Justin Strnad
Denver BroncosModel Score
How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →
Season Stats · 16 games
Draft & College
He went about where consensus had him.
Covers the college seasons in our data, which does not always reach back to a player's first year.
Comps
STM Take
Tier 8 (#63) rookie to tier 4 (#27) breakout in 2024 to tier 5 (#35) in 2025 for a 254th overall pick puts Strnad in the rarest outlier-positive class at the LB position. The Wake Forest ACC 7th-round origin plus the Vance Joseph defensive scheme appears to be the catalyst. The 2026 question is whether Strnad crosses into tier 4 territory or whether the structural tier 5 finish becomes the stable baseline.
Strnad came out of Wake Forest as the Denver Broncos' 7th-round pick (254th overall) in 2020. He spent four years as developmental depth before emerging into a starter role under defensive coordinator Vance Joseph in 2024. His STTM career runs tier 8 (#63) rookie, tier 4 (#27) breakout in 2024, and tier 5 (#35) in 2025.
Strengths
- Tier 4 (#27) breakout in year five as a 254th overall pick puts him in the rarest outlier-positive class at the LB position.
- Wake Forest ACC pedigree plus five years of Broncos system experience plus the Vance Joseph scheme creates the structural environment.
Concerns
- 8-spot regression from tier 4 (#27) in 2024 to tier 5 (#35) in 2025 flags the 2024 finish as potentially context-driven.
- Denver's broader defensive identity around Vance Joseph's continued tenure puts continued Strnad ceiling partly scheme-dependent.
What to watch: Whether Strnad crosses into tier 4 (top 30) in 2026, the threshold for confirming the 2024 ceiling is structural.