ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In the days after the Broncos' AFC Championship Game loss, Denver's leaders acknowledged they accomplished in 2025.
Fourteen regular-season wins. An AFC West title. The conference's No. 1 seed.
And yet, just hours removed from a successful season, General Manager George Paton also referenced that teams would be pushing to topple the Broncos from that perch.
"We're going to have to build," Paton said on Jan. 27. "… We just need to get better than we were."
Nearly three months have passed, and Paton and the Broncos believe their freshly assembled seven-player 2026 NFL Draft class has helped meet that target.
After selecting defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim with the 66th-overall pick, the Broncos added six more players on Saturday — including running back Jonah Coleman, offensive lineman Kage Casey and tight end Justin Joly to begin the day.
Aided by the pick they acquired in the trade down from No. 62, the Broncos moved up the board to snag Joly. They then waited nearly 100 picks before adding another tight end in Dallen Bentley and a pair of defenders in safety Miles Scott and linebacker Red Murdock.
The Broncos' early Day 3 push for offensive contributors wasn't intentional, according to Paton, but it did represent opportunities where the best player available aligned with need.
"I hate saying, 'The best player' [as the strategy], but we just kind of took the best players as they came," Paton said. "Sometimes need and the best player intersected, and it worked out."
And in turn, the Broncos were able to add more quality pieces to a roster that already stood among the league's strongest.
"I think we both feel really good about the last couple days and the team in general," said Paton of his and Head Coach Sean Payton's reaction to the draft. "… I think we helped our depth; we helped our team in a lot of areas. We wanted to get younger in both lines. I feel like we did that. Wanted to get some offensive help, as well, more explosion. I think we helped ourselves at running back and tight end and just depth across the board. So, I think we got younger; I think we got better over the weekend."
Paton's sentiment echoed throughout the draft room, as Assistant General Manager Reed Burckhardt touched on the ability of this class to fit in with the existing players in the Broncos' locker room.
"They fit our culture," Burckhardt said. "All these guys, they're going to raise the level when they come in and add to our current group and they're going to fit right in. And so, when we can add to the collective, we feel really good about it."
As Paton noted, though, the Broncos' draft class should be evaluated as more than the seven players selected on Friday and Saturday. Denver previously acquired wide receiver Jaylen Waddle with its first-round pick, which makes the dynamic receiver a de facto member of the draft class. And with three 1,000-yard seasons in the last five years, Waddle should be an instant impact player in Denver. Both Paton and Payton spoke ahead of the draft about how, in the course of their evaluation, Waddle compared favorably to potential options with the 30th-overall pick.
"You factor in [that] our first-round pick is a really good player, so [we] feel good about that as a whole," Paton said as he evaluated the Broncos' class.
Added Co-Director of Player Personnel Cam Williams: "We're super excited. We think we got better. Definitely, Waddle was a huge piece of that."
Following the trade for Waddle, the Broncos entered the draft looking to fortify their roster and set themselves up for another successful season. Across seven picks, the Broncos believe they've done that.
"We just added to a really good locker room," Paton said.
