The Lead
It happens every year: some prospects will have to wait to hear their names called far longer than they expected. And every year, some teams will leap at the chance to stop those slides and find great players well after they thought they'd be available.
With the last pick of the second round, the Broncos could be in a good spot to do find one of those players and add him to their roster.
During his conference call with media members on Thursday, NFL.com draft guru Daniel Jeremiah picked out a few names from the defensive side of the ball that Broncos fans should keep an eye on.
"If you want to just add some DBs here to the group to continue to add on there, gosh, it'll be interesting to see who could fall," Jeremiah said. "Those guys — corners especially — continue to get pushed up. Roger McCreary is a fun one out of Auburn. I like him a lot, but he's not real big. He's got short arms. But just a really, really good player, smooth. He can really compete, which is my favorite quality about him, especially you watch him against Penn State, against [WR Jahan] Dotson, you watch him against [WR Treylon] Burks at Arkansas — just a really tough, kind of gritty player. That could be one I could see potentially being there."
Turning his attention to the defensive line, Jeremiah then picked out two players who have the range to play almost anywhere on the line.
"Perrion Winfrey would be a name I would keep an eye on, from Oklahoma. He's my 49th player, but that's reasonable. DeMarvin Leal from [Texas] A&M is another one who's got some inside-outside versatility. Those guys would kind of be in that range if you're looking for interior players."
But where the Broncos could potentially find the most value is adding a playmaking pass-rusher with their first pick.
"If you're looking for an edge rusher in that range, [Oklahoma's] Nik Bonitto would be a home run," Jeremiah said. "… He's not Von Miller, but he kind of plays like Von, like a poor man's Von. He can really, really bend at the top of his rush and can do some nice things off the edge. So he's my 43rd player. I think I'm a little higher on him than the rest of the league, and I'm OK with that. That would be a heck of a pick."
Below the Fold
In some potential good news, the Pro Football Hall of Fame's board of trustees approved changes to the election process for its senior, contributor and coach categories, Talk of Fame Network’s Clark Judge reports.
Over the next three years (for the 2023-25 enshrinement classes), the senior category will now have the three finalists per year. Previously, only one senior candidate could be selected as a finalist each year. Senior candidates are "defined as 25 years or more from retirement," as Judge writes. In addition, contributors and coaches will form one category.
"The overwhelming opinion of voters then was that something needed to be done to reduce the enormous backlog of Hall-of-Fame worthy seniors," Judge wrote. "So something was."
