Broncos Roundtable: Will George Paton trade up, down or stay put with Denver's first pick in the 2022 NFL Draft?

After sending off their first-round pick and their first second-round pick in the blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson, George Paton and the Denver Broncos will have to wait all the way until the final pick in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft before making their first selection.

But will Paton wait all the way until pick No. 64 to make his first pick? Or will he trade up? If he trades up, will he jump up all the way to the first round?

There’s also the possibility the Broncos don’t make their first pick of the draft until the third round if Paton decides to move back and acquire more draft capital.

What we know is Paton is no stranger to moving around in the draft, as evidence by his first draft with Denver last year.

With that being said, when will Denver make their first pick in the draft?

The DNVR Broncos Crew breaks it down.

Will the Broncos trade up, down or stay put at pick No. 64?

Zac: Trade up, but not all the way into the first round — We know George Paton is going to be aggressive, but not reckless.

Jumping from the end of the second round up into the first round would cost many pretty pennies. Without a first or second-round pick next year either, that move could be viewed by Paton as reckless since the Broncos would be left without too much draft capital with what it would cost to jump up into the first.

But Paton won’t wait until the end of the second round to make his first pick. The Broncos will package No. 64 and either one of their two third-round picks or a fourth-round pick to jump up in the second round. With that pick, Denver will snag a player who they had a first-round grade on that fell to the start of the second round.

The Broncos will come out of the draft feeling mighty fine about landing a first-round prospect at the beginning of the second round, along with essentially using their first-round pick on Russell Wilson.

Mase: Trade down – Paton did not dismiss the notion of trading up when asked about it at the NFL Annual Meeting in Palm Beach, Fla. on March 27, noting that his team still possessed “the ammo to trade up.”

However, just a beat later, he noted where the strength of the draft rested: “the middle rounds.”

“It [trading first- and second-round picks for Russell Wilson] doesn’t really change our process for the draft,” Paton said. “If anything, we just dig in more to the middle rounds, which I think it’s going to be a strong draft in the middle rounds.”

And perhaps to that end, he said that the Broncos would finish the draft with more picks than they have now.

“I’m sure we’ll have more [selections] by the end of it,” Paton said. He has noted in the past that he would prefer to reach a grand total of 10 selections in each draft.

And there are two ways to get more picks: trading players or trading down in the draft.

RK: Trade down — George Paton loves him some draft picks and after trading for Russell Wilson, he’s much lighter in that department than he would like. Not necessarily in 2022, where Denver still has eight picks, but in 2023, where they now only have four.

The worst part of that is that 2023 is considered to be a much stronger draft than 2022. Don’t be surprised if Paton trades back several times in this draft, still keeping this year’s number at eight, while compiling as many picks as he can for next year.

I would bet the house that Denver finishes this draft with no less than six picks on hand for 2023.