Horse Tracks: Ranking past second-round picks for Denver

NFL: APR 27 2018 NFL Draft

Good morning, Broncos Country!

The NFL Draft is less than 10 days away, but the Broncos won’t be picking on Day 1 — unless Aqib Talib’s recent hints mean a trade up into the first round — so that means our fun won’t start until Day 2.

After trading away the 2026 first-round pick for Jaylen Waddle last month, Denver’s first pick comes with the No. 62-overall pick, marking the third time since George Paton became GM that Denver’s first selection will be in the second round.

“Obviously we’re focused on [Pick] 30 in the second [round]. We’ve fortunately been there before. …We have a good feel for that. We can home in. We have a pretty good feel of that realm.”

george Paton, GM

After giving away two first-round picks in 2022 and 2023 (plus two second round picks and three players) to get Russell Wilson, the Broncos made their first selections those years at 64 and 63, respectively.

While that trade looked better before the Wilson Experiment became a complete bust in Broncos Country, Paton was able to find some great value that year in the second round with Nik Bonitto. Ane he followed it up in 2023 by taking Marvin Mims Jr. in 2023 and even RJ Harvey in last year’s Draft, Paton seems to have broken the second-round curse that so often plagued John Elway as GM.

For fun, I asked chatGPT to rank the Broncos’ second-round picks from 2011-2024 (let’s give RJ Harvey a little more time to see where he fits on the rankings). This was what it came up with:

1. Courtland Sutton (2018)
2. Dalton Risner (2019)
3. Javonte Williams (2021)
4. Derek Wolfe (2012)
5. Nik Bonitto (2022)
6. Rahim Moore (2011)
7. Orlando Franklin (2011)
8. Marvin Mims, Jr. (2023)
9. Brock Osweiler (2012)
10. Adam Gotsis (2016)
11. Montee Ball (2013)
12. Ty Sambrailo (2015)
13. DeMarcus Walker (2017)
14. Drew Lock (2019)
15. K. J. Hamler (2020)
16. Cody Latimer (2014)

Sutton at the top is a solid choice. A case for Bonitto could be made because he has grown into a major game-changer for the defense and has single-handedly won a few games in the clutch for Denver the past two years. Either way, if Bonitto isn’t the top of the second-rounders, he has to be tied for first or second in my opinion.

And as much as I love seeing a Colorado kid get to play for his favorite team, there’s no way Dalton Risner is the second-best second-round pick we’ve had in the last 15 years. Derek Wolfe also has to be higher on the list, if for no other reason than he was scary AF on that 2015 defense. I would probably even move up Brock Osweiler for the fact that he helped Denver stay on track in 2015 so Peyton Manning could finish the job getting us the AFC Championship on the way to winning Super Bowl 50.

So my list would look like:

1. Courtland Sutton (2018) & Nik Bonitto (2022)
2. Derek Wolfe (2012)
3. Orlando Franklin (2011)
4. Brock Osweiler (2012)
5. Marvin Mims, Jr. (2023)
6. Javonte Williams (2021)
7. Drew Lock (2019)
8. Rahim Moore (2011)
9. Adam Gotsis (2016)
10. Montee Ball (2013)
11. Dalton Risner (2019)
12. Ty Sambrailo (2015)
13. DeMarcus Walker (2017)
14. K. J. Hamler (2020)
15. Cody Latimer (2014)

Now as the Broncos gear up for the 2026 NFL Draft, Paton and his head coach will strive for the same success around the 60-mark they’ve enjoyed the past four years

“Obviously we’re focused on [Pick] 30 in the second [round],” Paton said at the NFL annual meeting last week. “We’ve fortunately been there before. … We have a good feel for that. We can home in. It doesn’t mean we won’t trade up at some point, but we’ll have a really good feel for the 62nd pick. We took Mims at [63], Bonitto at 64. Harvey maybe [at] 60, I think. We have a pretty good feel of that realm.”