Broncos go in completely different direction in 2025 NFL Draft do-over

The Denver Broncos were one of the surprise teams in the NFL in 2024, breaking a long playoff drought by earning an AFC Wild Card. Though they lost in the playoffs to the Buffalo Bills, the future seemed bright so long as they added some offensive pieces for Bo Nix to work with. 

When the free-agent signing period opened the following offseason, the expectation was that the team would do just that. Instead, Evan Engram was the only big-ticket signing the team made before that April's draft. 

Once the draft came around, fans were looking for a spark on offense in the first round. Instead, the Broncos used their first-round pick to add to one of their biggest strengths, the secondary, by drafting Texas' Jahdae Barron. Though Barron had won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's best defensive back in 2024, the Broncos picking him was a surprise. 

Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report recently looked back on that draft and had every team do it again. This time, the Broncos came away with one of the top offensive players in the draft when they landed Ashton Jeanty. 

"Cornerback Jahdae Barron may well turn out to be an excellent NFL player before his career is over. But Barron was a non-factor for Denver's defense last year, playing less than 350 snaps.

Now imagine the impact that Jeanty's arrival would have on the Denver offense.

Yes, Jeanty's numbers as a rookie weren't great—he failed to hit 1,000 rushing yards and managed just 3.7 yards per carry. But those struggles had a lot more to do with the Vegas offense being absolute trash last year than any issues with Jeanty—when you average a miserable 1.6 yards per carry before contact, it's just about impossible to have success.

Even with everything working against him last year, Jeanty still had over 1,300 total yards, caught 55 passes and found the end zone 10 times.

Denver's offense with Jeanty and Jaylen Waddle would be—something", wrote Davenport. 

You may remember that there were some mock drafts last spring that had the Broncos landing Jeanty. Of course, that was never possible as the Raiders took him with the No. 6 overall pick. In Davenport's redraft, the Raiders address what was likely the worst offensive line in football last year by instead selecting Will Campbell out of LSU. 

How would the Broncos look had they drafted Ashton Jeanty?

Jeanty would have obviously been a huge grab for the Broncos and their entire backfield would look completely different right now with him. You could easily make the argument that all of J.K. Dobbins, RJ Harvey and Jonah Coleman would not be on the roster currently. 

Jeanty likely would have had much more success in his rookie year than he did in reality, as well as he would have had a much better group of blockers to run behind. 

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Things like this always provide for a fun discussion, but Jeanty is still a player the Broncos will be forced to face twice each season. They will have to hope that Barron develops into the defensive back they hoped he would be when they drafted him and perhaps he can play a role in slowing Jeanty down when those matchups occur. 

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