Last year, the Denver Broncos would have loved to have traded down from the 12th overall pick, added more selections in the 2024 Draft, and still landed quarterback Bo Nix. Who doesn't like to have their cake and eat it, too?
When the picks started rolling in, the Broncos likely didn't feel like they would be the last of a whopping six teams to select a quarterback within the first 12 picks overall, so they quickly abandoned the idea of trading down and getting cute with it in favor of just taking the guy they wanted at that pick slot. They caught wind of other teams behind them potentially liking Nix as much as they did, and they didn't want to mess around with it.
As we inch ever closer to the 2025 NFL Draft, you can't help but wonder if GM George Paton and head coach Sean Payton will be taking a similar approach. This draft class is considered exceptionally deep at a number of positions in which the Broncos have significant needs, so adding more picks in rounds 2-4 would seem to be a good strategy.
But adding picks might not be the ultimate reason why the Broncos move down from the 20th pick. NFL Network draft guru Daniel Jeremiah pegged the Broncos as an ideal candidate to trade down, but the motivation for that will come from other teams wanting to move up, not from Denver's desire to move down.
Broncos could help another NFL team land their future starting QB
The benefit of having a quarterback in place is that other teams will give you a call if there's a quarterback sitting on the board that they covet when you're on the clock. When the Broncos are on the clock at pick number 20 overall, it's expected that possibly both of Alabama's Jalen Milroe and Ole Miss's Jaxson Dart will be on the board. There has also been talk lately of Colorado's Shedeur Sanders potentially falling that far as well.
The NFL trade value chart is not necessarily a "by the book" kind of thing, but it's more accurate than not. The value of Denver's 20th overall pick on the chart is 850 points while the Browns and Giants' second-round picks are worth 580 and 560, respectively. They'd have some ground to make up which would begin with their 3rd-round picks, as Jeremiah said, and those are worth 265 (Giants pick 65th) and 255 (Browns pick 67th), respectively.
Even with both of those picks included, there would be ground to make up for both teams. Cleveland's picks come out to a total value of 835 points on the chart while New York's point value of the 34th and 65th picks come out to 825 points. Then you factor in that we're talking about the quarterback position, and you're going to end up getting "taxed" for that. So throw an arbitrary extra 100 or so points of value on Denver's pick.
The Giants also own the 99th and 105th overall picks, which would both be nice to add to Denver's current war chest. The Browns own picks 94 and 104 overall on top of the aforementioned selections.
If there's a quarterback either of these teams covet at pick 20 overall, the Broncos might get blown away with an offer they can't refuse.
And that's the major difference in approach to moving down from the 20th pick. If the Broncos are the ones motivated to move down, they might not get a great value to do so. But if another team is motivated -- especially by a quarterback -- to move up, then the Broncos might be able to get an absolute haul for their pick, potentially even starting to load up their war chest next year as well.
But given the meat of this draft between rounds 2-4, the idea of the Broncos going from having three selections in the top 100 to potentially having five is very tantalizing, indeed.
