The Denver Broncos need more pass rush productivity on defense in 2024, and this year’s crop of edge rushers could be appealing targets for the team to consider 12th overall if they don’t take a quarterback.

Denver Broncos edge rusher options in 2024 NFL Draft

Edge rusher seems to be the one position for the Denver Broncos where there appears to be a huge disconnect. A lot of fans or analysts think that the Broncos’ edge-rusher group isn’t good enough, and that they have to add to it, but was that a scheme issue last season – or was it due to lack of production?

Jonathon Cooper led the team with 8.5 sacks and 22 pressures, followed by Nik Bonitto, with eight sacks and 24 pressures. Baron Browning was right behind them with 4.5 sacks and ten pressures in just ten games after returning from knee surgery midway through the year.

Internally, the Broncos’ front office believes they have a potential star in one of those three players, and are intent on developing them further. There’s a reason Sean Payton and George Paton were comfortable moving on from veterans Randy Gregory and Frank Clark in the middle of the season.

Once the Broncos made that decision, younger players like Cooper and Bonitto flashed impressively from the onset. Soon-to-be second-year player Drew Sanders is another young player that Payton has tagged as a ‘pressure player’, and he’d be in the rotation behind those three as well in a developmental role.

So, should the Broncos really draft an edge rusher at 12th overall if they don’t feel good about any of the quarterbacks? It’s a risky move, but with Cooper and Browning entering the final year of their rookie deals, it’s possible the Broncos will at least entertain the thought.

Top options for the Broncos at edge rusher with the 12th overall pick

Alabama Crimson Tide pass rusher Dallas Turner and Florida State’s Jared Verse are considered the top two pass-rushing options – and the most likely selections if that was the path the Broncos wanted to take.

Turner is an explosive and athletic pass-rush option who has a tremendous get-off from the line of scrimmage, which is a benefit to adding him, but sometimes leads to him jumping offside. In 2023, he had 53 tackles and an astonishing 15.5 tackles for a loss behind the line of scrimmage while getting after opposing quarterbacks 11 times last season.

He finished as a Consensus All-American and First-Team All-SEC player after leading the SEC in sacks and led the team in tackles for a loss.

Florida State’s Jared Verse is another name to keep an eye on; he appeared and started in all 13 games for the Seminoles last season en route to 41 tackles, 12.5 tackles for a loss, and nine sacks.

When you combine his production from 2022 and 2023, he had 18 sacks and 29 tackles for a loss.

He has a variety of different pass-rush moves in his arsenal and has a good balance of speed and power in his game. Verse was a First-Team All-American and First-Team All-ACC selection this past season.

He demonstrated the ability to play a standup role on the outside, as well as having his hands in the dirt. He also had nine sacks in 2022.

If the Broncos look to add a premier edge rusher at 12th overall, these two players would be the best options to consider. However, I don’t believe the Broncos should go with an edge rusher in the first round. They might be better served on entertaining this idea next season instead.

Let’s see what the Broncos do with Malcolm Roach’s addition at defensive tackle. Denver’s defense really struggled with consistently anchoring down in the A-gap, which led to pass rushers seeing more double teams than normal and contributed to their struggles against the run.