Broncos won't reach for a quarterback at No. 12

(Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)

The Denver Broncos are considering all of their options leading up to the 2024 NFL draft, including the possibility of trading up for a quarterback.

If the price to move up ultimately proves to be too costly, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy will likely all be off the board when Denver goes on the clock at pick No. 12.

Even if those players are unavailable, the Broncos have to use their first-round pick on a quarterback, right?

“Do we have to draft a quarterback? You would say, ‘Man, it sure looks like we have to draft a quarterback,'” Denver coach Sean Payton admitted Thursday. “And yet, it has to be the right fit and the right one. If we had the tip sheets as to who everyone else was taking, it would be easier to answer that question. That’s the puzzle here.”

It’s impossible to know how the Broncos have the quarterbacks in this year’s class ranked, but there’s been buzz that Payton is a big fan of McCarthy. The Michigan quarterback is not expected to fall to No. 12, though. Will the team settle for Oregon’s Bo Nix or Washington’s Michael Penix instead?

That depends on how Denver has those quarterbacks graded. If the Broncos have Nix and Penix ranked as second-round prospects on their big board, taking one of them at No. 12 wouldn’t make sense.

“What you don’t want to do here is force it,” general manager George Paton said of potentially drafting a QB at No. 12. “Otherwise, we will be in this position next year and the years after. You want to get the right player at No. 12. Our first pick we have to hit on, whether it’s a quarterback, whether it’s a tackle, a receiver or you name it. We need to get an impact player.”

To be clear, we don’t know where Nix and Penix have been ranked by Denver. It’s possible that one of them is in the top 15 and with positional value taken into account, that would put them in play at pick No. 12. But if they aren’t high on the team’s board, the Broncos aren’t going to draft a QB with their first pick just for the sake of drafting a QB.

It’s not QB-or-bust for Denver at pick No. 12. If the right QB is there, the Broncos will draft him, but the Broncos aren’t going to reach for a prospect much higher than where they have him ranked.

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This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Broncos won’t reach for a quarterback at No. 12