Report: Broncos Looking to Trade Up in First Round of Draft

The Broncos could be looking to make a blockbuster trade up the round-one draft board.

For the better part of the last month, we at Mile High Huddle have been trying to prepare our readers for the possibility that the Denver Broncos might defy expectations and do something different in the first round of the NFL Draft. 

We're not alone, as Denver insiders like Mike Klis reported two weeks ago that the Broncos could have a 'curveball' up their sleeve and that their wide receiver big board isn't the same as everyone else's.  Just last Friday, we learned from ESPN's Jeff Legwold that the offensive tackle position is very much in play for the Broncos at pick 15. 

And thanks to a report on Monday morning by SI's Albert Breer, we have even more insight into the offensive tackle question. He broke some news, in fact. 

O.K., so who is looking at trading up? Three teams that seem to be investigating it pretty pointedly: Tampa, Denver and Atlanta. The Bucs and Broncos, I’ve heard, could be going up for one of the top four linemen (Becton, Jedrick Wills, Tristan Wirfs and Andrew Thomas), making Jacksonville’s slot, at No. 9, a potential hotspot, given the needs the Browns and Jets have at 10 and 11. It’s not as clear what the Falcons would be pursuing, though GM Thomas Dimitroff has always, in the past, been more proactive than most in looking at the option of moving up.

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What it Means

If this report is true, it would mean all the wide receiver/Henry Ruggs III noise has been a smokescreen to obfuscate the Broncos' true intentions of landing a tackle. Any of those four OT prospects would be a great alternative to Garett Bolles, but Wirfs rises above the rest as the best fit for Denver. 

The biggest reason why is Wirfs' versatility. If the Broncos traded up to draft Wirfs, it would spell certain doom for Bolles and virtually guarantee that his fifth-year option will not be picked up by the team. 

The Broncos would still have Bolles for 2020, though, and Wirfs could step in and start at right guard, which would mean the recently-signed Graham Glasgow would move over to center for the upcoming season.

Wirfs is one of the blue-chip talents of this class. There's a good chance he'd check both boxes when it comes to best player available and need. 

"I think we all have desires and wishes about hopefully that the best player available matches our need at 15," Head Coach Vic Fangio said on March 31. "We still have enough needs on both sides of the ball that I think the best player will still be the philosophy used for the most part... When you are picking, you just hope that you have a player there that is at the top of the board or near the top that matches it. We’d like to add players in a lot of different areas to make us better.”

If the Broncos indeed traded up to grab Wirfs, or one of the other first-round-caliber OTs, GM John Elway could still go to the WR well with pick 46 in the second round. Names to monitor on early day two could be LSU's Justin Jefferson (unlikely to be there but possible), Baylor's Denzel Mims (same), TCU's Jalen Reagor, Texas' Devin Duvernay, Arizona State's Brandon Aiyuk, and Michigan's Donovan Peoples-Jones. 

The Broncos might be able to have their cake and eat it, too, if Elway were to use a couple of the team's trio of third-round picks to trade up into the back-end of the first round, or the top of round two, in order to maximize the odds of landing a Jefferson, Mims, or Reagor. 

As always, take the Breer report with a grain of salt. That doesn't mean it's not true, but with the draft less than two weeks away, it is the epoch of the lying season in the NFL. There's a lot of fake info floating around that's being 'leaked' by NFL front offices. 

Elway's been in this business now long enough to know exactly how to manipulate the grapevine. 

Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.