B
Denver Broncos
The Broncos won the weekend at the trade table. Grade: B.
by Todd ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 2 steals
· 7 reaches
There is reaching, and then there is Haynes King at pick 257. The Broncos jumped the board by 56 and dared it to prove them wrong. They moved the roster forward and banked a B for it.
The Price value carries more weight than any single miss elsewhere. They won the margins on every swap, and it adds up fast. For all the activity, edge rusher went untouched, which is hard to explain.
They left with linebacker solved and the rest of the wish list mostly ticked off.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
A tidy bit of business in slot 62, where Jacob Rodriguez graded well above the range. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Steal is underselling it; Jadarian Price at pick 89 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A big swing on Eli Raridon at No. 108, well ahead of any board in the building. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, DeMonte Capehart well ahead of where he belonged. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Kage Casey at pick No. 129 is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. A need, and now a little less of one.
VJ Payne at the Round 5 slot is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. A minor itch, scratched.
Jack Kelly at the Round 7 slot is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Adam Randall at slot 241 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They took Eli Heidenreich at par in pick 246, which is nothing to complain about. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They paid sticker price for Josh Cuevas in pick No. 256, and that is fine. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Value said wait; Haynes King in No. 257 says they were not listening. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.