Broncos Draft Prediction Puts TE Tyler Warren in Play at No. 20 Overall

The offseason and the ebbs and flows of the NFL draft are quite funny. With the Denver Broncos picking at 20, at this point, there have been players mocked to them that will be long gone by the time they're on the clock.

There have also been ample players consistently mocked well before fans likely believed the Broncos had little to nab, but who could, in fact, very well be there. Such is the case in Yahoo’s Nate Tice and Charles McDonald’s recent mock.

With everyone’s new favorite de facto No. 20 overall pick in North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton on the board, Tice opted for the Broncos to go a different direction. Tice let Hampton slide all the way to pick 29, with the Broncos landing the once-beloved, now seemingly forgotten Penn State tight end Tyler Warren.

"Signing Evan Engram in free agency should not preclude the Broncos from drafting Warren here," Tice wrote. "Warren’s potential as a move-around chess piece makes him a fun potential fit with head coach Sean Payton, with his reliable hands and dynamic ability as an underneath weapon providing Bo Nix with a receiving option he can rely on and develop with."

The Broncos have only one truly unacceptable hole on the roster at the running back position. However, given the specifics of running back, how they're historically a day-one contributor, and a position that can be found all up and down the draft in what should be one of the better and deeper classes in quite some time, the Broncos are not forced to go running back at pick 20 — unless they love a player beyond simply the position they play and the hole they fill.

The Broncos are entering the final leg ahead of the draft, with the tight end room being competent in the short term. Engram’s contract and age likely don't make him a viable option beyond the next few seasons. He also is far more of an F tight end in his role, as opposed to someone who can line up inline as a Y.

Instead of replacing Engram or competing with the Broncos’ biggest offensive acquisition so far this offseason, drafting Warren would likely push Adam Trautman and Nate Atkins down the depth chart, while relegating Lucas Krull to the practice squad (should he clear waivers when that time point comes).

It isn’t just running back that the Broncos need with a three-year perspective (or so), but they need to find foundational pieces at pass-catcher to help take advantage of Bo Nix and his rookie cost-control window.

Will Warren be available at pick 20? That remains to be seen, as there has been some momentum over the last week to have the other first-round tight end in Michigan’s Colston Loveland jump him as the first one off the board. The consensus has been that Warren is the better inline player with a more classical tight end projection, with Loveland instead being more of the hybrid slot tight end type. But the opinions on that appear to be more mixed than initially let on.

Warren might also fall to Denver because, simply put, he plays a devalued position that, for the most part, the NFL has been atrocious at correctly identifying talent and drafting properly over the last decade. Before Brock Bowers, the list of first-round tight ends was a graveyard of poor picks.

There just aren’t many needle movers at the position, and there is added risk in sinking premium resources in a position where teams don’t seem to succeed in drafting the better players earlier. And that doesn’t even touch on the cost control aspect with how tight ends are not paid as high on the open market compared to nearly every other position.

While Warren felt like a dream before the start of free agency with so many mocking him in the top 10 and the Broncos'desperate need for a playmaker at tight end to fulfill the “joker” role, he has seemingly been forgotten as a genuine option at No. 20 by fans because many likely believe he was unobtainable.

Fans simply latched on to the next biggest roster hole at running back. But if Warren were to fall to Denver at 20, he is without a doubt a viable option to further add talent to help diversify Sean Payton’s offense and add weaponry for Nix.