10 biggest draft steals in Denver Broncos history

First-round picks in the NFL draft get all of the fanfare, media attention and buzz, but the draft goes deep for a reason. And every year, great players are found in the later rounds and even the undrafted free-agent process.

The Denver Broncos have found some of the best players in team history in the first three rounds, but some other greats have come much later in the process. Draft picks are important, even if they are in later rounds. Often, players drafted in the later rounds are quickly forgotten when they are not a big part of the team or are out of the league not long after. But that happens with players drafted early too.

For the purpose of this exercise, we are looking at every draft class in the history of the Denver Broncos and identifying the 10 biggest draft steals in team history. To be included on the list, a player had to be drafted in the fourth round or later. Who brought the team the most value from their late-round draft slot?

10 biggest draft steals in Denver Broncos history

Super Bowl XXII – Denver Broncos v Washington Redskins | Focus On Sport/GettyImages

In 1986, the Broncos found Mark Jackson out of Purdue late in the draft. He never turned heads while he was in college and caught just 51 total passes and scored six touchdowns during his time with the school.

The Broncos took a shot on him as a new target for John Elway and it worked out well for the team. He caught 38 passes as a rookie and though he was often the least recognized member of the “Three Amigos” wide receiver trio that the team had at the time, he is the player that caught the game-tying touchdown pass to cap off “The Drive” in Cleveland in the AFC Championship Game during that same rookie season.

He finished his time in Denver with 276 receptions for 4,746 yards and 24 touchdowns. He will never be mentioned in a conversation talking about the best wide receivers in team history, but for a sixth-round pick, he did quite well.

In 2000, the Broncos found a running back out of Utah to add to their roster as a depth piece. Anderson was a strong running back in college, averaging around five yards per carry and scoring 22 touchdowns in two seasons at Utah, but he still didn’t get too much attention going into this draft.

He joined the Broncos during that 2000 season and made an immediate impact. He rushed for 1,487 yards and 15 touchdowns that year en route to being named the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. In a game against the New Orleans Saints, he rushed for 251 yards, which still stands as the most ever in a game for the Broncos. He also became the first rookie in NFL history to have three games with 175 yards or more on the ground.

Anderson dealt with several injuries after that rookie season and missed the entire 2004 season. He finished his Broncos career with 3,822 yards rushing and scored 36 touchdowns on the ground.

Tyrone Braxton was one of the most underrated defensive backs in Broncos history. | Brian Bahr/GettyImages

North Dakota State has built a tremendous football program but in 1987, there weren’t many players coming from that school and getting into the NFL. That could have made Tyrone Braxton an addition to my recent look at small school stars for the Broncos.

The Broncos took Braxton late in the 1987 draft and he earned his keep in Denver. He only played in two games as a rookie but he was a starting cornerback by 1989. He had six interceptions that season and it seemed that the Broncos had found a late-round gem.

Surgery on his knee kept him out for most of the 1990 season but he was back in the starting lineup the following season. He joined the Miami Dolphins for one season in 1994 but when that clearly wasn’t the right fit, he came back to Denver in 1995 and the team decided to put him at safety. In 1996, he was tied for the league lead with nine interceptions. That helped him make the Pro Bowl that year.

Braxton was a part of the teams that won back-to-back Super Bowls and even had a key interception of Brett Favre in Super Bowl XXXII. He played 12 seasons in Denver and had 34 interceptions, which is still tied for fourth-most in team history.

Though Elvis Dumervil proved he was defensive force in college, including an astounding 20 sacks in 2005, he was largely overlooked in the 2006 draft because of his size. At 5-foot-11, he just didn’t have the kind of size teams were looking for in their pass-rushers.

That didn’t bother Broncos coach Mike Shanahan, who took Dumervil in the fourth round. He became one of the top sack artists in Broncos history. He had 63.5 sacks in six seasons with the team. He was on the team for seven years, but a torn pectoral muscle kept him out the entire 2010 season.

Of course, any time we conjure up memories of Dumervil’s time with the team, it often leads back to the embarrassing way his time with the team came to an end. But for the time he was in Denver, he was terrific.

Gary Kubiak was the best backup QB in Broncos history. | Owen C. Shaw/GettyImages

The 1983 draft is arguably the most memorable in NFL history. That was the deepest quarterback draft of all-time and it was the year the Broncos got John Elway. But, Elway was not the quarterback the team drafted. He would come over via trade after refusing to play for the team that did draft him, the Baltimore Colts.

The quarterback that the Broncos did draft that year was Gary Kubiak out of Texas A&M. Kubiak would be Elway’s backup for nine seasons, helping him study and prepare for games. He was also always ready to come in and lead the team in a pinch.

But the reason Kubiak ends up so high on this list has much less to do with what he did on the field and much more to do with what he would go on to do following his playing career. Being drafted by the Broncos created a relationship between Kubiak and the organization that would lead to him becoming one of the most important coaches in team history.

When Shanahan was hired as the team’s head coach, he brought Kubiak in to be his offensive coordinator. That duo helped the team win two Super Bowls and Kubiak became one of the best offensive minds in the league.

That led to him becoming the head coach of the Houston Texans but later down the road, he came back to Denver as the team’s head coach and would be the main man on the sideline when the Broncos won Super Bowl 50.

The Broncos took Steve Foley nearly 200 picks into the draft process in 1975. He spent one season playing for the Jacksonville Express of the World Football League in 1975 before joining the Broncos the following season.

He would play 11 years in the league, all in Denver, and his 44 career interceptions are still at the top of the team’s all-time list. Foley never made a Pro Bowl and largely flew under the radar, though he did make the All-Pro Team in 1978.

Foley’s playing career ended in 1986, so he is not often talked about by fans nearly 40 years later, but he was one of the more consistent defensive backs the team ever had, playing in 150 career games.

Denver Broncos v Indianapolis Colts | Dilip Vishwanat/GettyImages

This is a prime example of how a late-round pick can pay off when you find the right guy at the right time.

The center position is not one most consider a ‘premium’ position but in many respects, it’s one of the most important positions on the team. In 1994, the Broncos found a center to pair with Elway for the last stage of his career and that ended up being the best center in team history.

Tom Nalen played 14 seasons in the NFL, all in Denver, and there were chunks of that time where he was the best center in the league. He made the Pro Bowl fives times and was named to one of the All-Pro Teams in three others.

Nalen played in 194 career games for the team. Only Elway and Jason Elam played in more across team history. That helped Nalen earn his well-deserved spot on the team’s Ring of Fame.

Alex Forsyth, a center out of Oregon who is in line to be the team’s new starter, was drafted in the seventh round of last year’s draft. If he can be half the player Nalen was, the team is in good hands.

It’s still hard to believe that more than 300 players were selected in 1983 ahead of Karl Mecklenburg. That puts him among the biggest draft steals in NFL history due to the career he had.

Mecklenburg could do it all for the Broncos and he was the ultimate inside linebacker. He played 12 seasons in Denver, helping the team reach three Super Bowls. He had over 1,100 tackles along with 79 sacks, 16 forced fumbles, 14 fumble recoveries and five interceptions. When the team needed a play on defense, it turned to ‘Meck’.

He remains in the conversation of the top defensive players in team history along with names like Von Miller, Champ Bailey, Randy Gradishar and Steve Atwater and there are numerous Broncos fans who believe that Mecklenburg has a good argument to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Terrell Davis is among the biggest draft steals in NFL history. | George Gojkovich/GettyImages

A guy out of Savannah State, drafted in the seventh round, is not supposed to do much more than make a practice squad in the NFL. But Shannon Sharpe did much more than that.

This is exactly what it means to take a flyer. Sharpe had obvious athletic ability, but because he played at such a small school against small and inferior competition, he was largely overlooked even though his brother, Sterling Sharpe, was one of the best wide receivers in the league at that time.

Shannon only caught seven passes as a rookie and then 22 the following year. But the Broncos knew they had something. Starting in 1992, he went to seven consecutive Pro Bowls and became the best tight end in the league.

Sharpe was a key piece in the team winning Super Bowl XXXII and Super Bowl XXXIII and by the time his career ended, he had cemented himself as one of the best tight ends to ever get on a field.

To date, only four tight ends in NFL history have more than Sharpe’s 815 career receptions.

There can be no other answer for the top spot on this list. Terrell Davis is not just one of the biggest draft steals the Broncos have ever had, but one of the biggest in league history.

Davis was not an eye-opening runner in college. He began his college career at Long Beach State before transferring to Georgia but he never rushed for more than 800 yards in a season. He wasn’t a volume runner and even the Broncos didn’t seem to know what they had at first as he was deep on the depth chart when he began his rookie season.

But after an unforgettable hit on special teams (video) during a preseason game in Japan, the Broncos decided to give Davis a longer look at doing what they drafted him to do… be a running back.

As rookie, he rushed for 1,117 yards and seven touchdowns. The following season he gained more than 1,500 yards on the ground and went to the Pro Bowl. By 1997, Davis was in the conversation of best running backs in the league at a time when Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith were both still playing and in 1998, he had his unforgettable 2,000-yard season.

Davis is among the very best players in Broncos history and despite injuries shortening his career, was still elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Without him, it’s likely the Broncos don’t win a Super Bowl during the Elway era as he was arguably the main factor in the Broncos becoming a powerhouse in the mid-to-late 1990s.

This article was originally published on predominantlyorange.com as 10 biggest draft steals in Denver Broncos history.