NFL Draft: Broncos have ‘six players’ GM likes at No. 62

In a week and a half, Sean Payton and George Paton will venture down to the bowels of the Broncos’ facility in Dove Valley, shut their laptops, and suffer a mild wave of depression. They know this about each other, by now. Denver’s head coach and general manager present and speak on two opposite ends of the spectrum of human existence, but share a key common love: this spring month in their draft war room.

They have been crushing tape there daily since returning from league meetings at the start of April. And they will mourn when it’s over.

“That day or two (after the draft),” Payton said Thursday, sitting next to Paton, “is like — we don’t know what to do with ourselves.”

“We want to stay down there, if they’d allow us,” Paton chimed in.

Their approach to prospect evaluation has “blended,” as general manager Paton said, across a variety of NFL Draft positions over their three years in Denver. The fourth year of Payton’s tenure has now brought them back to the beginning: a late second-round slot, one single pick (No. 62) ahead of their first No. 63 draft choice as a partnership in 2023.

And both made clear, in their pre-draft press conference Thursday, that they feel entirely comfortable waiting for a prospect on Day 2.

“Our expectations are the same — I mean, they’re high,” Paton said. “We think there’s good players in this draft, we think there’s good players where we’re picking at 62, we have two picks up in the top of the fourth, and we feel good what’s going to be there. And so, we like it.

“We know we still have flexibility with the seven picks to move up, or move back and get more picks,” Paton continued, speaking on the Broncos’ current draft arsenal. “And so, we have experience with this. We’ve gotten good players with lesser picks.”

Denver, as Paton said Thursday, could certainly hop up a few rungs from that No. 62 slot. But after sending their first-round pick to Miami in the Jaylen Waddle deal, the Broncos simply don’t have the capital for a monumental move up the order once the draft kicks off on April 23. Trading into the first round, Paton said, would be “unlikely.”

Instead, Paton said the Broncos have “honed in” on a crop of prospects on their board ranked between Nos. 40 and 75.

“There’s six players we’re kinda focused on,” Paton said, “that could be there at 62. We feel good about those players.”

That’ll ignite a week, of course, of fans and media alike trying to identify those special six. The Broncos have hosted a number of prospects in that range on top-30 visits, from Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks to Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers. Such visits don’t have a particularly strong historical correlation to who Denver ends up drafting, aside from a seventh-round swing last year on tight end Caleb Lohner.

But the Broncos, returning the core of a roster that came an ankle snap away from a Super Bowl appearance, will almost certainly target a prospect with a higher ceiling rather than higher-floor, lower-upside at No. 62.

“We like to draft high-trait players, and maybe they lack a little polish, and it’s going to take some development,” Paton said.

“Sure, we’d like someone to come in and start right away – but that’s not always realistic,” he added. “For first (round), second, no matter where they’re picked. And it’s just hard. And with the way our team is built now, it’s going to be hard to come in and start Day 1.”

Even in years with a weaker roster, too, the Paton-Payton pairing has leaned in favor of the upside play on Day 2. After the Broncos sent their first-round pick to New Orleans to trade for Payton, they traded up to the back of the second round to nab All-Pro returner Marvin Mims Jr. — who ran a 4.38-second 40-yard-dash — at No. 63 in 2023.

That was a few months into the Payton-Paton dynamic, and certainly before they started accidentally sharing draft-room water bottles. But there’s an established record of hits at that same second-round range, when factoring in the Broncos’ 2022 selection of Nik Bonitto at No. 64.

“We’ve done well,” Paton said, “in that realm.”

Regardless, they need to hit again in a week’s time, still carrying a few remaining needs but few remaining resources. The Broncos are the only team in the NFL with just one pick in the draft’s first three rounds; they have some flexibility to add another, with picks No. 108 and No. 111 in the fourth round. If they stand pat, though, Denver still needs to identify quality depth at skill positions (tight end, running back), their defensive front (defensive end, linebacker), and their offensive line.

Paton, for his part, shrugged off any process that the lack of draft capital adds more pressure on that No. 62 selection. The GM and coach, after all, have been here before.

“We’re going to go through our process,” Paton said. “Our process has worked. And it continues to evolve, but I think it’s better. I feel more prepared for this draft than I was for last year’s and the prior draft.”

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.