Which NFL team gets the most from undrafted college free agents?

August 19, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; Denver Broncos offensive tackle Alex Palczewski (63) during the second quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The Denver Broncos had two undrafted free agent starters (eight GS or more) in 2025, Alex Singleton and Alex Palczewski. The Broncos have had a large number of UDFA starters over the past 15 seasons - 59 instances of an undrafted player starting for the team from 2011-2025. Of course some of these instances are the same player being a starter in multiple seasons like Chris Harris Jr, Tim Patrick, Todd Davis or Alex Singleton.

The Broncos had the second most starter-years in the NFL from UDFAs with only one fewer than the Patriots. It used to be a rarity that a team would have zero UDFA starters, but there were 6 teams that didn't have an undrafted starter in 2025. In 2015 and 2016 EVERY NFL team had a least one. Buffalo had the least with only 29.

The most undrafted starters was nine by the 2023 Titans. The 2016 Seahawks had eight. The are seven instances of a team having seven, including the 2019 and 2020 Broncos. Those two teams are the only teams with back-to-back sevens. Three teams went two seasons in a row without having a UDFA starter. The most for any season in this study was 2017 when the Broncos had six and there were 106 in the NFL. The six for the Broncos in 2017 were: CJ Anderson, CHJ, Darian Stewart, Todd Davis, Ronald Leary, and Shaq Barrett (who recently UNretired from the NFL).

One way to view this data is that the Broncos and the Patriots have done a really good job of both identifying and developing undrafted college free agents. The other way to look at this is that the teams that have had to use undrafted starters have had to do so because they drafted poorly and were forced to use undrafted college free agents.

While the Broncos have not had any season with zero UDFA starters, they have only had one in 2011, Daniel Fells. Wesley Woodyard only started seven games for the Broncos that season, so he just missed the cut-off. He was one of the UDFA starters (all on D) in 2012, the other two were CHJ and Mike Adams. Adams was actually signed and developed by the 49ers after he went undrafted in 20004 out of Delaware.

This of course leads to another reason why these numbers can be misleading. Just because a team has an undrafted player as a starter, does not mean that they developed that player, but it does mean that the players they drafted who could have been starting in that spot did not develop. Adams played strong safety. The Broncos had recently drafted four players that could have started in that spot if they were capable: Darcel McBath and David Bruton in 2009, Quinton Carter in 2011 and Omar Bolden in 2012. Bruton and Bolden were good special teams players, but neither was capable of being a full-time starter. McGlass and Carter were duds. Carter did start ten games for the Broncos in 2011, but not because he was any good, only because he was the least worst option at FS that season.

Overall in the NFL the use of undrafted players as starters has been dropping since 2021. I plotted this on twitter.

Is NFL scouting getting better or is drafted player development getting better? pic.twitter.com/ZpQHkR2FY6

- Joe Mahoney (@ndjomo76) April 23, 2026

I expect this to stabilize, but it could also jump back up to the 80 or 90 per year that we would see in the first decade of this study. This could also speak to better training techniques and keeping drafted players healthy so that UDFAs don't end up having to start, but that would involve a completely different study.