Thursday night is the opening of the 2024 NFL Draft, and head coach talk about……
In the NFL now, you might as well kick it to the following season if you don’t have a quarterback. The bad news for supporters of the Denver Broncos is that nobody outside of Dove Valley would regard the team’s current crop of signal-callers as particularly good. Fortunately, head coach Sean Payton is excellent at assessing quarterback skill, and the 2024 NFL Draft gets underway on Thursday night. During the scouting combine this year, he declared, “I think we’ll be really good at this.
Contrary evidence can be found in his past. In fairness, the former New Orleans Saints head coach spent 15 seasons with future Hall of Famer Drew Brees in the Big Easy, and,
George Paton, general manager of the Broncos, was at fault for Russell Wilson. Therefore, there is enough information to make an educated judgement as to which quarterback Denver would choose in this year’s selection despite the lack of official information. As we narrow down who is most likely to emerge from this weekend’s meat market as the Broncos’ QB1 in 2024, follow us through Payton’s progressions.
Payton only drafted four quarterbacks in his 16 years in New Orleans, and never one before the third round. (We would name them, but you wouldn’t be familiar with them.) During his tenure with the Saints, one pattern did, however, become apparent: he enjoys trading up in the draft. During Payton’s last thirteen years in New Orleans,
The group executed 22 trades on draft day, all of which resulted in an orderly move up. In 2023, he signed two more vault-ahead contracts with the Broncos at his first draft.
You may conclude from this that the Broncos will make a trade to get themselves out of their current first-round pick of number twelve to somewhere in the top five, where they could be able to select one of the four players widely considered to be this year’s best prospects: Caleb Williams of the University of Southern California, Jayden Daniels of Louisiana State University, Drake Maye of the University of North Carolina, or J.J. McCarthy of the University of Michigan. As the Broncos lack the funds to acquire the ideal BMOC, they are unable to acquire a second-round pick. Well, not unless they also mortgage the first-round pick for next year, and Paton is undoubtedly still too traumatised from the Wilson trade to attempt that once more.
Bo Nix looks really good, boy. He’s a Snickers when it comes to candy. A Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, perhaps. Plus, his stats are excellent. The quarterback for the Oregon Ducks finished the previous season with 4,508 yards and 45 touchdowns. The Broncos offence as a unit scored 36 points. That suggests that Nix is not all brains behind her lovely exterior, and
Unquestionably, Payton is drawn to brilliant minds: “How soon can they provide the data?” How fast are they able to progress through it? Are these correct? We must acknowledge the existence of a few basic things.
Nix has the potential to be little more than a nice stat line. Against formidable SEC defences, the native of Alabama struggled to complete 60% of his throws throughout his first three seasons at Auburn. After that, he moved to Oregon, where he completed more than 70% of his coursework for two years in a row. What’s the difference? He might have improved and been surrounded by better teammates.
Another possibility could be that the Oregon offence never asks its quarterbacks to throw the ball more than three feet.
With the exception of Russell Wilson, Payton has basically selected two starting quarterbacks in his career: Brees and Jameis Winston, who was awarded the Saints’ quarterback of the year after Brees retired, both in free agency. Brees and Winston don’t seem to have anything in common anymore. While the latter is tall, the former is short. Winston isn’t as accurate a quarterback as Brees is. But both were reclamation initiatives.
Payton is passionate about transforming leftovers into treasures, much like a computer bro from LoHi who trolls through 19th-century dairy barns to find the ideal salvaged oak for his dining room table. For instance, Brees was cut by the Chargers following a horrific shoulder operation that left many doubting if he would ever be able to throw again. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Winston first overall in the 2015 NFL Draft after he had won the Heisman Trophy as a college player. However, the franchise eventually lost patience with Winston’s tendency to throw the ball to the opposing team. With Brees, Payton’s tactic of searching for deals worked, but not with Winston.
But at this late hour, where on earth would Payton find gold in the garbage pile? He’s located him already: Zach Wilson of the New York Jets was dealt to the Broncos this week.
If not, the Broncos can implement their true plan, which involves underperforming in 2024 to secure the top pick in 2025—that year, when Shedeur Sanders, a projected first-round signal-caller from the University of Colorado, is expected to be selected by many as the best quarterback in the draft.
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