The Denver Broncos selected North Dakota State edge defender Derrek Tuszka in the seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft on Saturday. Denver initially reached out to Tuszka’s agent to talk about the possibility of signing him as a college free agent after the draft.
After learning of interest from other teams, the Broncos opted to select Tuszka with pick No. 254 instead of trying to get into a bidding war with other teams.
“Towards the end of the draft here this afternoon, I was getting a bunch of calls,” Tuszka said during a Zoom conference call with reporters on April 25.” They reached out to my agent and were kind of talking about free agency, but with the number of free agent offers that I was having they found it was in their best interest to take me right towards the end there.”
Tuszka probably would have been one of Denver’s top UDFA targets had they not drafted him. The Broncos ended up signing seven UDFAs.
Tuszka (6-4, 251 pounds) was a productive pass rusher at NDSU, totaling 29.5 career sacks. He’ll compete for a backup outside linebacker job in Denver this offseason.
“I don’t try to get too fancy,” Tuszka said of his pass rushing. “It all starts with a good off. When you’re thinking about too many moves that you might have, it slows you down. I keep it pretty simple and just play football.”
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