The Denver Broncos have themselves their quarterback of the future after selecting Oregon's Bo Nix with the No. 12 overall pick at the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday night. Leading up to the selection, there was some pandemonium surrounding the quarterback position, but not in the way that many expected.
Instead of a team trading inside the top five to select Michigan's J.J. McCarthy -- like many mock drafts suggested -- he fell outside that range and even past the New York Giants at No. 6. That opened the door for QB-needy teams with picks outside the top-10 to more easily target McCarthy, Nix or Washington's Michael Penix Jr. over the next few selections. However, the stunner of the night came at No. 8 overall where the Falcons plucked Penix off the board. That completely reshuffled the first round and then put Denver potentially on the brink of missing out on the position group -- Nix in particular -- entirely.
With the New York Jets picking at No. 10 and the Vikings, Broncos, and Raiders right behind them in that order, head coach Sean Payton then went on an active mission to make it seem like Denver was poised to trade up possibly in an attempt to lure the Vikings into leaping for McCarthy and then pave the way for them to land Nix.
"I was actively involved in trying to pretend we were moving forward," Payton told reporters Friday. "When it comes to something this specific relative to the quarterback, man you just don't want others to know that this is their focal point."
Before the Penix pick, the Broncos were looking into the possibility of moving back a few picks to accumulate more assets and still hope to draft Nix. However, once Atlanta made their move, general manager George Paton noted it was the wiser move to simply stay put and ensure themselves Nix.
"We took calls from teams ahead of us," said Paton. "Never really got too serious. We considered moving back, but once Penix went it got a little stressful there at the end. You had the Raiders behind us. We just didn't want to overthink it. This was our guy. We're going to take our guy, but we did think about it. Not too far. We could've moved a couple of picks back and maybe got some picks, but at the end of the day, this was our guy. Let's just take him. Let's not overthink it. We would've been sick, you know if we lost him just for a couple fifth rough picks or what have you."
Nix will now come in as the favorite to be Denver's starter in 2024 but will have to duke it out with the rest of a rather crowded Broncos quarterback room that consists of Jarrett Stidham, Zach Wilson, and Ben DiNucci.
