Who needs draft picks when we can just win the offseason with free agents every year?

[KevinJames]

Last year it was Peyton Manning & Trindon Holliday (i count him as a FA pick up)
this year its

Wes Welker - 9 TDs (leads the league) 50 catches (2nd in the league)
Shaun Phillips - 6.5 sacks - 1 FF - 1 INT
Terrance Knighton - Dominates the LOS and has 2 sacks (playing like a top 5 NT)
DRC - 11 Deflections - 2 INTs need to sign him long term
Louis Vasquez - solid offensive linemen, really good guard

------------------

I am semi joking here but we should trade our early picks and trade down and out of the draft to the next year so we have a lot of picks next year and picks that same year in rounds 3-6 since we always pull out gems from those rounds.

I love the way Elway is running this team, hes not afraid of the old cliche "you can't build a championship team through free agency" he went and got Peyton Manning at QB which is unthinkable for a move the Broncos would make over the past couple of years but Elway changed all that. Elway and Fox together.

plays the free agency period like hes playing Madden Franchise mode he sees issues on the roster and fixes them immediately with proven talent.

Thank you John Elway + John Fox for not being a p***Y in the off season period.

[cutthemdown]

You have to have draft picks to keep the salary cap under control. FA are usually vets who demand a higher price while draft picks you get cheap for the first few years.

[Kaylore]

They have had some good free agent signings. Even guys that were on one year deals like Keith Brooking and Tracy Porter we were able to get some value out of.

That said, teams that draft poorly and mainly try to get free agent help become bad fairly quickly. One thing that has helped hide what is more and more looking like mediocre draft classes is they have hit on UFA's and been able to coach the players on the team when they got here into pro-bowl level talent.

[DivineLegion]

JE&Co. Need to trade all of our draft picks every season and focus on UDFAs and market free agents; championship.

[2KBack]

Free agency has been very good.

I'm pretty underwhelmed with their drafting ability thus far, to be fair.

It's been dline heavy...well take a little time to judge. Harris, Travethon, Webster, Miller have been studs though. Nacho has been solid, Ball looked better. I'd say it's been decent considering how many contributors we've gotten the last couple seasons.

[v2micca]

Free agency has been very good.

I'm pretty underwhelmed with their drafting ability thus far, to be fair.

They have had some pretty good hits. But they have had some pretty bad whiffs as well. Need some more consistency. 3rd and 4th rounders don't need to be studs. But they need to be solid contributors. Right now, kind of feels like the inverse of the Shanny years. Some solid choices on the D-line and secondary, while whiffing on running backs.

[2KBack]

2011: Von, Franklin, Julius Thomas, Moore (starters)

2012: Wolfe , Jackson, Travathan (starters or heavy rotation)

2013: Williams (rotates DL rookie), Webster (starter in nickle)

Jury still out: Ball, Hillman, Q. Smith, Brock

That's a lot of homegrown stuff right there and contributing to an elite team.

[mennonite]

2011 was very good. The last two I'm not so sure about.

[TonyR]

Was Sly a healthy scratch yesterday? Or was he dinged up?

[cutthemdown]

GreenBay has only like 4-5 players not homegrown.

[Guess Who]

GreenBay has only like 4-5 players not homegrown.

and Denver is much better than GB.

[Pick Six]

You have to have draft picks to keep the salary cap under control. FA are usually vets who demand a higher price while draft picks you get cheap for the first few years.

Yes. But, there is no Plan B. We need proven vets who can win NOW. Once Manning and these other vets retire, we can go back to building through the draft...

[fontaine]

2011: Von, Franklin, Julius Thomas, Moore (starters)

2012: Wolfe , Jackson, Travathan (starters or heavy rotation)

2013: Williams (rotates DL rookie), Webster (starter in nickle)

Jury still out: Ball, Hillman, Q. Smith, Brock

That's a lot of homegrown stuff right there and contributing to an elite team.

Quanterus is going to be stud in this defense. This kid has the natural fast twitch speed off the edge and great hands to be a real edge rusher against the passing game.

The only question mark was about his knee coming back off an ACL and he put that to rest by being ahead of schedule and running in camp.

All this kid needs to do is develop an NFL body - he's got all off/season to develop that functional strength and when he does he's going to be a Bruce Irwin clone.

[Bronco Yoda]

JE&Co. Need to trade all of our draft picks every season and focus on UDFAs and market free agents; championship.

I thought we successfully buried your rotting carcase Al Davis.

[El Guapo]

They have had some good free agent signings. Even guys that were on one year deals like Keith Brooking and Tracy Porter we were able to get some value out of.

That said, teams that draft poorly and mainly try to get free agent help become bad fairly quickly. One thing that has helped hide what is more and more looking like mediocre draft classes is they have hit on UFA's and been able to coach the players on the team when they got here into pro-bowl level talent.

Agreed. I forget the year, but I clearly remember the Redskins trying to make a Super Bowl push years ago with tons of big name free agent signings (and even more recently Philly a couple years ago) and they flopped. Hard.