Here's how the Broncos traded down twice and still got the players they wanted in Quinn Meinerz and Baron Browning

When Broncos general manager George Paton decided to trade five picks down from the No. 71 pick late Friday night, he said he had six players in mind. When the Broncos moved on the clock for the No. 76 selection, he still had players in mind — and moved down 22 more selections to No. 98 while adding the 105th pick.

Then, all he could do was wait.

The picks progressed. Finally, the NFL Draft reached the 98th choice — and a player the Broncos wanted remained: Wisconsin-Whitewater guard/center Quinn Meinerz, who became the first non-Division I player drafted by the Broncos in 15 years, since Chris Kuper in 2006.

Seven selections later, Ohio State linebacker Baron Browning, projected by some to go as high as the second round, also sat there for the taking.

“We still got the two players we wanted — which is rare when you move back that far,” Paton said. “The room was happy, and I was happy. It doesn’t always work out like that, but it worked out today.”

Paton said Meinerz and Browning were his top two of the six players they had targeted.

“We have charts that we use, which I think the whole league uses. We do the math, and we take the risks,” Paton said.

“The good thing is that we didn’t just have two players, we had six. I’ve been doing this a long time. If you move back 20 spots and you have six or seven players, there’ll be one there. That’s the chance we took, and it just worked out our way where we got our top two guys. I didn’t think that we would get our top two, I thought maybe one. It just so happened to work out.”

QUINN MEINERZ: A “GUT” FEELING

During Senior Bowl week, Meinerz went viral because of how he wore his practice jersey: rolled up, revealing an ample gut that led to his nickname. That week was a coming-out party — not just for his belly, but Meinerz himself, since he emerged as one of the best offensive linemen on display at Mobile, winning most of his matchups thanks to a forceful burst off the snap and raw power.

The fact that he showed up at the Senior Bowl 20 pounds below his playing weight at Wisconsin-Whitewater mattered, too. Since COVID-19 wiped out the Warhawks’ 2020 season, Meinerz’s work in January was his first competitive football action in 13 months.

“I was doing my own thing, learning center on my own and working my butt off every day,” Meinerz said. “To have that little taste of football at the Senior Bowl was awesome. To run through that tunnel again and practice was amazing.”

He arrived at the Senior Bowl in shape and played well, shooting him up draft boards — including that of the Broncos.

“When you see him in one-on-one drills blocking guys that are first-and second-round picks, it was pretty amazing. You don’t see that very often,” Paton said. “The more you dig into the person, the player, Whitewater, and where he came from, I think that he rose on everyone’s draft boards.”

Broncos coach Vic Fangio said that he saw Meinerz as both a guard and a center.

“We’ll cross-train him,” Fangio said. “We’ll start him off somewhere and let him get his feet wet—get grounded. But eventually, we need guys that can play center and guard. As your offseason develops and training camp goes on, you see and feel where those needs are, and if we have to get him to that second position quickly, we will.”

BARON BROWNING: INSIDE OR OUTSIDE?

That is the question regarding the linebacker the Broncos selected with the 105th pick in the draft.

“I think I’m more comfortable outside, but at the end of the day, I’ll play wherever they need me to play,” Browning said. “I’ll play kicker.”

Brandon McManus need not worry about his job. But he might find himself helped by Browning, who projects as a core special-teamer while the Broncos figure out what his defensive role will be.

“[Browning has] got versatility,” Fangio said. “Sometimes his versatility has hurt him a little bit in his development. We’ll figure out where we’re going to put him first and see how he does there then make a final decision at some point.”

With three expiring contracts among the four projected starting linebackers — Von Miller, Alexander Johnson and Josey Jewell — there appear to be multiple paths for Browning to reach the starting lineup by 2022. Last year at Ohio State, Browning even played 10 snaps as an outside cornerback and 69 snaps in the slot, according to data compiled by Pro Football Focus.

But the priority for the Broncos is to have him learn one spot — perhaps seeking to avoid a mistake made with Justin Hollins, a 2019 Day 3 pick who saw work at inside and outside linebacker before being cut at the roster deadline last year.

The Los Angeles Rams — whose then-defensive coordinator, Brandon Staley, was on Denver’s staff in 2019 as outside-linebackers coach — quickly scooped him up off waivers and he round a home as a rotational outside linebacker, notching three sacks and 28 total tackles.

Avoiding the same outcome for Browning is a goal.

“I’d like to give him one spot when he gets here in the base package and work him around in the sub-packages to get a better feel for him,” Fangio said.