PFF Pounds Table for Broncos to Target Alabama WR Isaiah Bond in 2025 Draft

It's never too early to look ahead to the NFL draft, but is this really a need area for the Denver Broncos?

Texas White wide receiver Isaiah Bond runs the ball in to score a touchdown during the fourth quarter of a spring game. / Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA

The Denver Broncos kick off training camp in about two weeks on July 26. It's never too early to gaze into the crystal ball to see what the future may hold for the Broncos.

With the NFL summer almost in the books, Pro Football Focus' Trevor Sikkema has identified a specific area where Broncos head coach Sean Payton might look to improve in 2025. Alabama wide receiver Isaiah Bond was tapped by PFF as a player to watch for the Broncos, linking the speedster in the 2025 NFL draft.

"Jerry Jeudy is with the Browns and Courtland Sutton is entering the final year of his deal with guaranteed money, so the Broncos could be looking for a difference-making pass-catcher in 2025.

"Isaiah Bond, who played at Alabama the past two seasons and is now at Texas, brings world-class speed to the football field. He won state championships in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes in track. He is smaller at just 180 pounds and needs more nuance in his routes, but you can’t teach his explosiveness and top speed," Sikkema wrote.

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The way that the Jeudy pick (2020 first-rounder) flamed out shouldn't make the Broncos gun-shy in next year's draft. However, the crapshoot that is the draft is omnipresent, especially when it comes to selecting super-fast receivers like Jeudy.

As good as Bond is, the Broncos could be extra careful with their future evaluations of wide receivers in the wake of dealing Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns. NFL teams have a pathological weakness for fast pass-catchers. Such speed can often blind NFL general managers, and affect their thinking.

Bond's prodigious accomplishments in track and field are likely to make scouts drool over their stopwatches. It's all too easy to measure a player by seconds and yards, but critical due diligence shouldn't stop after the sprinter breaks the tape.

Several national scouting networks have pinpointed most of the same straight speed/ball-tracking abilities that Bond brings to the table, making him an ascending draft prospect for 2025. In truth, much will depend on how the 20-year-old adjusts to transferring from Alabama to Texas for the forthcoming college campaign.

That process of improvement and adjustment is absolutely crucial for Bond, especially if he's going to improve on The Draft Network's projection, which has him rated currently as a Day 2 draft prospect.

If Payton and the Broncos were of a mind to use a premium draft pick on Bond, they'd have to be confident he could deliver better production than Jeudy did previously. Furthermore, pulling the trigger on Bond next April would have a lot to do with what Broncos GM George Paton does with Sutton's tricky contract requests, which remain unresolved.

Any holdout by Sutton would do much to burn bridges between him and the Broncos front office. That could make the Broncos think much more seriously about seeking Sutton's long-term replacement in next year's draft.

Before the Broncos would seriously consider Bond, presumably, the coaching staff would also have to have lost some faith in Marvin Mims Jr. After all, Mims already fits the bill of a classic downfield burner who can stretch the field for his quarterback. 

If Mims can be successfully developed into a bonafide receiver this year, the draft need that PFF is asserting would become far less pressing for the Broncos.

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