With only one first-round pick on dominant defense, Broncos have 'a lot of hungry guys'

The NFL draft is seven rounds, which results in plenty of joking between Broncos safety P.J. Locke, cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian and defensive lineman Malcolm Roach.

The three are key players on Denver’s defense. They have lockers near one another at Broncos Park.

“We joke all the time about where we were drafted,’’ Locke said. “I’d say J-Mac was in the ninth round. I was probably in the 10th round.”

And what about Roach?

“Malcolm had to have been the eighth,’’ Locke said. “He was a priority guy.”

Roach, McMillian and Locke, of course, were all undrafted. But that hasn’t stopped them from playing pivotal roles on a Denver unit that ranks second in the NFL in points allowed and third in total defense entering Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Empower Field at Mile High.

The Broncos (3-2) do not exactly have a typical dominant defense. Their only player on defense who was a first-round pick was star cornerback Pat Surtain II, who went No. 11 to Denver in 2021.

Among the 16 players on defense with 100 or more snaps this season, five were taken on the third day of the draft and four undrafted. The other undrafted guy was linebacker and team captain Alex Singleton, who led the team in tackles the previous two years before being lost for this season with a torn ACL suffered in Week 3.

Going on the third day of the draft were defensive end John Franklin-Myers (fourth round, Los Angeles Rams, 2018), linebacker Justin Strnad (fifth round, Broncos, 2020), nose tackle D.J. Jones (sixth round, San Francisco, 2017), defensive lineman Jordan Jackson (sixth round, New Orleans, 2022) and outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper (seventh round, Broncos, 2021). Cooper leads Denver with four sacks.

“To see a team that has only one first-round pick on the defense is crazy and to be playing at the level we are is great,’’ Franklin-Myers said.

The building of Denver’s defense has been a result of keen scouting and patience and key roles have been played by general manager George Paton, who arrived in 2021 and by head coach Sean Payton and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, both hired in 2023. The only players on the defense to predate Paton’s arrival have been Locke, originally signed to the practice squad in 2019, and Strnad, who hadn’t played a defensive snap from scrimmage since 2021 until Singleton was injured.

“Once they get here, we kind of have to go by what we see,’’ Payton said when asked about important players on defense taken in late rounds or undrafted. “We’ve got some guys we’ve targeted as veteran free agents that we’ve brought in and then are some guys that earn their wings, if you will, as later round picks.”

Locke said the Broncos have plenty of players on defense to have gained motivation by being late-round picks or undrafted. He is one.

After not being selected in the 2019 draft, Locke got a meager $2,000 bonus to sign with Pittsburgh. He was cut by the Steelers in August and then waited at his home in Beaumont, Texas, for four months before being signed to Denver’s practice squad in December 2019.

Locke made the active roster in 2020. But, playing behind safeties Justin Simmons and Kareem Jackson, he didn’t get his first NFL start until Jackson served the first game of what turned out to be six games of suspensions last season for illegal hits. Locke ended up starting eight games in 2023 and, with Simmons and Jackson now both gone, finally became a regular starter this season.

“It’s just one of those situations where you’re an underdog,’’ Locke said. “You’re already considered behind the eight-ball when you enter the league. And you’ve got to keep that chip on your shoulder.”

After Roach, his teammate at Texas, went undrafted in 2020 and signed with New Orleans, Locke provided him with support. When McMillian spent his rookie year of 2022 on the practice squad and got into just one game, Locke said he was “really down on himself.” But Locke reminded McMillian of his road and McMillian ended up breaking into the lineup in Week 4 last season and is now one of the NFL’s top slot cornerbacks.

“For sure, it makes you more hungry,’’ McMillian said of his road. “It makes you want to prove everybody wrong and most importantly prove yourself right. … I think we all got that one thing in common (on defense) is hard work.”

Franklin-Myers got additional motivation in the NFL in a different manner. While he played in all 16 games with the Rams as a rookie in 2018 and had a sack of New England quarterback Tom Brady in Super Bowl LIII, he was waived in August 2019.

Franklin-Myers ended up being claimed by the New York Jets and became an established NFL player in 2018 before being traded to Denver last April. But he remembers well being cut.

“Six months (after the Super Bowl),’’ he said. “Makes you still extra hungry. You understand that it’s a day-to-day business, year-to-year (in the NFL), and you got to go out there and put your stamp on the league.”

Among the team’s other key defensive players, outside linebacker Nick Bonitto was selected in the second round by the Broncos in 2022 and defensive end Zach Allen (Arizona, 2019), linebacker Cody Barton (Seattle, 2019), safety Brandon Jones (Miami, 2020), cornerback Riley Moss (Broncos, 2023) and outside linebacker Jonah Elliss (Broncos, 2024) all went in the third round.

While Moss went on the second day of the draft, he played a meager 23 snaps from scrimmage as a rookie last year before breaking into the starting lineup this season. So, he knows a bit about having to work his way up.

“We’ve got a bunch of junkyard dogs (on defense),’’ Moss said. “Everybody's gritty and tough.”

Meanwhile, Surtain is the only first-round pick on the defense. And Locke said with his legendary work ethic and humble manner, Surtain doesn’t exactly give off the aura of a typical first-round pick.

“He’s super hungry,’’ Locke said.

So are plenty of other Denver players on defense. And Surtain is thrilled to be playing alongside so many players who had to work their way up to earn playing time in the NFL.

“It just goes to show what type of defense we have,’’ Surtain said. “We have a lot of hungry guys that are going out there and trying to make a name for themselves. It’s good that they have that edge to them because it’s a job (in the NFL) that is very unforgiving.”

In the meantime, Roach, McMillian and Locke can continue to joke about having gone in the eighth, ninth and 10th rounds of the NFL draft.