Top Broncos Insider's QB1 Prediction Leaves Fans Less Than Inspired
Jarrett Stidham remains the Denver Broncos' No. 1 quarterback on the roster, and one insider sees the team rolling with him as such in 2024. It's not what Broncos fans want to hear, but there's more context to what 9NEWS' Mike Klis has written.
The Broncos seem to be leaning toward giving Stidham the edge as the No. 1 quarterback and also using their No. 12 overall draft pick to take their quarterback for the future.
The silver lining emerges.
There's a reason why the Broncos haven't jumped into the free-agent quarterback market, despite having the means to do so by the skin of their teeth after making several roster cuts, a big trade, and restructuring multiple big-dollar contracts. It's not because Sean Payton believes Stidham is the Broncos' future under center.
It's because the Broncos are bending every thought and every move toward drafting a quarterback in April. That's where Payton expects to land his QB of the future.
Holding the No. 12 overall pick, the Broncos are within striking distance of one the top signal-callers in the 2024 draft class, but the team is a little too far down to make landing one a matter of course. At this point in the offseason, all the mock drafts and rumors paint the picture that a quarterback will be taken with each of the first four picks in the draft.
It's very possible that the first three picks could be quarterbacks, considering the needs of the teams that currently hold those selections. But there are also several elite, blue-chip non-QB prospects, and one or two could be drafted in the top 5.
Right now, it's a guessing game. If the Broncos want to secure one of the top four QBs — USC's Caleb Williams, UNC's Drake Maye, LSU's Jayden Daniels, and the late riser out of Michigan J.J. McCarthy — Payton will have to find a willing trade partner to move up the draft board.
That won't be easy, considering how many quarterback-needy teams currently sit in front of Denver in the draft. And the Broncos don't have the draft capital to go throwing their weight around in a trade-up, especially sans a 2024 second-round pick.
Oregon's Bo Nix will be there at No. 12, though. And so will Washington's Michael Penix, Jr. in all likelihood. But those two QBs might also be there later in the first round, which opens up possibilities for the Broncos to trade down and stockpile another pick or two.
However it shakes out on draft day, it's clear from the moves the Broncos have made, as well as the ones they haven't, that acquiring a QB is on April's docket. So what if the plan is for Stidham to be the veteran stop-gap to keep the seat warm for a rookie quarterback whom Payton works to develop quickly?
Payton said a lot of nice things about Stidham when the Broncos first signed him to a two-year, $10 million deal a year ago. But when his number got called in Week 17, Stidham failed to move the needle for a Broncos offense that had been painfully inconsistent all year long.
Stidham went 1-1 as a starter, winning his first game and losing his second. He averaged 248 passing yards, which was a better clip than Wilson had produced under Payton, but Stidham threw just two touchdowns to one interception, and the Broncos only scored 30 total points over that span.
It's not like the Broncos faced two top-ranked defenses to close out the season, either. Those numbers were the best Stidham could do against the 26th and 18th-best scoring defenses in the NFL.
Payton knows what it's supposed to look like, and while he was hoping that Stidham would make him look all the wiser for benching Wilson, that didn't happen. But Stidham is under contract in 2024 for $5M, and entering his fifth NFL season, he's got enough experience for Payton to feel comfortable starting him on a short-term basis while the Broncos get a rookie ready to go.
We can't fully forecast what the Broncos will look like next season until the draft is in the books. But you can bet that when it's all said and done, Payton will have drafted a quarterback in his image to develop as the future under center in Denver.
And that future will come sooner rather than later.
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