have the option to keep Jacobs inside, or potentially move him to WILL and allow him to rush the passer more.
This draft class would add some quality young talent to various spots on the Broncos' roster, but the main draw is moving on from Wilson and beginning to build anew around Drake Maye. If general manager George Paton is familiar with the sunk cost fallacy, this is a realistic scenario.