The impact of the Denver Broncos‘ rookie class was easy to see. That was mostly due to Bo Nix’s great rookie campaign leading the Broncos back to the playoffs.
The Broncos’ rookie class featured some standouts and others who failed to make a significant impact. NFL.com’s Gennaro Filice graded all 32 rookie draft classes from last season.
The Washington Commanders took the top spot, which is understandable given the Offensive Rookie of the Year, Jayden Daniels. The Broncos fell out of the top 10 to the 11th spot with a B grade.
“I need to admit something: I seriously doubted Bo Nix. As a man who cherishes college football equally to the pro game, I remember the quarterback’s deterioration at Auburn and stubbornly refused to buy into his Oregon renaissance,” Filice wrote. “When Denver drafted him 12th overall — as the sixth(!) quarterback off the board — I scoffed at the trendy take that Sean Payton had his new Drew Brees. And when Nix struggled mightily in September — SEE: a 1:4 TD-to-INT ratio with a 62.5 passer rating and a minuscule average of 4.8 yards per attempt — I felt a smug satisfaction for fading the most experienced starting quarterback in college football history.”
There were a lot of Nix doubters, myself included, and his first two starts seemed to justify those misgivings. However, there wasn’t any smug satisfaction here, as the Broncos needed Nix to step up.
The Broncos made the pick and needed the best out of the first-round quarterback. It’s a good thing he began turning it around in Week 3, leading the Broncos to an upset in Tampa Bay. From there, Nix began to make his doubters eat our words.
“But then something happened on the way to confirming my priors on Nix: He made me look like an idiot,” Filice wrote.
Filice would go on to praise Nix but didn’t explain why the Broncos received a B grade and barely mentioned the other rookies.
“Consequently, I’ve become a Bo believer. And given the promising contributions from other rookies like WR Devaughn Vele, OLB Jonah Elliss, CB Kris Abrams-Draine, and OLB Dondrea Tillman, I do think Payton could be building something special in Denver,” was how he finished his write-up on the Broncos,” Filice wrote.
While some may disagree with the B grade the Broncos received, it’s a fair grade. Nix carried the class, and while other rookies helped, their contributions were more limited. The teams ahead of Denver got a lot more out of their rookie class, while most also had one rookie steal the show.
Vele had the most receiving yards of any drafted rookie receiver after the second round. His impact was felt in key moments when Nix looked his way often.
This led to the second-highest passer rating, per Pro Football Focus, of all rookie receivers with at least 35 targets. Vele was the Broncos’ second-most significant rookie contributor.
After Vele, you have Elliss or Tillman, the Broncos’ third-round pick and an undrafted signing out of the UFL. Both notched five sacks, but Tillman had two more pressures on 165 pass rush snaps than Elliss’ 243.
This would put Tillman fourth in pressures by rookie edge rushers, with Elliss at fifth. Tillman also had a higher run defense grade from PFF compared to Elliss.
Abrams-Draine is the last rookie to be mentioned, and he made an impact when he saw the field. The issue is that it took him a while to garner snaps behind one of the best cornerback trios in the NFL. It took injuries for Abrams-Draine to finally get a chance, leading to five games played with one start.
Despite playing together in college, Troy Franklin and Nix were consistently off with their deep connections. Plus, Franklin isn’t a short-yardage, yards-after-the-catch receiver, which hurt his impact.
With an injury, Audric Estime had two fumbles on nine carries, which saw him be used sparingly for the season. Seventh-round offensive lineman Nick Garguilo had a couple of call-ups, but he spent the season on the practice squad.
Those three round out the Broncos’ draft class, and the team’s two other undrafted signings mentioned — Frank Crum and Levelle Bailey — never or barely saw the field, respectively.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Broncos’ 2024 rookie class explode in 2025, but for now, it deserves the B grade and the view as the NFL’s 11th-best class. Many believe that it takes three years before you can fully grade a draft class, so there are two years left on the clock.
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