The Broncos gave up two first-round picks and 2 second-round picks to acquire Russell Wilson from Seattle, and it's an aggressive move to land a franchise quarterback that's well supported by team history. Trading for quarterbacks has gone much better than drafting them.
Most notably in NFL history, of course, the Broncos traded for Hall of Famer John Elway. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts at No. 1 overall back in 1983, but said he'd never play for them and was shipped to Denver days later. He would ultimately take the team to 5 Super Bowls, winning the last two of them before retiring.
Less successful, though also a positive, was Jake Plummer, acquired from the Arizona Cardinals in 1992. Plummer never got the team to a Super Bowl and surprisingly walked away from the team at just 32 years old, but he was a winner -- 9-2, 10-6, 13-3 and 7-4 in four seasons as a starter. But he missed 4-5 games due to injury in two of those seasons and went just 1-3 in the postseason, so kind of a mixed bag overall.
The team's more recent trades for quarterbacks (Since 2009, Kyle Orton, Case Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater) haven't worked out, but those guys aren't at Wilson's level -- arguably not even at Plummer's level. Raise your hand if you're surprised Bridgewater wasn't successful. Elway and to a lesser extent Plummer were the team's big swings in the trade market (Peyton Manning was a free agent), and those moves were good ones.
Then there are the team's 15 draft picks at the position over the last 30 years. Nearly half (seven) of those players were 6th-7th round picks, so no one was expecting them to be franchise guys. But four were 1st-rounders and three were 2nd- or 3rd-rounders. And none of them worked out. Of the 15, only two (in bold) had career winning records, and one of those (Maddox) did his modest winning in Pittsburgh. Tebow had one magical season before being kicked out the door in favor of Manning.
| BRONCOS DRAFTED QUARTERBACKS, 1992-PRESENT | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Rd | Pk | Player | W-L |
| 1992 | 1 | 25 | Tommy Maddox | 15-20 |
| 1996 | 4 | 100 | Jeff Lewis | 0-0 |
| 1998 | 3 | 91 | Brian Griese | 45-38 |
| 2000 | 7 | 214 | Jarious Jackson | 0-1 |
| 2004 | 7 | 225 | Matt Mauck | 0-1 |
| 2004 | 7 | 250 | Bradlee Van Pelt | 0-0 |
| 2006 | 1 | 11 | Jay Cutler | 74-79 |
| 2009 | 6 | 174 | Tom Brandstater | 0-0 |
| 2010 | 1 | 25 | Tim Tebow | 8-6 |
| 2012 | 2 | 57 | Brock Osweiler | 15-15 |
| 2013 | 7 | 234 | Zac Dysert | 0-0 |
| 2015 | 7 | 250 | Trevor Siemian | 13-16 |
| 2016 | 1 | 26 | Paxton Lynch | 1-3 |
| 2017 | 7 | 253 | Chad Kelly | 0-0 |
| 2019 | 2 | 42 | Drew Lock | 8-13 |
Maddox, longtime Broncos fans will recall, was kind of Denver's version of Jordan Love. Dan Reeves and Elway were at odds, and Maddox was drafted in the first round to potentially push Elway out the door. Instead he was a flop with his opportunities for an injured Elway, Reeves was fired, Mike Shanahan took over, and the rest is history.
2012 2nd-rounder Brock Osweiler becomes an answer to a potential future trivia question. He was drafted 18 picks before Russell Wilson.
Bottom line, it's hard to draft successful quarterbacks. Using Denver's history, it looks like a better bet to trade for them.
--Andy Richardson