American Football

Lack of production from Broncos 2023 draft class means nothing

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Denver Broncos Rookie Mini Camp
Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Only three of five played so the lack of production is relatively meaningless

The Denver Broncos only drafted five players in 2023. For all intents and purposes only three played (JL Skinner played one defensive snap). Most NFL teams had seven picks. The Miami Dolphins (4), Carolina Panthers and Broncos (5) had fewer because of trades. The Broncos also had no pick in the first round. First round picks generally play as rookies. Often second round picks don’t.

NFL team picks by draft year


First round picks were also responsible for a great deal of the production that other teams for from their drafted rookies (more on this later).

Bronco drafted rookies combined for 384 offensive snaps (all Marvin Mims), 282 defensive snaps (mostly Drew Sanders) and 715 special teams snaps.

Offensively it was all Mims who ran the ball nine times for 30 yards and had 22 catches for 377 yards and one TD. Defensively Sanders, Riley Moss and Skinner combined for 24 tackles (15 solo), one fumble rec, and one TFL.

Recently one analyst ranked the Broncos 2023 draft class as the worst in the league. While this stands up to statistical analysis (see the table below), judging ANY draft class after one season is a fool’s errand and a pointless exercise. That being said, let’s see how the Bronco DRAFTED rookies compare to other teams’ drafted rookies in terms of production. Keep in mind that the most productive rookie on the Broncos in 2023, Jaleel McLaughlin was undrafted.

Row Labels Sum of Rush Att Sum of Rush Yds Sum of Rush TD Sum of Rec Sum of REC Yds Sum of REC TD Sum of Solo Tackles Sum of Interceptions Sum of Sacks
GNB 15 118 2 168 2081 15 100 1 8.5
LAR 21 108 0 115 1581 7 96 19
DET 183 949 10 139 1207 11 103 3 3
IND 26 137 4 87 984 2 69 1 1.5
KAN 1 -3 0 79 938 7 48 1 0.5
MIN 7 16 0 70 911 10 42 1
BAL 8 56 1 77 858 5 28 2
SEA 108 462 1 96 837 4 95 1 3
HOU 55 267 3 56 799 7 74 7
BUF 0 0 0 73 673 2 32 1
LVR 27 88 1 46 635 4 58 3.5
NWE 8 41 0 51 580 0 47 2 2
ARI 8 30 1 38 565 3 102 1 7.5
LAC 17 110 0 53 497 2 52 4.5
ATL 214 976 4 58 487 4 65 3
TEN 125 510 3 62 482 2 3
TAM 3 22 0 44 443 3 64 11.5
CAR 39 253 0 43 418 0 17
NYG 17 48 0 29 395 0 81 2
CHI 88 393 2 51 377 0 130 4 3
DEN 9 30 0 22 377 1 15
NOR 41 156 1 22 363 4 40 5.5
MIA 103 800 8 41 360 4 1
CIN 46 192 0 36 336 5 102 1 6
CLE 15 73 0 21 224 0 21 2
JAX 50 132 2 22 173 3 20 2 1
DAL 23 40 0 21 169 2 11 1
SFO 0 0 0 6 68 3 38 2 1
PIT 0 0 0 7 61 0 67 1 4
NYJ 22 70 0 7 43 0 10 3
WAS 51 247 2 2 12 0 79 3 2.5
PHI 0 0 0 0 0 0 81 2 8

The table is the summed stats produced by the 2023 drafted rookies from every team in the league last regular season (leaving off QB stats). As you can see, the only place where the Broncos are not near the bottom is receiving yards. With 377 receiving yards from Mims, the Broncos were tied with Chicago for 21st. In just about every other stat the Broncos are in the bottom quartile:

  • Rushing attempts – 22nd
  • Rushing yards – 24th
  • Receptions – 25th
  • REC TD – 23rd
  • Solo tackles – 28th
  • no rushing TDs, sacks or interceptions – so tied for last

Of course the table misses some important context; the Broncos did not have a first round pick. If you remove the production from first round picks, this table looks very different (I can post that table in the comments if you really want to see it).

Now the Broncos drafted rookies rank:

  • Rushing attempts – 18th
  • Rushing Yards – 19th
  • Receptions – 20th
  • Rec Yards – 15th
  • Rec TD – 17th
  • Solo tackles – 28th (unchanged)

Removing the first round pick production (and removing QB production completely), the Bronco rookie class does not look so bad relative to the rest of the league, unless you are focusing on defensive stats. From an offensive standpoint, plenty of teams got less from their drafted rookies in 2023 than the Broncos did. Defensively only the Titans, Cowboys, Dolphins and Jets got less from their drafted rookies. So it’s hard to rank the Broncos with the worst rookie class in the league if you pay attention to context.

If you factor in the trade for Russell Wilson (and for Sean Payton), the Broncos still don’t look to have the worst draft class from 2023, but what do I know, I’m just looking at the numbers.

Of course the author of the article also fails to factor in one thing, special teams production, for which Mims earned a Pro-Bowl nod. As a rookie, Mims was one of the best return guys in the NFL. That alone should bump the Broncos up from dead last in his ranking.

After all this, the critical point remains that you can’t truly evaluate a draft class until they have played three NFL seasons. So the earliest draft class that really should be evaluated is the 2021 draft class. The Broncos got five starters in that draft which makes it a very solid draft:

  1. Patrick Surtain II
  2. Javonte Williams
  3. Quinn Meinerz
  4. Baron Browning
  5. Jonathan Cooper

Looking at it another way, the Broncos got starters with their first four picks that year, finding two elite players in the process and then topped it off by getting a gem in the 7th with Cooper.

The author who thinks the Broncos draft class in 2023 was the worst in the league is wrong. How would you grade the 2023 draft?

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