Broncos Land NFL Draft’s ‘Top Steal’ In The Last Days

Denver entered April 25 without a first or second-round selection. The Waddle acquisition had cost them their original first, third and fourth-round picks, and a draft-day trade with Buffalo moved them out of Round 2 entirely. That left Rounds 3 through 7 as the effective draft haul. For a franchise trying to build around Bo Nix, that math looked brutal on paper. Most teams treat Day 3 as a lottery ticket run. The Broncos needed it to function as the heart of their draft. That kind of scarcity either exposes a front office or reveals one, and the board was about to tip Denver’s direction.

The Pick Everyone Skipped Past: Tyler Onyedim at 66

Before Coleman, there was Onyedim. Denver’s actual first selection of the draft came at No. 66, defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim, chosen after the Broncos traded back from No. 62 with Buffalo and picked up pick No. 182 in the process. The move was Paton’s quietest gamble of the weekend. Slide four spots, pocket a Round 6 asset, and still land the interior disruptor they had targeted. For a team without a first-rounder, turning No. 62 into Onyedim plus extra capital was the structural move that made the rest of Day 3 possible.

The Buffalo Trade Back That Made Day 3 Work

The Bills wanted to jump the run on inside linebackers and called Denver at No. 62. Paton sent the pick to Buffalo for No. 66 and No. 182, converting a premium slot into two selections without leaving the position range he wanted. That is the move that gave Denver seven picks across Rounds 3 through 7 instead of six. Without it, the Joly and Coleman hauls still happen, but the Day 3 depth story does not.

A Running Back Nobody Expected to Fall

Jonah Coleman was supposed to be gone by Round 3. Most published mock drafts had him off the board well before pick 100. The assumption across the draft community was simple. A back with Coleman’s production profile would not last past Day 2. Yet name after name got called through Round 3, then into Round 4, and Coleman kept sitting there. Thirty-two front offices passed on him. Then thirty-two passed again. The consensus was wrong, and Denver was watching the mistake happen in real time.

Pick 108 Changed the Entire Haul

The Broncos grabbed Coleman at 108th overall. A player mocked in Round 3 by most experts, available deep in Round 4. CBS Sports analyst Emory Hunt graded the pick A+. Sports Illustrated ran a headline calling Coleman one of the draft’s most underrated players. That gap between projection and reality is exactly what draft analysts mean when they use the word “steal.” One to two full rounds of value, captured in a single selection. Denver turned reduced draft capital into a pick that graded higher than most first-rounders across the league.

The Tight End Nobody Reached For

Coleman was not alone on the slide. Justin Joly, ranked the fourth-best tight end in the entire class and a first-team All-ACC selection, sat available until Round 5. Pick 152. A tight end with those credentials falling past 150 picks tells you something broke in how teams valued the position. The 2026 tight end class was thin, so teams reached early for Kenyon Sadiq and moved on. Joly got left on the rack at a discount. Denver grabbed him while other front offices chased need over talent.

Roster Fits Behind the Headlines

Coleman lands in a backfield that needed a downhill complement, and Joly slots into a big-slot role in Payton’s passing game. Kage Casey projects as an initial backup guard with left-tackle flex, and internal chatter already tags him as a candidate to replace Ben Powers at left guard in 2027. Dallen Bentley, the Round 7 tight end, is being developed as an in-line blocker with down-the-field upside rather than a Joly overlap. Those are distinct role definitions, not redundant picks, which is what separates a value draft from a volume draft.

The Numbers That Exposed the Market

Coleman was projected Round 3 and selected in Round 4. Joly was the fourth-ranked tight end and was taken in Round 5. Kage Casey was selected at 111th overall, adding depth at a position of need. The Broncos also added three Round 7 picks in Miles Scott, Dallen Bentley and Red Murdock, stretching their board to pick 257. Seven total selections across Rounds 3 through 7. Yahoo Sports and The Athletic labeled Coleman a steal and flagged Joly as a future TE1. That convergence across independent outlets does not happen by accident.

What Other Teams Missed

Every draft produces “steal” claims. The Browns heard it about McNeil-Warren at 58. The Colts heard it about Deion Burks in Round 7. Denver’s situation was different. The Broncos found multiple value players in a single weekend while operating with fewer picks than almost any team in the building. That is execution under constraint. Sean Payton’s post-draft comments reflected confidence, not relief. He spoke about Coleman fitting the scheme and competing for an immediate role. Scarcity forced discipline, and discipline produced a haul that looked like abundance.

What Paton and Payton Said in the War Room

Denver’s official war-room recap captured the front office’s framing plainly. “We just kind of took the best players as they came.” Payton and Paton both emphasized that the class helped the team at specific roster spots rather than chasing a headline pick. That language matters because it tracks with the board behavior. No reaches at thin positions like tight end, and no panic trade-ups after losing Rounds 1 and 3 in the Waddle deal.

Scarcity as a Draft Weapon

The conventional wisdom says draft success requires premium capital in Rounds 1 through 3. The Broncos just put a dent in that theory. Trading away top picks for Waddle looked like a gamble that would gut their depth. Instead, it concentrated the front office’s attention on a narrower window where market inefficiencies live. When you only have Day 2’s back half and Day 3 to work with, you stop chasing ceiling and start hunting value. That shift in approach turned what looked like a disadvantage into the most talked-about Day 3 class in the draft.

How the Class Stacks Up League-Wide

USA Today’s post-draft rankings of the biggest steals placed multiple Day 3 running backs and interior linemen among the top 10 values of the 2026 class, validating the broader market inefficiency Denver exploited. The Athletic’s takeaway on Denver specifically was that the Broncos gave themselves more options at running back and tight end, which are exactly the two positions Coleman and Joly address. When three independent outlets including USA Today, The Athletic and CBS Sports arrive at overlapping conclusions about a seven-pick class with no top-60 selection, the “steal” framing stops being hype and starts looking like consensus.

The Pressure Hasn’t Even Started

Analyst grades are paper. Training camp is concrete. Coleman now has to earn carries behind an offensive line that will determine whether his draft slide was other teams’ mistake or their foresight. Joly enters a tight end room where production, not pedigree, decides playing time. The Broncos’ draft grades ranged from C- to A+ depending on the analyst, which means even the experts cannot agree on whether Paton outsmarted the league or got lucky with falling talent. That argument will not be settled until September at the earliest.

The Real Test Starts in Denver

Most fans remember who went first overall. Almost nobody remembers who went 108th. Unless that player becomes a starter. The Broncos bet their entire 2026 draft on the idea that Rounds 4 through 7 could carry a franchise building around a young quarterback. If Coleman and Joly hit, Denver just proved that losing premium picks does not have to mean losing the draft. If they miss, the Waddle trade absorbs all the blame. Either way, the Broncos just made every front office reconsider what “draft capital” actually means.

If Coleman and Joly both start by Week 6, does the Waddle trade go down as Paton’s best move or his riskiest? Tell us where you land in the comments.

Sources:
Denver Broncos Official Website, “Who did the Broncos draft? A list of Denver’s 2026 picks,” April 25, 2026
ESPN, “Denver Broncos 2026 NFL draft picks: Full list, analysis,” April 25, 2026
NFL.com, “Dolphins trading WR Jaylen Waddle to Broncos for draft picks, including 2026 first-rounder,” March 17, 2026
The Athletic, “Denver Broncos NFL Draft 2026 pick tracker: Grades, fits and scouting reports,” April 25, 2026
Yahoo Sports, “NFL draft: Grading all of the Broncos’ picks in 2026 class,” April 28, 2026
Sports Illustrated, “Broncos’ Biggest Winners & Losers From the 2026 Draft Haul,” April 26, 2026