The Denver Broncos made a questionable decision in the draft with their first pick, and then backed that up with a questionable quote.
The Denver Broncos made a questionable decision in the draft with their first pick, and then backed that up with a questionable quote.
Through all of the offseason drama surrounding the wide receiver room, there is now an added layer to it all. The Broncos drafted, and traded up to the end of the second round, to get a wide receiver in the 2023 NFL Draft.
As if it wasn't weird enough that they already fielded calls for their guys, and then let everyone know they were happy with who they had in the room. They then traded up for a guy who plays that very position.
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It's safe to say it's all weird at the moment when it comes to the wide receiver room. Even the Jerry Jeudy contract situation came to a screeching halt on May 1, the day before the deadline to pick up player's fifth-year options.
"You know, we haven't even-we've just been focused on the draft," Paton said earlier this week when asked about Jeudy and his fifth-year option.
But fast forward back a few days, April 28 to be exact, and the Broncos are trading up to take Marvin Mims, the wide receiver out of Oklahoma, with their first pick in the draft. This pick has made a lot of fans upset, and it's probably because they have several great receivers and could have used that pick on a different position. The front office said that the wide receiver room was fine, in a way, so why are they trading up at the back of the second round to take one?
Does it have anything to do with the rumors and drama we heard just months prior?
"No. Absolutely not," Paton said.
Mims is a great player though, so don't let the fact that they maybe shouldn't have picked him where they did cloud your judgement on him. This is a player that will bring some great traits to the offense overall, and can only get better.
"There's a clear vision for the receiver. His traits. He's got return skills. Character make-up. He's smart. He's someone that can play at Z, can play at X," Payton said on Friday. "He brings an element of speed you can feel on tape. That vision around the room, there was no gray area relative to what we saw."
Then the new Broncos head coach had something questionable that he said. Ultimately, there was one thing that caught his attention, and boosted the chances of the Broncos taking Mims at pick 63.
"Every year you look at the return game and you try and find who do we feel is the best punt returner in college football and then who do we feel is the second best and-we felt like there were two elite punt returners. The young man in Houston. and this was another," Payton continued.
So, this isn't the reason they drafted Mims, but a huge reason why they traded up to take the receiver. He is an excellent punt returner. Now, Mims is going to be great, as I already stated, but you should never be enticed to trade up and take a player because he is an elite punt returner, especially when you have other needs on the board.
The Broncos need a good punt returner, even though they haven't given Washington that much of a chance to show what he can do. The special teams as a whole was terrible last year, and if the blocking, the gunners, punter, kicker, and returners are all bad, then just getting a better returner won't make the difference. Special teams takes everyone.
There were defensive backs on the board that would have been better than what Riley Moss will be, in my opinion, and offensive guards, one of the biggest needs, on the board as well. Instead, they took a receiver, a position they don't need, because he is a great punt returner. Some of it is just confusing.
But, Sean Payton knows what he is doing. Just because he says that. doesn't mean that is all he has in mind for Mims. Maybe Mims replaces Hinton or Hamler. We don't really know yet, but this sure helps us find things to look out for when training camp rolls around.