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Denver Post columnist Dave Krieger correctly noted the two NFL draft decisions for which coach Josh McDaniels and his crew will be second-guessed: taking more offensive players than defenders even though the defense blows like a $2 hooker, and trading the team’s first-round pick next year to Seattle for a 2009 second-round selection used to pick up cornerback Alphonso Smith.
This last move was exasperating for a couple of reasons. First, the Broncos have a plethora of defensive backs but mighty few d-lineman capable of generating the kind of pass rush that will give the corners and safeties a genuine chance to excel. And because the team will probably have a terrible record next season, that first round pick would have been higher than usual — maybe high enough to snag one of the outstanding quarterback prospects expected to be available in the 2010 draft. CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco lists three QBs apt to go in the top ten this time next year: Mississippi’s Jevan Snead, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford and Texas’ Colt McCoy — and he also sees value in Central Michigan’s Dan Lefever and Florida’s Tim Tebow.
I can’t agree with Prisco on this last one: Tebow seems like an NFL bust in the making. But it’s clear the next QB class is a talented one, and the Broncos could have had a shot at snaring someone promising if it still owned both its pick and the one it got from Chicago in the Jay Cutler exchange. And now? Hope you like Kyle Orton…
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