Broncos to Make Surprise Pivot with Round 1 Draft Strategy, per NFL.com

It would take much for the Denver Broncos to pass on Omarion Hampton in Round 1. Is Tetairoa McMillan that valuable?

Oct 26, 2024; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan (4) catches a long pass while West Virginia Mountaineers linebacker Trey Lathan (4) fails to defend against him during the fourth quarter at Arizona Stadium. / Aryanna Frank-Imagn Images

ESPN's legendary draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. has doubled down on Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan as a bonafide Denver Broncos first-round target. 

After starting off as a top-10-predicted pick, McMillan's stock plummeted for a time, but he's risen back up draft boards just in time for the arrival of the first round. His special blend of size and speed, combined with his large catch radius, has caught the eye of NFL.com several times already. 

NFL.com's esteemed draft analyst Bucky Brooks recently put the 6-foot-4, 22-year-old from Hawaii on his list of nine prospects with 'superpowers.' It may be worth Broncos Country taking note.

"Defending a 6-4 1/8, 219-pound pass catcher with NBA length and leaping ability is hard. McMillan's supersized frame and athleticism give him a significant advantage in isolated matchups against defensive backs in a league with a limited amount of 6-footers on the defensive perimeter," Brooks wrote. "As a former high school basketball and volleyball player, McMillan excels at playing the ball in the air on alley-oop tosses down the boundary and in the end zone. With his phenomenal leaping ability and extraordinary wingspan expanding the quarterback's target zone, McMillan enters the league with the potential to emerge as a prolific red-zone scoring machine."

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Of course, when you factor in all of McMillan's intriguing physical traits, the 219-pounder's rapid rise up the draft boards could prove to be contagious across the league. After all, bonafide red-zone match-up weapons have come at a premium down through the annals of draft history. 

Those coveted attributes usually place a team picking 20th, like the Broncos, out of the mix, but only if a draft slide doesn't materialize. Even so, NFL.com's Gennaro Filice has McMillan sliding right to the Broncos on draft day.

While Sean Payton might be more than a little surprised if McMillan is available to the Broncos, in Filice's mock, Denver doesn't hesitate, selecting the intriguing perimeter playmaker. 

"With the possible exception of Shedeur Sanders, McMillan could have the widest draft range in this year’s mock madness. I had him going sixth overall in Version 1.0 and still can easily imagine him coming off the board in that area," Filice wrote. "But in today’s simulation, he falls right into Denver’s lap, giving Bo Nix another big-bodied target who can learn from (and eventually replace) Courtland Sutton."

Even if it came at the expense of filling the Broncos' glaring need at running back, the opportunity to find the heir apparent to veteran wideout Courtland Sutton might be too good to pass up. That's not to say that Denver picking McMillan wouldn't be critiqued intensively afterward.

In Filice's mock, that particular post-mortem would kick off when UNC running back Omarion Hampton, the do-it-all stud, lands with Denver's AFC rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the very next pick. When you consider that Filice has Hampton's fellow blue-chip running back Ashton Jeanty and the superstar tight end combo of Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren all coming off the board before pick 20, the road map toward drafting Hampton may be clear, if the Broncos want him. 

Not so, according to Filice, who backs up his colleague Brooks' assessment, which states how McMillan's big-bodied upside will provide some immediate and long-term benefits for the Broncos. When you factor in Sutton's ongoing contractual situation, the Broncos would not be remiss to hedge with McMillan.

The trouble is, it would come with the caveat of leaving a Grand Canyon-sized hole at the running back position, at least until Day 2 of the draft. Fortunately, the depth in the 2025 running back class will allow the Broncos to take such chances in Round 1.

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At the very least, McMillan would provide second-year quarterback Bo Nix with another truly dynamic playmaker to utilize in his pivotal sophomore campaign. Broncos GM George Paton has all but guaranteed that the team will add a running back, so kicking the can down the road risks some PR blowback.

But such is the crapshoot nature of the NFL draft. It's a high-stakes game of risk, after all.

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