One reason the Clarett went as high as he did (in the 3rd round) is that since Denver wanted him they had to take him then because they didn't have a 4th or 5th round pick.
Cute comment on Profootball Talk (see bold):
CLARETT PICK DRIPS WITH IRONY
In hindsight, the Broncos selection of running back Mo Clarett with the last pick in the third round should have been obvious, given the overall irony associated with the pick.
After all, the team who lost its third-round pick due to cheating that led to a championship drafted a player whose stock dropped due to allegations of cheating that led to a championship with a compensatory choice that was met with cynicism by some league insiders who thought that the NFL was trying to give back to the Broncos the pick that publicly was stripped due to admitted salary cap violations during the Elway era.
Whew.
And who else would have been taken by a team that has brazenly flouted the rules than a guy who brazenly tried to challenge them?
Well, the Raiders would have. And the Raiders might have, in a later round.
So it makes even more sense that the Broncos stepped in and swiped from their arch-rivals a guy who could develop into a perennial Pro Bowler, especially in the Denver chain-moving, cut-blocking system.
And that's the most intriguing aspect of the Clarett pick. With an offense that has made stars out of journeymen for the past decade, the table is set for Clarett to fulfill the potential that he flashed in his only season of major college football, which culminated in a stellar Fiesta Bowl performance with a heady strip following a turnover that gave the Bucks the ball back at a critical point in the game.
Since reaching the pinnacle of his football career, Clarett has instead become a pariah, taking on Ohio State for allegedly giving items of value to supposedly amateur athletes and then daring to take his future employer to court in order to force a pathway for supposedly amateur athletes into the draft prematurely.
In the end, Clarett likely went higher than he would gone have a year ago, if the original district court ruling allowing him into the draft hadn't been scuttled, and for the Broncos it's a no-lose proposition.
After all, they got Clarett with a draft pick that they likely should have never had, anyway.