Draft Day Reckoning: The Picks That Built Broncos Dynasties and the Ones That Haunted Us for Years

There's a particular kind of tension that settles over Broncos Nation every spring. The combine numbers have been crunched, the mock drafts have been argued over in every sports bar from LoDo to Fort Collins, and then — finally — the picks start rolling in. Some of those picks turned into Super Bowl rings. Others turned into cautionary tales that front office executives quietly hope everyone forgets.

Let's not forget them. Let's talk about all of it.

The Picks That Changed the Franchise Forever

When people talk about the greatest draft decisions in Broncos history, a few names come up almost immediately. Shannon Sharpe in the seventh round of 1990 remains one of the most stunning late-round steals in NFL history, full stop. A seventh-round pick out of Savannah State who went on to become a Hall of Famer and one of the most dominant tight ends the league has ever seen? That's the kind of pick that makes you believe in the process — or at least in occasionally getting extremely lucky.

Then there's Terrell Davis, plucked in the sixth round of the 1995 draft. Denver took a flier on a running back with a hamstring history, and what they got was a 2,000-yard rusher, a Super Bowl MVP, and a Canton enshrinement. These picks didn't just fill roster spots — they built the infrastructure of two consecutive championship teams.

More recently, the selection of Bradley Chubb at fifth overall in 2018 generated genuine excitement, and for good reason. When healthy, Chubb showed the kind of pass-rush ability that defensive coordinators lose sleep over. His eventual trade to Miami stings in retrospect, but his presence in Denver for those early years demonstrated that the front office could still identify elite talent when the evaluation process worked the way it was supposed to.

Fan Poll: Which Pick Meant the Most?

We ran an informal community poll here on Bronco Nation HQ, and the results were pretty telling. When asked which draft pick had the single biggest positive impact on the franchise, Terrell Davis edged out Shannon Sharpe by about eight percentage points, with a surprising number of votes going to Von Miller (second overall, 2011) — a pick so obviously correct in hindsight that it almost feels unfair to include it in a "best picks" conversation.

Miller's selection was about as close to a sure thing as the draft gets, but credit where it's due: Denver didn't overthink it, didn't get cute, and took the best player available. The result was a franchise cornerstone who delivered one of the greatest Super Bowl performances by a defensive player in NFL history.

The Ones We'd Rather Forget

Okay. Here's where it gets uncomfortable.

The 2010 draft gave us Tim Tebow at 25th overall in the first round. Now, before the Tebow defenders flood the comments — and we know you're out there — this isn't about the man's character or his effort or his miraculous playoff run. It's about value and positional fit. Taking a quarterback in the first round who the organization clearly wasn't committed to as a long-term starter, while other franchise-caliber players were still on the board, was a decision that reflected organizational confusion more than strategic vision.

But if we're being brutally honest, the 2014 selection of Cody Latimer in the second round might be the pick that flies under the radar while deserving far more scrutiny. Wide receiver depth felt like a luxury problem for a team with Peyton Manning and Demaryius Thomas, and Latimer never developed into the contributor Denver needed him to be. That second-round capital could have addressed real defensive needs.

And then there's the broader pattern of reaching for quarterbacks — a theme that connects several regrettable draft moments across multiple decades and front office regimes. More on that in a moment.

What the Mistakes Have in Common

Look at the Broncos' most regrettable draft decisions and a pattern emerges pretty quickly: the worst picks almost always involved either ignoring positional value, drafting for need over talent, or falling in love with a prospect's ceiling while underestimating their floor.

Several longtime fans we spoke with in the Bronco Nation HQ community forums pointed to organizational impatience as the root cause. "We've had stretches where it felt like the front office was trying to solve an immediate problem instead of building something sustainable," wrote one longtime member who's been posting since the early forum days. "The best teams draft the best player. We've sometimes drafted the most convenient player."

That's a fair critique, and it connects directly to the current front office's approach under George Paton. The early returns on recent drafts — particularly the 2023 class headlined by Marvin Mims Jr. — suggest a more disciplined, value-based approach. Mims has flashed legitimate big-play ability, and the depth added in later rounds has shown more promise than Denver's late-round selections typically delivered in the mid-2010s.

Has the Front Office Actually Learned?

This is the real question, isn't it? And honestly, the jury's still deliberating.

The 2021 draft drew mixed reviews in real time but has aged reasonably well — Patrick Surtain II at ninth overall looks increasingly like a franchise cornerstone at cornerback, the kind of pick that wins you draft grades for a decade. That's encouraging. It suggests a front office capable of resisting the temptation to reach for a quarterback when the value isn't there.

But Denver's draft history is long enough — and complicated enough — that one or two good classes don't erase the skepticism that comes with decades of inconsistent results. Broncos fans have seen enough April optimism curdle into September disappointment to know better than to declare victory too early.

The Debate That Never Ends

Here's what makes draft analysis so endlessly compelling for a fan community like ours: the counterfactuals are irresistible. What if Denver had taken a different quarterback in 2010? What if the 2014 second-rounder had been spent on an edge rusher? What if the franchise had found its post-Elway answer five years earlier than it eventually did?

These are the conversations that happen in parking lots before kickoff, in group chats after a tough loss, and in threads right here on Bronco Nation HQ. They're not just trivia — they're a genuine engagement with the decisions that shaped this team and this fanbase.

So tell us: which Broncos draft pick do you think had the biggest positive impact on the franchise? And which one still makes you shake your head? Drop your takes in the comments. We'll be reading every single one.