Mile High Report
Last week’s edition of Future Broncos took a short departure from collegiate prospects to discuss potential options Denver could make to upgrade the team at the trade deadline. While many across Broncos Country were hoping the team would make a splash to help with their efforts down the stretch, the Broncos opted to stand pat and roll with their current roster for the rest of the season.
For this week’s segment, I finally thought I’d get into some FCS prospects available in this year’s draft. There are certainly a lot more than this, but I think the prospects below could certainly help the Broncos, especially if they make adding talent to the offense a primary endeavor of theirs next April.
Bryce Lance – Wide Receiver – North Dakota State
6’3”, 206 pounds, 40-yard dash: 4.6 seconds
The North Dakota State Bison have endured a decade of dominance at the FCS level. If they aren’t winning the championship, every year they are still competing for it. The Bison program is clearly the best at its level and keeps sending players to the NFL who are able to compete.
Next in line to carry out their tradition to the pros is senior wide receiver Bryce Lance. He is the younger brother of Trey Lance and is arguably the best prospect in the FCS. Last season Lance had 75 catches for 1,053 yards and 17 touchdowns for the Bison. His junior year numbers catapulted his anticipated draft stock in the process.
While this year’s touchdown production has dropped immensely, he has really established himself as a premier vertical threat. This season, he has 36 catches for 703 yards and 4 touchdowns. He certainly can create after the catch and contact, but his calling card is his abilities to beat defenders deep showcased by his whopping 19.5 yard per catch average. Though his timed speed isn’t great and I do have concerns about that success translating to the NFL.
Even so, he is a consistent chain over with 29 catches of his going first downs or scores. Not only that, but he does also well over the middle of the field coming down. High-pointing and coming down with contested catches is also a strength and his impressive 40” vertical is on display most every week for the Bison coming down with highlight reel catches.
The Broncos have a young receiver corps with Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin, and Pat Bryant but none have truly established themselves as a tried-and-true vertical threat at this point in his career. It’s also clear that none to date have proven to be a viable number two for Denver’s offense. I’m by no means giving up on any of their development, but I’m also in favor of the Broncos adding more talent to the position if the opportunity presents itself.
Nix isn’t shy about taking his deep shots and Lance could certainly help with Denver’s down the field vertical attack and give them another option capable of making tough...
