Broncos first-round big board: Dallas Turner, Taliese Fuaga among 25 players to consider (2024)

The Beast, Dane Brugler’s expansive guide to the NFL Draft, is here.

Haven’t you heard? The Denver Broncos need a quarterback.

As is the case for a handful of teams entering this month’s NFL Draft, Denver has a major hole at the most important position in sports. Since ending the Russell Wilson era with a thud by releasing the veteran quarterback in March, the Broncos haven’t added a quarterback to the roster behind Jarrett Stidham (four career starts) or Ben DiNucci (futures contract). The draft is the avenue Denver and coach Sean Payton want to use to upgrade the position.

When your first pick is scheduled to be made at No. 12, though, you don’t get to dictate how it all shakes out. Just as the Broncos, in Payton’s words, “weren’t just going to sign a quarterback to sign one” in free agency, they won’t draft one to draft one, either. It has to be the player — assuming there is one — they have fallen in football love with during the pre-draft process. And that love has to be strong enough for Denver to give up precious future draft capital. And even if the willingness is there, another team could love the same quarterback more than they’d love the idea of collecting a boatload of future draft picks.

Love can be hard, especially in the NFL Draft.

That’s why it’s important to examine Denver’s possibilities in the draft beyond — but also including — the QB spot. In our first Broncos big board — another will publish days before the draft — we’ve listed 25 players who could be options for the Broncos, be it in a trade up, at their current spot or after trading back. Most of these come at premium positions. The Broncos haven’t had an opportunity to make a first-round pick since 2021 because of the ill-fated trade for Wilson. They need an immediate impact from whomever they select.

Quarterback

The desire the Broncos have to land a quarterback is clear. It’s the path to getting the one they want that appears muddy with the draft a little more than two weeks away. The closest thing to certain is that the Chicago Bears will draft Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick. A run on the rest of the quarterbacks is likely to follow, with some combination of Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy all projected to go in the top half of the first round. It’s conceivable that three, or even four, quarterbacks could land in the top five. That would put the Broncos, who have met with each member of the aforementioned group multiple times over the past couple of months, in a difficult spot.

Payton has called the idea of trading to the top of the draft “realistic,” but that doesn’t mean giving up something akin to three first-round draft picks — the previous cost to go from No. 12 into the top three — is likely. If the Broncos are willing to make such a move, it’s likely only with one player in mind. The Broncos have held their evaluations close — Payton didn’t talk about any of the prospects during the league meetings other than to say the team had met with McCarthy recently — but it’s not hard to imagine Daniels would top their board. The Heisman Trophy winner who threw 40 touchdowns against four interceptions last season is an electric playmaker who not only has shown consistency in delivering the ball over the middle of the field but also has game-breaking speed in the open field. His talent would allow Payton, in due time, to significantly expand the offense’s capabilities.

“His ball placement versus man coverage is the best in the draft,” ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovksy said recently during an appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show,” adding he would take Daniels No. 1 if he were running the Bears.

If the Washington Commanders have a similar opinion of Daniels, he’ll drop no further than No. 2. The Broncos might not have a path to Daniels, no matter how bold they want to be. The question then becomes whether they’d be willing to make a smaller jump for Maye or McCarthy should one of those players drop out of the top five. Do they think highly enough of Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix to take one of those quarterbacks with their No. 12 pick or after a trade back?

It seems almost impossible that a team that hasn’t made a move to add a quarterback this offseason — one that lists longtime backup Stidham as its QB1 — isn’t planning to acquire its starter in the draft. But making the wrong move at quarterback on the heels of the failed Wilson experiment could be more detrimental than not making a move at all. That’s a tightrope Payton and the Broncos will try to walk when April 25 arrives.

Offensive linemen

It is unlikely the Broncos would spend the draft capital required to trade into the top 10 for any reason other than landing a quarterback. That’s why Notre Dame’s Joe Alt, whom most evaluators peg as the top offensive tackle draft and a certain top-eight pick, is probably out of Denver’s range.

Any other prospect could be a real possibility for a team that hasn’t drafted an offensive tackle in any round since 2017. That player was Garett Bolles, who is now entering the final season of the second contract he signed with Denver in 2020. It would make sense for the Broncos to be in the market for a younger, cheaper, long-term replacement for Bolles, who turns 32 in March and has a cap hit of $20 million this season, the highest on the team.

The Broncos want to be a more bruising running team, which could make Taliese Fuaga out of Oregon State an appealing option. He tossed aside competition at the Senior Bowl in a way that was reminiscent of current guard Quinn Meinerz’s run at the event in 2021. Fuaga might be more of a natural right tackle, so the Broncos would have to be confident in his ability to move to the other side.

It is hard not to be intrigued by the sheer size of JC Latham, the Alabama tackle who weighed in at 342 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine in February but moves more fluidly than other top prospects at the position.

For a team that hasn’t had a first-round pick since 2021, using this year’s on a center, even after a theoretical trade back, could be a hard sell. But Jackson Powers-Johnson could be a player who anchors an offensive line for years to come.

Pass catchers

There hasn’t been much pre-draft buzz about the Broncos relating to pass catchers. The New Orleans Saints only twice used a first-round pick on a wide receiver during Payton’s 15 seasons as head coach and none higher than No. 20. They never drafted a tight end higher than the third round during that span.

Still, the Broncos have an obvious need for more pass-catching talent. Courtland Sutton has no guaranteed money left on his contract after this season, and Tim Patrick, who still must prove he can rebound after missing the past two seasons due to injury, is in the last year of his reworked deal. Josh Reynolds was a savvy signing as a replacement for Jerry Jeudy, the 2020 first-round pick whom the Broncos traded to the Cleveland Browns last month, but a long-term depth chart that shows him as the potential top receiver in 2025 has room for more weapons.

It’s hard to find an evaluator who thinks Marvin Harrison Jr. of Ohio State will last past pick No. 5, but a run on quarterbacks could push other top targets into the Broncos’ range if they aren’t a part of said run on QBs. Washington’s Rome Odunze profiles as the top of receivers Payton has featured heavily in his offenses — productive, physical at the catch. He might be more likely to be around when Denver selects than Malik Nabers, the LSU speedster whom some evaluators slot on the same level as Harrison.

Brock Bowers, the tight end out of Georgia, remains an intriguing possibility for a Broncos team that produced little at the position in 2023. From Jeremy Shockey and Jason Witten to Jimmy Graham and Benjamin Watson, Payton has a history of maximizing talented tight ends in his offense. It’s easy to envision Bowers, whose run-after-the-catch ability could make him a mismatch asset in numerous spots on the field, being the next in that line.

Pass rushers

The Broncos were pleased with the steps made by their young pass rushers last season. Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper combined for 16 1/2 sacks and Baron Browning had strong moments after dealing with injuries through the first half of the season. It is a solid rotation of edge players, but Denver needs more as it tries to build a more attacking defense.

Dallas Turner could be the first defensive player to come off the board, but in a first-round heavily tilted toward the offensive side, when exactly will that be? Turner, who broke out with 10 sacks as a junior at Alabama last season, might not be as Day 1-ready as former Crimson Tide teammate Will Anderson Jr. was while winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year award with the Houston Texans last season, but he would give the Broncos the kind of athletic upside they haven’t had consistently since Bradley Chubb and Von Miller were combining for 26 1/2 sacks in 2018.

Jared Verse had back-to-back nine-sack seasons at Florida State after transferring from FCS school Albany, and he profiles as a player who could grow into a strong run defender on the edge. The Broncos have lacked that since trading Chubb to the Miami Dolphins midway through the 2022 season.

Byron Murphy II, who went to the same Texas High School (DeSoto) as Miller, is the lone defensive tackle in this group. The positional value probably isn’t there for the Broncos to consider him at No. 12, but he could be a great option after a trade back. Murphy had five sacks and 8 1/2 tackles for loss last season and could be a strong complement to Zach Allen, Denver’s top defensive signing in free agency last year.

Defensive back

Can you ever have enough talented defensive backs in a division with Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert? The Broncos employ Pat Surtain II, who is one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL and is still a few days away from his 24th birthday. But it has been too easy for teams to avoid Surtain by attacking the other outside corner. Damarri Mathis held that role early last year before being benched. He was replaced by veteran Fabian Moreau, who helped stabilize the spot and had a critical interception in Denver’s stunning road win at the Buffalo Bills midway through the season. But Moreau struggled down the stretch and is looking for a new home in free agency. Mathis and Riley Moss, a third-round pick out of Iowa last year, could compete for the vacated starting spot, but the Broncos could add a Day 1 starter in the draft.

If that’s the route the Broncos take, there’s a good chance the player is Quinyon Mitchell, the blazing-fast corner out of Toledo who ran a 4.33-second 40-yard dash at the combine that matched the speed he consistently showed on the field while breaking up 37 passes across the past two seasons.

“Mitchell checks every box — tape, production, all-star game and now combine testing,” The Athletic’s draft expert Dane Brugler wrote.

Terrion Arnold, who intercepted five passes while helping lead Alabama to the College Football Playoff last season, missed Surtain in Tuscaloosa by one season, but he felt Surtain’s presence nonetheless. Arnold at the combine said Surtain is affectionately referred to as “Robot” at Alabama because of the sound, replicable technique he put on tape.

“He is proven in the NFL, and I would love to (play with him) if I had the opportunity to do that,” Arnold said.

Cooper DeJean, who missed the combine because of injury but is set to work out for teams this week, could be an option for the Broncos in a trade-back scenario given his positional versatility.

(Photo of Dallas Turner: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)