NFL Mock Draft: Full 1st round action
By Ben Almquist
31. Denver Broncos: Vernon Butler – DT – Louisiana Tech
Why?: As with the pick for the 49ers, the presumption here is that he Kaep deal gets done. That being the case, the Broncos need to turn their attention to the defense where they lost a pair of key players in the middle.
Butler is good value for them here as he could have easily been taken in a number of spots before this. He should help fill the void left by Malik Jackson.
What if no Kaep?: A lot of folks consider it a foregone conclusion that Kaepernick ends up in Denver. Pump the breaks though, there are some big hurdles to overcome. Chief among them is that Denver needs the Niners to take on part of Kaepernick’s cap hit.
San Fran really has no reason to do that without further jacking up the trade price. The Broncos will have to meet the Niners’ demands on this because there really is no reason why SF can’t just keep him for 2016 and try again next year. If the deal falls through, look for them to take Connor Cook here.
The chances of the first round playing out like this? Virtually 0 percent. There’s just so much that can happen in the draft that predicting it is nearly impossible. But I did my best to put myself in the shoes of all 31 GMs (with first-round picks), and nothing seems to outlandish to me.
But you know I couldn’t do a mock draft without filling in the rest of the Chiefs picks, so here we go…
Next: Chiefs picks 2-7