Denver Broncos give unprecedented look at NFL Draft war room
Every year, fans of the NFL and NFL Draft get great behind-the-scenes looks into team war rooms when players are getting their “call” to be selected. The Denver Broncos took fans deeper than we’ve ever seen an NFL Draft room unveiled during the 2021 NFL Draft with their mini docuseries Behind The Broncos: No Shortcuts.
The Denver Broncos hired George Paton from the Minnesota Vikings as their new general manager in 2021, and the docuseries has followed Paton literally from the time when he was still staying in a hotel after just being hired.
Since that time, the show has followed the Denver Broncos’ 2021 offseason through pre-free agency meetings, signings, discussions with the scouts, interviews before and after prospect pro days, and a lot more.
In the most recent episode, the team gives an absolutely unprecedented look at the NFL Draft process with footage of the team on the clock, working the phones for trades, making selections, declining trades, and talking about how they pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes with their actual intentions.
Although the video lasts about 20 minutes, you can’t help but wish it was at least three times as long with expansive coverage of every single pick the Denver Broncos make.
One of the clear highlights of the video is Broncos GM George Paton and fellow rookie GM Terry Fontenot of the Atlanta Falcons making a trade near the top of the second round so the Broncos can move up to get North Carolina running back Javonte Williams.
Not only do you get to hear Paton on the phone with Fontenot, but somehow they have video footage of Fontenot in the Falcons’ facility as well as the trade is being pulled off. Paton seems to have a deal with Fontenot to move up a handful of spots, giving up a fourth-round pick, but on their phone call, he’s trying to convince the Falcons’ GM to give up a sixth-rounder as well.
Fontenot eventually relents and the trade is pulled off.
There’s other footage of Paton literally hanging up the phone on another NFL general manager, telling him that he’s got someone on another line that will give him “more”.
The other really fascinating aspect of this video is how the Denver Broncos’ video crew shot footage of the team making selections in the first three rounds of the draft, then after each selection, they went back through pre-draft footage of their war room meetings on guys.
One of the Denver Broncos’ scouts, talking about North Carolina running back Javonte Williams, has a note that Williams’ uncle is a barber and that every Thursday, Williams goes back to his uncle’s barbershop to get his hair cut.
You think these teams do a lot of digging on guys?
Ultimately, it’s refreshing to see that some of what you might hear after the draft is over is not just coachspeak or GM-speak. Sometimes, it feels like all 32 teams had the board fall exactly as they wanted or they will pump up a guy with some fluff to the media about getting their top-ranked player at a certain position way later than they otherwise would have.
This inside look from the Denver Broncos shows us that they legitimately had Javonte Williams ranked as their top back in the draft.
Another major highlight from this is, it appears as though the Denver Broncos had never seen offensive lineman Quinn Meinerz’s highlights of taking down trees and curling massive waterjugs during his quarantine workouts. Their reaction as a draft room is priceless.
Overall, this is a phenomenal look inside an NFL team’s war room and something that would be great for all 32 teams to try to do.