Grading Broncos’ 2024 NFL draft: Evaluating Sean Payton and George Paton’s weekend

The Post s sports staff weighs in with grades on the Denver Broncos NFL draft Parker Gabriel Broncos beat writer Grade B- Yes it s a bit silly to grade a draft right after it ends The real tale of the tape starts to unfold in the fall but teams really want three years to evaluate a class The Broncos get dinged a bit for not landing a tight end until No overall though at chosen point there s only so much a club can control about how the board falls Points for staying true to the board in the first round and taking Jahdae Barron Then they went to work moving around the board It ll never feel quite as buzzy when a quarterback s not involved but several players in this class can make an early impact for Sean Payton s company Luca Evans Broncos beat writer Grade B Sure the Broncos output from the past three days relative to the amount of buzz in pre-draft mocks looks kinda bleh Then you look a little deeper and each pick makes sense in a vacuum First-round pick Jahdae Barron can play at a variety of spots in the secondary and was a pretty solid value at No RJ Harvey can be the difference-maker in space at running back that Sean Payton covets Pat Bryant is a big receiver with sure hands And Denver added particular defensive-line upside guys in Sai vion Jones and Que Robinson They could ve used chosen more offensive-line depth and maybe a tight end and Bryant and Robinson might ve been slight reaches but this was an overall combination of best-player-available and best-fit that grades out decent enough Troy Renck sports columnist Grade B- There s no fault in the Broncos taking Jahdae Barron in the first round The value was impossible to pass up But the lack of aggression in addressing the running back wide receiver and tight end positions remains puzzling Denver had multiple chances to move up for a tight end or even to take local kid Gunnar Helm on Day What are the Broncos going to do if Evan Engram gets hurt For this draft to pay off the onus is on RJ Harvey to develop into an impact sportsman as a rookie Related Articles Broncos analysis Denver likely to count on several from this draft class in quest fo AFC contention Broncos NFL draft picks Day What to know about Denver s three selections on final day Cherry Creek s Gunnar Helm goes to Tennessee Titans in fourth round of NFL draft Broncos NFL draft tracker Day Denver finishes draft with former Division I basketball participant Utah TE Caleb Lohner best available fits for Broncos on Day of NFL draft Sean Keeler sports columnist Grade B What happened to giving Bo Nix as countless weapons as attainable Barron was an eyebrow-raiser given the offensive talent on the board at the time Harvey is a possible home run every time he touches the ball but sometimes plays smaller than he s listed and didn t look like a prototypical three-down back at UCF Bryant felt like a reach but based on last year s rookie haul I ve learned to give the law firm of Payton Paton the benefit of the doubt when it comes to picks from rounds - Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis