Finding Broncos: Scouting Oklahoma DL Gracen Halton

Finding Broncos is back. It's peak draft season, and we're breaking down the coming class with individual scouting reports.

Background

Gracen Halton originally committed to Oregon, but he flipped to Oklahoma. When entering college, he was the 264th prospect in ESPN's top 300.

Halton spent four years at Oklahoma, hardly playing in the first two years.

Stats

In four years at Oklahoma, Halton has played 990 defensive snaps, though 825 of them came in 2024 and 2025, with 549 of those snaps coming as a B-gap defender. He had 59 pressures, nine sacks, 35 stops, and two fumbles forced over the two years.

Pros

Gracen Halton. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Halton is a disruptive defensive lineman who has shown the ability to disrupt run or pass plays behind the line of scrimmage. While he is considered undersized (6-foot-3, 293 pounds), he has proven that it isn’t a weakness. He actually uses his size, making himself even smaller to shoot through gaps, causing the disruption.

On top of his size and ability to make himself small, Halton has that burst to help shoot gaps and great speed laterally and to close in on the ball. He adds some versatility to move around the defensive front, even standing up in a two-point stance as an edge in certain circumstances.

It all starts with his base and footwork, where Halton has some of the best footwork in this defensive line class. He uses it to keep himself in a great position against blockers and to strain the edges of their frame, with the burst to explode when the opportunity is there. He can also be highly effective on stunts and twists.

Halton's hands are active, and he has a solid foundation in block-beating moves, both on run defense and as a pass rusher. He also has a great awareness of ball carriers' movements and can stay on phase.

Cons

Halton needs to play with better bend, and his size does raise serious concerns about his run defense. He can get washed out by bigger mauling guards, and double teams essentially take him out of the play every time. There are also issues getting off blocks, even when he does get control, and it's almost like he is playing with glue on his hands.

Halton's hand technique needs to improve significantly to increase his effectiveness as a defender. The footwork is at that level; now it's time to get the hands to match.

Halton will also need to expand his pass-rush arsenal to add some counters to his game. If he can develop a consistent counter spin, it could take him to another level as a pass rusher threat, with how much he strains the edges.

Mauling guards give Halton fits, but so can athletic guards who can play gap-to-gap and take away his ability to strain the edges. That underscores the importance of developing counters, such as the spin counter, to increase his effectiveness.

The lack of mass and strength to anchor as a run defender will keep Halton limited on defense. He could see some run-defense reps working farther out wide, but outside of that, he is a pass-rush specialist on the interior defensive line.

Fit With the Broncos

Halton is an interesting one for the Broncos as they could look for even more pass-rush prowess on the inside after losing John Franklin-Myers. Still, with Sai’vion Jones, who has a very similar profile to Halton, there may be too much of the same player.

However, if Jones didn’t show enough in practice as a rookie, the Broncos could still go Halton, but a veteran after the draft seems more likely.

Grade

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