The Bron­cos got to cel­e­brate either way.

They were hap­py to get Utah edge Jon­ah Elliss at No. 76 over­all on Fri­day night, but they were excit­ed about the prospect of trad­ing back and gath­er­ing picks had he not been available.

In fact, gen­er­al man­ag­er George Paton thought the moment might have war­rant­ed cel­e­brat­ing con­sid­er­ing head coach Sean Payton’s his­to­ry of mov­ing for­ward rather than in reverse dur­ing the draft.

“We were actu­al­ly con­sid­er­ing trad­ing back and it would have been Sean’s first time maybe ever mov­ing back,” Paton quipped. “We had a cake ready.”

Added Pay­ton, “I was tak­ing like 30 deep breaths.”

The Bron­cos had sev­er­al play­ers they liked on the board but opt­ed for Elliss. They clear­ly think high­ly of him.

Sat­ur­day, though, is like­ly to involve wheel­ing and deal­ing. Den­ver has six picks — Nos. 121, 136, 145, 147, 207 and 256 — and the club fig­ures to be busy right from the jump at 10 a.m.

“There’s a num­ber of good play­ers tomor­row and we have six picks,” Paton said. “We have flex­i­bil­i­ty. If there’s a play­er up at the top of the board we have the flex­i­bil­i­ty to go get him. And we can always move back. So the main thing is flexibility.

“Tomor­row is going to be fun.”

Here are some play­ers the Bron­cos could tar­get, orga­nized by position.

WR Troy Franklin, Ore­gon: Put up mas­sive num­bers with Nix, includ­ing 81 catch­es for 1,383 yards and 14 touch­downs in 2023. He’s slight at 6‑foot‑2 and 176 pounds, but the big-play abil­i­ty is undeniable.

WR Javon Bak­er, UCF: Bak­er is a smooth oper­a­tor who stood out at the Senior Bowl and had 1,139 yards and sev­en touch­downs on a whop­ping 21.9 yards per catch in 2023.

WR Cor­nelius John­son, Michi­gan: Receivers not named Roman Wil­son didn’t put up huge num­bers in UM’s offense, but steady pro­duc­tion three straight years doesn’t lie.

RB Jaylen Wright, Ten­nessee: A walk­ing explo­sive play. Aver­aged 7.4 yards per car­ry for the Vols in 2023. He ran 4.38 in the 40-yard dash at 5–11 and 210 pounds, post­ed a 38-inch ver­ti­cal and an 11–2 broad jump.

RB Braelon Allen, Wis­con­sin: One of the youngest play­ers in the draft, Allen rushed for 3,494 yards (5.6 per car­ry) and 35 touch­downs in three col­le­giate sea­sons at 6–1 and 235.

RB Ray Davis, Ken­tucky: Light­ning in space and brings enough thump to run between the tack­les. Davis had one big sea­son at UK, rush­ing for 1,129 yards and 14 TDs and adding sev­en receiv­ing scores.

RB Isaac Gueren­do, Louisville: Big back who can fly (4.33 in the 40 at the com­bine) and spent sev­er­al years at Wis­con­sin along­side now-Bron­cos defen­sive backs coach Jim Leonhard.

TE Ja’Tavion Sanders, Texas: It’s sur­pris­ing Sanders is still on the board after he aver­aged 15.2 yards per catch as a junior. Doesn’t run par­tic­u­lar­ly fast — 4.69-second 40-yard dash at the com­bine — but is dan­ger­ous in the receiv­ing game at 6–4 and 250.

TE Tan­ner McLach­lan, Ari­zona: One of sev­er­al mid-round tight end prospects with intrigu­ing upside, McLach­lan had 528 yards and four touch­downs in 2023.

TE Erick All, Iowa: Has bat­tled injuries in his career but when healthy he’s an all-around play­er. Had 299 yards and three TDs last year before a knee injury cut his sea­son to sev­en games.

OTs Chris­t­ian Jones (Texas), Javon Fos­ter (Mis­souri) and Wal­ter Rouse (Okla­homa): There are sev­er­al vet­er­an tack­les avail­able and it will be inter­est­ing to see if the Bron­cos like one of them enough to pick one — maybe as ear­ly as the fourth round — as a devel­op­men­tal play­er. This trio would fit the bill.

OL Tanor Bor­toli­ni, Wis­con­sin: Super ath­let­ic inte­ri­or line­man who played just about every posi­tion in college.

OL Hunter Nourzad, Penn State: Start­ed 20 games at Cor­nell and then two years at Penn State and is anoth­er ver­sa­tile play­er who can play mul­ti­ple spots.

Edge Mohamed Kama­ra, Col­orado State: Played just up the road in Fort Collins and all he did was pro­duce. Kama­ra had 13 sacks in 2023 and 29.5 for his career and is some­what sur­pris­ing­ly still avail­able on Day 3.

DL Gabe Hall, Bay­lor: Big frame at 6–6 and 291. If the Bron­cos are think­ing of fur­ther for­ti­fy­ing their front-line group on Day 3, he’d be an option.

DL Leonard Tay­lor, Mia­mi: At 6–3 and 303, had his best year in 2022 (10.5 TFLs)

LB Cedric Gray, North Car­oli­na: Ath­let­ic line­backer who can man the mid­dle of the field. He racked up 266 tack­les the past two years and had dou­ble-dig­it TFLs both seasons.

LB Jor­dan Magee, Tem­ple: A Bron­cos vis­i­tor who’s also racked up tack­les play­ing in the mid­dle of the field for the Owls.

CB T.J. Tam­pa, Iowa State: At 6–1 and 190, Tam­pa was a first-team All-Big 12 selec­tion in 2023. Start­ed for the Cyclones for two years and had eight TFLs in addi­tion to the cov­er­age work.

CB Jarvis Brown­lee, Louisville:  Not the fast­ed guy in the class, but Brown­lee is feisty at 5–11 and had a great week at the Senior Bowl ear­li­er this year.

CB Khyree Jack­son, Ore­gon: Spent two sea­sons at Alaba­ma before trans­fer­ring to Ore­gon in 2023. He shined in his lone sea­son with the Ducks, record­ing 34 tack­les, two sacks, three inter­cep­tions and sev­en pass­es defend­ed in 12 starts.

CB Qwan’Tez Stig­gers, CFL: A Bron­cos pre-draft vis­i­tor with a unique sto­ry. He nev­er played col­lege ball but is draft-eli­gi­ble after a break­out per­for­mance in Cana­da. Intrigu­ing late pick for somebody.

S Jaden Hicks, Wash­ing­ton State: Can do every­thing and is impos­ing at 6–2 and 215. He filled up the stat sheet in 2023, his third and final sea­son, log­ging 79 tack­les (six for loss), 2.5 sacks, a forced fum­ble and a pair of picks while also block­ing a kick.

S Dadri­on Tay­lor-Demer­son, Texas Tech: Short at 5–10 and 197 pounds, but this guy can play. He ran 4.41 in the 40-yard dash and racked up 33 pass­es defensed and 10 inter­cep­tions over the past three seasons.

S Dominique Hamp­ton, Wash­ing­ton: Rangy play­er at 6–2 and 213 pounds. Hamp­ton excelled at UW and racked up 109 tack­les and two inter­cep­tions in 2023.

P Tory Tay­lor, Iowa: The lone spe­cial­ist we’re putting on the list. Tay­lor is a poten­tial weapon as a punter. The lat­est in a line of Aus­tralians to come through the col­lege ranks, Tay­lor would be an inter­est­ing addi­tion for a staff that clear­ly pri­or­i­tizes spe­cial teams.

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