Kiz: While “Sparky” Stidham was the lead actor in a Broncos borefest, J.J. McCarthy and Michael Penix Jr. were stars of two instant classics in the College Football Playoff semifinals. If your goal from Denver’s 16-9 victory over the Chargers was a nap, maybe Stidham is the guy you want as the team’s QB of the future. But after watching McCarthy lead a stirring fourth-quarter comeback against Alabama and Penix drop a staggering 430 yards passing on Texas, might there be a better option for Denver in the NFL draft?
Gabriel: Good question, Sparky. The Broncos will have all kinds of options to explore at quarterback, but the problem — as it usually is with the most important position in the game — is that it’s hard to find really, really good options. The same principle is likely going to be true in the draft specifically. It’s a long way to late April, but let’s take it as a given that USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye are coming off the board in the first two or three picks. So at that point you get into the realm of the semifinal winners you mentioned, Oregon’s Bo Nix or perhaps you think about the latter stages of the draft and players like Tulane’s Michael Pratt, Washington State’s Cam Ward and a whole host of others. You going first-rounder here, Kiz? Or throwing a late-round dart at the wall and praying it turns up Brock Purdy?
Kiz: With their 8-8 record currently good for the 14th pick in the first round, is it OK to cheer for the Broncos to lose the season-finale at Las Vegas? I’m not super impressed with McCarthy, so put me down as a polite “No, thank you” for the idea of him being the prized rookie at Broncos training camp. But just as the Heisman Trophy seems to have increased the draft stock of LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, I do have some concern that a team with a top 10 pick might feel the pressure to nab Penix if he lifts Washington to a natty.
Gabriel: Somehow, some way, teams tend to line up for quarterbacks in the top half of the first round. Bill Belichick and the Patriots were able to sit right at No. 15 and wait it out for Mac Jones in 2021, but how’d that work out? Here’s how: The organization enters Week 18 at No. 3 in the draft order and could well take Daniels if the other two go off the board with the first two picks (to Chicago/Chicago trade partner and Washington). Then the New York Giants are at No. 5 with — again, at the moment — quarterback-needy or quarterback-interested teams including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Minnesota and New Orleans all up before the Broncos. Someone’s diving in to the quarterback pool. Maybe several someones.
Kiz: I suspect the analysis of his medical reports at the NFL combine will carry more weight than anything Penix does on the field in the national championship game against Michigan. And to protect the health of his throwing shoulder, I fear whatever team drafts Penix might be tempted to mess with the funky mechanics of his delivery. But let another NFL team gamble on the huge talent and mercurial personality of USC quarterback Caleb Williams. I have seen the future of the Broncos. Won’t tell you his name. But his initials are MPJ.
Gabriel: I am old enough to remember, Kiz, when Russell Wilson lasted on the draft board until pick No. 75 in 2012 because of his size. I’m also old enough to remember even further back than that, to 2006, when Sean Payton was willing to roll the dice on a quarterback coming off a shoulder injury that scared Miami off. Both worked out pretty darn well, even if Wilson’s not Drew Brees and we’re having this conversation because Payton decided Wilson doesn’t work in Denver. Could the Broncos use one of those terrific receivers in the first round? Absolutely. An edge? A tackle? A corner? An interior defensive lineman? Absolutely. Maybe even enough to turn down the temptation of mortgaging a lot more of the future to move up 10 spots. But I wouldn’t blame Payton and GM George Paton if they fell in love with a dart-throwing, deep-ball-diming lefty in Seattle with familiar initials.
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