Broncos Roundtable: What is Denver's biggest need heading into the 2022 NFL Draft?

George Paton spent the offseason plugging holes across the Broncos’ roster. Entering the offseason, Denver had glaring holes at quarterback, right tackle, defensive line and inside linebacker, to name a few. After free agency and a blockbuster trade, Paton addressed each and every need to at least some extent.

But Denver’s roster isn’t perfect. And they have one more major opportunity to fix it with the 2022 NFL Draft less than a week away.

What’s the Broncos’ biggest need heading into the draft?

The DNVR Broncos Crew breaks it down.

What’s the Broncos’ biggest need?

Zac: Right tackle — George Paton has done a tremendous job plugging every pressing hole heading into the 2022 season. Because of that, Paton can now approach the draft with a long-term mindset on what the team needs.

For this year, the Broncos are fine at tackle, but could still upgrade. After this year, however, Denver is not fine. In fact, the three tackles that will be competing for the starting job in 2022 — Billy Turner, Calvin Anderson and Tom Compton — are all free agents next year. That leaves a massive hole at a very important position.

Not only is right tackle a critical part of the offensive line, but with Russell Wilson now on the team — and plans to be for the next decade-plus — it’s even that much more important since protecting Russ should be priority No. 1 for the Broncos.

Additionally, while Garett Bolles is under contract through the 2024 season, Denver can get out from his contract after this season with only $8 million in dead money if they don’t want cap hits of $18 million and $20 million for him the following two seasons.

Protecting Russell Wilson is Denver’s No. 1 priority this year, next year and every year he plays. Don’t overthink it — tackle should be the Broncos’ No. 1 priority heading into the draft.

Mase: Edge rusher — The Broncos’ hopes of generating a pass rush from the outside currently rest on two players who have missed 51 of a possible 98 regular-season games since the start of the 2019 season. And while free-agent pickup Randy Gregory has missed just five of a possible 27 games since returning to the Dallas Cowboys’ active roster seven games into the 2020 campaign, he did head to injured reserve at midseason in 2021.  Meanwhile, Bradley Chubb says he’s healthier than he has been at any point since he tore his anterior cruciate ligament four games into the 2019 season, but he has spent time on injured reserve in two of the last three seasons — and in the year in between, he had surgery in the following offseason.

In a division of quarterbacks who can feast when a foe blitzes, sustaining viable pressure by rushing four is essential, and the Broncos likely won’t be able to do that on a consistent basis unless both Gregory and Chubb are available consistently. This is George Paton’s biggest dice roll of the year. And if that comes up snake eyes, the Broncos will likely struggle  to generate a consistent pass rush unless they improve their pass-rush arsenal.

Paton identified edge rusher as a position of depth in the draft, so the chances of maximizing the value of the 64th pick are decent if the Broncos look to the edge at that spot.  But the added benefit of an edge at 64 is that it would provide the Broncos a better chance of withstanding the absence of one of their talented — but absence-prone — first-team edges.

RK: Inside linebacker — You could go around and look at every unit on this football team and find a star, except for at ILB, where we are putting a lot of faith in Josey Jewell returning to the form he showed early last season against bad opponents.

You are counting on Jewell to be the achor of this group, and behind him all you have is a whole bunch of flashes and depth pieces. Obviously, Baron Browning seems to be an exciting piece, but even the Broncos have entertained moving him to the edge this season. Jonas Griffith was nice in spurts but you can’t exactly count on him yet. Justin Strnad was brought in to be a coverage specialist, but we havent seen that come to fruition yet. And finally, Alex Singleton gives you a solid, cheap depth piece with a lot of NFL experience, which is probably what Jewell should be.

As we’ve seen time and time again, the right linebacker can completely change a defense and as of right now, the Broncos are lacking that piece entirely.