The Broncos need to add more than one wide receiver this offseason

With the Super Bowl wrapped up, it is officially “Draft Season” in the NFL. This is the part of the calendar year when mock drafts reign supreme on the internet.

I won’t do a mock draft until right before the Scouting Combine at the end of February. And I’ll release one every week after that leading up to the 2020 NFL Draft in Las Vegas at the end of April.

However, there are plenty of mock drafts available right now from credible draft analysts. One of the best in the business is Chad Reuter from NFL.com, a good friend of mine who has been covering the draft for NFL media for over a decade.

When writing his first 2020 three-round mock draft for NFL.com, Chad reached out to me on Sunday afternoon as I sat waiting for the Super Bowl to begin at Hard Rock Stadium. The text message from Chad is below.

His three-round mock draft has the Broncos taking Henry Ruggs III in round one at No. 15 overall and it also has them selecting Ohio State wide receiver K.J. Hill in round three at No. 95 overall.

This mock got me thinking about the possibility for the Broncos to add not one – but two – wide receivers in the first three rounds. In the NFL draft, I consider the first three rounds to be premium picks. These are the best players in which teams can build a roster.

Armed with three third-round picks, would the Broncos actually select more than one wide receiver in the first two days of the 2020 NFL draft? Let’s take a look.

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First Round

The most popular pick for the Broncos in the first round has to be Alabama wide receiver Henry Ruggs III. His speed is similar to that of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, and Ruggs can certainly take the top off the defense.

Other receivers that should go off the board in the first round include guys like CeeDee Lamb (Oklahoma), Jerry Jeudy (Alabama), Jalen Reagor (TCU) and Laviska Shenault (Colorado). While some like Lamb and Jeudy may already be off the board when the Broncos pick comes up, Reagor and Shenault could be options for the Broncos, as well.

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Second Round

There are quite a few options that will be left over for the Broncos if they wait until the second round to select a wide receiver. Shenault may be one of the players available in the second round, but it depends on his medical checks at the Combine. He’s a first-round talent but his injury history reads like “Infinite Jest” and teams will need to look into that.

Tee Higgins from Clemson and Denzel Mims from Baylor are two of my favorite players who could be second-round picks. Higgins is a size/speed prospect who does a good job of going “all out” to make a catch, no matter where it is on the field. Mims may be one of the fastest players at the Combine. He’s a highly-decorated track athlete who happens to be more polished as a route-runner than some think. Mims was a standout player during the week of practice at the Reese’s Senior Bowl earlier this year.

I can’t leave out guys like Brandon Aiyuk (Arizona State), K.J. Hamler (Penn State) and Justin Jefferson (LSU) in the second-round conversation. There are others, as well, and as you can see the 2020 wide receiver class is simply jam-packed with talent like we’ve never seen before.

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Third Round

This wide receiver class is so chock full of talent that the Broncos could double dip in the third round. Hill is the player that Reuter has in his mock draft going to the Broncos as their second receiver in three rounds. Like Mims, Hill had a great week of practice at the Senior Bowl. While Mims is a speed guy, Hill is more of a run-after-the-catch player. Hill knows how to get separation on tight coverage underneath and is more nuanced when it comes to running routes than most college receivers entering the NFL.

Another Senior Bowl standout is Liberty’s Antonio Gandy-Golden. He was not asked to run the full route tree in college, but he has the athleticism to learn what he needs to. Gandy-Golden has fantastic hands and can make difficult catches seem routine.

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Summary

The Broncos have draft capital like never before with three third-round picks. That gives the team plenty of options when it comes to trading up or down – or merely more options when it comes to selecting players and which positions to add the most depth to in the draft.

They need a better starting option opposite of star Courtland Sutton. That could be where someone like Ruggs comes into play. Having that speed opposite of Sutton would be exactly what this offense needs.

However, the team needs better competition at the position behind the top two receivers on the depth chart. DaeSean Hamilton has not worked out as planned and cannot be counted on – even as a third-string receiver. He’s not really a slot guy and provides nothing that is a threat to a defense. Tim Patrick is athletic and has good size, but he’s not fast and seems to always be banged up.

The Broncos cannot just hope that these two stay healthy and play up to their potential. They need to have better options available. That’s where the draft comes into play because free agency is going to be too expensive at the position and there’s not that many attractive options out there.

Some fans don’t want the Broncos to take a receiver in round one. Those same fans may not want to get two receivers in the first three rounds. But with five picks, the Broncos should be considering such a move.

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