Broncos' quiet opening night of NFL Draft a reminder of stakes in 2026

AFC EastBillsDolphinsJetsPatriotsAFC NorthBengalsBrownsRavensSteelersAFC SouthColtsJaguarsTexansTitansAFC WestBroncosChargersChiefsRaidersNFC EastCommandersCowboysEaglesGiantsNFC NorthBearsLionsPackersVikingsNFC SouthBuccaneersFalconsPanthersSaintsNFC West49ersCardinalsRamsSeahawksScores & ScheduleStandingsFantasyNFL OddsNFL PicksNFL DraftPodcastsScoop City NewsletterNFL Draft UpdatesThe BeastConsensus RankingsTop 300 Rankings7-Round Draft Order2026 NFL Draft The Broncos traded out of Thursday night's first round of the NFL Draft in exchange for receiver Jaylen Waddle. Rich Storry / Getty Images Share articleENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It has been the offseason of delayed gratification for the Broncos. A week of free-agency flurry came and went without any external players signing in Denver. Then, the Broncos struck one of the biggest moves of the NFL offseason by acquiring star wide receiver Jaylen Waddle from the Dolphins, adding a premier target for quarterback Bo Nix. Afterward, coach Sean Payton had a message for the “What took so long?” portion of the fan base. “You have to apply some patience and have a good plan,” Payton said at the NFL’s annual league meetings in late March. “We recognize where we are at. We understand exactly where we are at with Bo’s (rookie) contract, our team. And yet, the mistake that two-thirds of the teams make is trying to win the day. Win the draft day, win the hiring cycle day and win the free-agency day. We are interested in winning. That’s why our fan base is extremely important to us, but we are going to do what we think is best for our team to be better when this puzzle is finished at the end of, call it June. Then what do we look like at that point?” The Waddle splash created the need for more patience. On Thursday, Payton, general manager George Paton, owners Greg and Carrie Penner and the team’s personnel staff gathered at team headquarters for a night that was far different than that of their AFC West counterparts. Having dished their first-round pick to Miami in the trade — along with a third-round selection — the Broncos were spectators on the biggest night of the offseason. Paton had called it “unlikely” that Denver would leap from its current first selection at No. 62 into the first round, a jump that would have required Denver to forfeit a truckload of current and future draft capital. Sure enough, no such move materialized. The quiet night was a reminder that the die has largely already been cast on the build toward 2026. The Broncos are scheduled to make seven selections in the draft Friday and Saturday. They’ll sign undrafted free agents to bring along during the offseason program and could add another veteran or two in the late stages of free agency. But the Broncos were nonparticipants Thursday night because they’ve already chosen their course. The Broncos have installed a new play caller in Davis Webb, the 31-year-old, newly promoted offensive coordinator who will be the first person other than Payton on a Payton-coached team to permanently be in the quarterback’s ears on game days. The Broncos re-signed J.K. Dobbins, their leading rusher from a season ago. They kept their tight end room together. They brought back every member of the offensive line who played snaps last season. Then, a team that went 14-3 and finished one score shy of a trip to the Super Bowl added a playmaking receiver who has totaled more than 5,000 receiving yards during his five seasons with the Dolphins — a piece who will impact the Broncos’ offense in 2026 in a way they didn’t believe any player drafted Thursday would. “We spent a lot of time looking at that (No. 30) selection and trying to determine … we could safely say that pick would’ve been one of these seven or eight players,” Payton said last month. “We didn’t feel like that would help us as much as Jaylen Waddle.” Five wide receivers were selected in Thursday’s first round. That included Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr., who was selected by the Jets and GM Darren Mougey, a former Denver front-office executive. Cooper was selected with the No. 30 pick, the choice the Broncos possessed before trading it for Waddle. Cooper visited the Broncos before they made the deal for the veteran playmaker. The 22-year-old caught 13 touchdown passes last season for the national champion Hoosiers. Time will tell what he becomes with NFL seasoning. The Broncos could have had Cooper and kept their third-round pick in the process. Instead, they made the move of a team that believes it can take the last step in a championship climb. Waddle is not a one-year rental. He is still only 27 years old, as Paton pointed out last month. He will play with a quarterback whose ability to move around in the pocket will open second-act possibilities for Waddle that weren’t routinely available with Tua Tagovailoa in Miami, particularly during the quarterback’s injury-plagued past two seasons. There was certainly a long-term element of the move. Still, choosing Waddle over participation in Thursday’s first round was very much about 2026. The Broncos needed another playmaker, no matter how much they lavished praise on their young receiving corps when the offseason began. “He is explosive,” Payton said last month. “I think if you asked me, the single biggest thing that I think he does well is he’s extremely fast and he stops fast. He can sink his hips in transition, and then the other thing that came up time and time again is how competitive he is.” There are other pieces that have to come together. The Broncos have expressed robust confidence in Webb’s ability to step in as the play caller and open up a new element of an offense that finished in the middle of the pack in 2025. They need Dobbins to stay healthy — and they need second-year back RJ Harvey to be more equipped to handle a lead-back load if Dobbins can’t stay healthy. They need Nix, entering his third NFL season, to take another step forward after his strong close to the season, which included a brilliant comeback performance in the playoffs against the Bills. The Broncos will also need to make the most of their seven picks, beginning with Friday’s second-rounder. Denver may not be looking for 2026 starters, but extending their window into the future hinges on their ability to keep hitting with Day 2 and 3 picks as they have with impact pieces such as Nik Bonitto, Quinn Meinerz, Jonathon Cooper, Riley Moss and Marvin Mims. Those players weren’t Year 1 starters, but they have become valuable contributors for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. There’s still plenty that must come together for the Broncos to reach their ultimate goal next season. If it does, though, a quiet night to open the NFL Draft will have been a small price to pay. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms