Albert Breer on Why the Broncos Traded for Jaylen Waddle

All right.

Welcome in.

It's the Brew Report for March 17th.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everybody, and Saint Patrick's Day in the NFL in 2026 was marked by the trade of Jaylen Waddle from the Miami Dolphins to the Denver Broncos, blockbuster deal, and we're gonna break it down in today's Brew report from three different angles, from the Broncos angle, from the Dolphins' angle.

And then from the angle of the other 30 teams and what it could wind up meaning across the NFL.

We'll start with the terms.

First, um, Waddle and a 4th-round pick are headed to Denver for 1st, 3rd, and 4th-round picks.

So it's a 1st and a 3rd, and then a pick swap in the 4th round that actually winds up favoring.

Denver.

So, the pick that the Dolphins would have had in the first, in the 4th round was 111th.

That's now 130th.

The Broncos move up in the fourth round.

So it's a 1st and the 3rd minus the difference in that pick swap.

And from the Broncos' perspective, I think this is relatively straightforward where they are as a team with Bo Nix on a rookie contract, having played in the AFC championship game.

This is a go for it sort of move.

And last year you saw them taking advantage of having Bo Nix on that rookie contract window and going out and getting Talanoa Hafunga and Dre Greenlaw from the San Francisco Forty-Niners, um, going and getting him Evan Ingram to play tight end for them.

This is another one of those moves where it's, we have the flexibility to do it now, we've got a pretty complete roster.

Let's see if we can add a piece.

I also think this is probably the one missing piece for Denver.

They have one of the top 5 defenses in all of football stacked on that side of the ball with high-end talents like Patrick Sartan and Zack Allen, and Nick Bonito, and Jonathan Cooper, and on and on and on.

And then on the offensive side of the ball, one of the best lines in all football, a good young quarterback, and a lot of pieces of the skill positions that I think we will look at as complimentary to what would be a number one receiver, right?

So you have Evan Ingram at tight end, you have Cortland Sutton, Marvin Mimms, and Troy Franklin at receiver.

You have RJ Harvey and JK Dobbins at running back.

But you don't have a weapon that can carry coverage.

You don't have a weapon that's gonna dictate how the defense deals with you, and that's what Jaylen Waddle can bring to the table for the Broncos.

He can allow those other guys to slot in the roles that might be more suitable for where they are and who they are as players.

He can enhance those guys because he's drawing coverage away from them.

Um, and I think this is gonna help Bo Nix as a quarterback too, because it's gonna create some clarity in, in the way that defenses are lining up against the Broncos because of what Waddle can do to a defense.

So, um, this makes all the sense in the world.

This team, this Broncos team has drafted well, has developed well, they've got a good complete roster, they've got a young core of talent, um, and This is when you get to the point where your draft picks become a little bit more disposable, not the first-round picks ever disposable, but it becomes a little more disposable, and you feel a little bit better about moving picks.

On the flip side, the second piece of this, of course, is where the Dolphins are and where the Dolphins are going, and the Dolphins are on the other end of that equation, where they need more picks.

And if you want to go back to the offseason, when they fired Chris Greer, of course, back on Halloween, and then Mike McDaniel after the season.

They were looking for a head coach and a general manager who could help set up a draft and develop machine.

And that's why they tapped into the Green Bay Packers in going and getting general manager John Eric Sullivan, who was ostensibly the #2 behind Brian Guok Koons in Green Bay, and going and getting Jeff Hafley.

The Packers have always been great.

In this area, the Packers have been habitually over 30 years, one of the best teams in the league in drafting, and John Eric Sullivan comes from the college side in Green Bay.

So he's seen what that looks like.

And then Jeff Hafley, of course, not only did he do a good job developing young talent in Green Bay the last 2 years, but he came from the college game and was a head coach in the college game before that.

So he's had to develop young talent almost his entire vocation.

Um, for an extended period of time.

So they wanted to build up a draft and develop machine.

And in large part, that was because of what the end of the Greer McDaniel era left them, which was a cap issue, so they were gonna need to get younger and leaner all over the place.

And then a, a team that was largely devoid of young talent.

I said before the season that if you look at the roster, it was hard to find guys who you could say, yeah, that guy's gonna be here in 3 years.

Maybe Jaylen Waddle fit into that category.

Maybe Chop Robinson fit fit into that category, but that was really it.

And that's the result of having done a lot to try to win during that window with Tua where they had him on a rookie contract.

They moved draft picks, they, you know, they, they, they, they spent and spent and spent and spent.

And so as a result, over the last 4 years, not only did they build up the cap issue, but they had fewer draft picks than any team in the league, and there are a couple of those draft classes that were wastelands for talent.

So, the important thing for the Dolphins was finding a way to continue to build up their roster, and this is going to help them do it without question.

They now have 7 picks in the 1st 3 rounds of the draft.

They have their own 3 slotted picks, the 11th pick in, in each of the 1st 3 rounds.

They have the 30th overall pick, and the 94th overall pick coming from Denver, and then they have the Eagles 3rd-rounder that's coming from the Jalen Phillips trade.

So that's 7 picks in the 1st 3 rounds.

In a draft that I think's got some depth at edge rusher that has some, some depth at receiver, they'll be able to do a lot of work and help and starting to build up their roster, which is absolutely positively what they need to do.

Finally, the third piece of this.

What does this mean for the rest of the league?

Well, does it embolden now the Eagles.

To stand their ground on AJ Brown.

And I think if you look at it, right?

Like if you look at it objectively, where teams were on trading for AJ Brown, which was hesitant to give up a first-round pick, where the Eagles were, if you look at like what their ask was, which was the Quinnin Williams deal, that was a 1 and 2, the Devonte Adams deal a few years ago, that was a 1 and 2, Versus where, you know, versus where the other teams were, there's a pretty big gap there, you know, other teams looking at it hesitant to give up that give up the first-round pick.

I think this, this, this deal, if you look at it, and they're dealing with teams down towards the bottom of the 1st round, this deal sort of solidifies that the Eagles have every right to be asking for a 1st-round pick and then some for AJ Brown.

Um, yeah, this is, again, is a 1st and a 3rd minus just a little bit.

Um, Jaylen Waddle is 17 months younger than AJ Brown, but he also hasn't been quite the player that AJ Brown's been over the last 4 or 5 years.

We can argue about injuries and all the rest of it, but this does seem like a relatively reasonable comp as far as a, a player being traded.

They're different players, of course.

I'm not saying they're the same guy , but from a productivity standpoint, an impact standpoint, You can argue that in the same ballpark.

And so, now the question becomes, does this set the stage for an AJ Brown trade, whether it's before the draft or after June 1st when the cap damage the Eagles take on can be mitigated.

Um, you know, we'll see.

But I do think it does at least color what the price tag should be.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

As always, you can leave your feedback down below here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media.

That's at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Aubrey on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

Appreciate you guys coming out.

We'll have a mailbag edition coming for you tomorrow.