Over the last five drafts the Broncos have spent the third least draft capital in the league on offensive line picks
For the fifth straight NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos did not select an offensive tackle at any point during the draft. Unless you count Dalton Risner (who has never taken a snap at OT in the NFL) or Luke Wattenberg who is expected to be an interior offensive line player for the Broncos.
If you use the old draft pick value method (the Jimmy Johnson values) or the Fitzgerald-Spielberger values the Broncos have invested the third least draft capital in the offensive line over the last five drafts. The F-S values make it look a little less drastic because they assign much more value to day three picks than the JJ valuation chart, but it still shows that the Broncos have chosen to mostly build their offensive line through late round picks, free agents and undrafted guys. Note the values shown below are for 2018-2022 draft picks.
Over the last 5 drafts the Broncos have spent the third least draft capital on OL picks. KC has spent the least. Not counting draft capital traded for offensive line guys. pic.twitter.com/v7CUc5rrZN
— Joe Mahoney (@ndjomo76) May 2, 2022
Below are the valuations of the offensive linemen that we have selected since the 2018 draft – inclusive.
| Year | Round | Pick | Player | Position | College/U. | F-S value | Old JJ Value |
| 2018 | 6 | 183 | Sam Jones | G | Arizona St. | 360 | 18.2 |
| 2019 | 2 | 41 | Dalton Risner | G | Kansas St. | 1118 | 490 |
| 2020 | 3 | 83 | Lloyd Cushenberry III | C | LSU | 761 | 175 |
| 2020 | 6 | 181 | Netane Muti | G | Fresno St. | 366 | 19 |
| 2021 | 3 | 98 | Quinn Meinerz | G/C | Wisconsin-Whitewater | 676 | 108 |
| 2022 | 5 | 171 | Luke Wattenberg | OL | Washington | 394 | 23 |
Of course this timeframe leaves out the largest draft capital investment of the Broncos, drafting Garett Bolles with the 20th overall pick in 2017. The 20th pick has a values of 1482 by F-S and 850 by JJ. I’m sure the Broncos would jump up significantly if the study went back to 2017.
Added AV and scaled all to match F-S and OLD value for #1 overall pick (3000). zoomed view on right pic.twitter.com/xzq03eGShY
— Joe Mahoney (@ndjomo76) April 7, 2022
Do you think that the Broncos should have used more draft capital on the offensive line recently?