Alphonso Smith: Sultan of Failure and Wizard of Ruining the Broncos' 2010 Draft

In the photo for this article, you can clearly see Chris Simms pointing Alphonso Smith back towards the 2009 NFL Draft...exactly where Josh McDaniels should have left him.

If Alphonso Smith was a bigger disappointment, he would be an Oakland Raider.

When you're watching the draft this year and the 14th overall pick comes around, keep in mind that we already used that choice...and we used it on Alphonso Smith.

That pick is so valuable in this year's draft that Seattle wouldn't even offer it back to us for Brandon Marshall.

So based on that, you could say McDaniels has a higher opinion of Smith than Pete Carroll has of Marshall.

My issue with Smith isn't that he has been a major disappointment, an inexplicably overvalued 5'9" cornerback who can't return kicks, or even that his drafting was a complete, nonsensical shock last year.

My problem is that if we had just left this guy alone, considering he didn't do anything for us last year, we would likely be in the exact same position draft-wise this year.

Only we would also have the 14th overall pick.

That would give us the 11th, 14th, 43rd, 45th, and 80th overall picks.

What would that do to Denver's draft strategy? That depends on who is in charge, but I can tell you it would open up some intriguing options.

Lets take a look at the first overall pick, which we know the Rams are willing to part with...for a price (They have been discussing just that with the Browns.)

Since the Rams are a rebuilding team that has shown strong interest in Colt McCoy, I don't think it would be outside the realm of possibility to assume the 11th and 14th picks buy the first. The Rams could then use the 33rd overall pick on McCoy.

That could mean the Broncos take Sam Bradford first overall.

Bradford plays extremely well behind good offensive lines. In Denver, he could absolutely thrive.

All of a sudden, we would again have a franchise quarterback! Can you imagine that...along with the defense we had last year? Now we just need to add a couple of superior weapons to our depleted receiving corps.

With the 43rd and 45th picks, I am in favor of picking up wide receivers. I'd suggest Golden Tate (who is familiar with the McDaniels system from his Notre Dame days) and Damian Williams (the best route runner in the draft and a supreme system receiver).

Then we would need to use the rest of the draft on a center, an ILB (or we could have just kept Andra Davis for another year, but that might have made too much sense), and we could put off a safety until next year. Brian Dawkins is still around...

Obviously my scenario is a hypothetical based on what I would like to see, but let's not forget that without Alphonso Smith, there would be some pretty amazing draft options.

Was it wise to get rid of the 14th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, one of the most loaded drafts in years? Obviously not, but I don't think you could convince McDaniels of that. If you tried to, he would likely ship you out of town.

As it is, all I can say is welcome to Denver, Alphonso—maybe this year you'll want to play some football.