The Denver Broncos had just five picks to use in the 2023 NFL draft, but they will enter rookie minicamp with upwards of 20 rookies in attendance.
The Broncos have signed 14 undrafted free agents so far on our unofficial UDFA tracker, and at least one more player has been invited to camp on a tryout basis. Denver has a history of uncovering undrafted gems seemingly every year.
“[T]he minute the draft ends, [there is a] two-and-a-half-hour period where you don’t know that you’re going to be doing it, but you’re going to find the last starting running back for this team that played in the Super Bowl in [undrafted] free agency,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said last week, referring to former Denver running back C.J. Anderson.
“There are a bunch of those players that are sitting out there. They don’t know it yet. They’re not going to be drafted. Procuring more players and looking at each one with the lens of, ‘How can this guy do it?’ That’s still exciting. That’s the part that you’re like, ‘Did I flip enough magnets?’ The scouts have these guys stacked and there’s a process. We’re still working.”
The Broncos’ recent history of UDFA success stories includes Anderson, Chris Harris, Shaq Barrett, Phillip Lindsay, Alexander Johnson and just last year, Jalen Virgil and Brandon Johnson. Rod Smith was the best UDFA signing in franchise history, and Tim Patrick and Alex Singleton are also among the team’s current players who entered the league undrafted.
“Our scouts are over there working free agency,” GM George Paton said on Saturday. “Sean spoke to the scouts and the entire room today about all the former free agents that have made teams and gone to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We’re hoping to find a few really good players in free agency post draft.”
Who knows, maybe another UDFA gem will be part of this year’s signing class.
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