Kiz: If Jarrett Stidham is the quarterback under center for the Broncos in 2024, coach Sean Payton’s fanny will be on the hot seat before the year is over. Stidham might well be the odds-on favorite to be the starter in the season-opener, but how much confidence do you have in him leading this team to the playoffs? Tell me your best candidate to compete with “Stiddy” for the job. Please. And thanks.
Gabriel: Ah yes, the question of the offseason. Well, Kiz, you were ahead of the now-crowded bandwagon for Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. I don’t know quite what to make of Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy (Does anybody?) but he’s talented and I have to say that, several times this year watching UM I’ve thought, “I bet Sean Payton will think he can win a lot of games with this guy.” Long way to go, but early on I’ll leave you in charge of the Penix train and I’ll take McCarthy over Oregon’s Bo Nix. This is assuming Denver doesn’t trade into the top four or five, of course.
Kiz: I’ve been banging the drum for Penix since before he led the Huskies to the championship game of the College Football Playoff and draftniks began elevating his stock as a first-round pick. Now I’m not certain Penix will even be on the board at No. 12 when the Broncos are on the clock, and I also realize red flags in his medical report might eliminate him from consideration. So who’s a veteran QB with meaningful NFL experience worthy of strong consideration by the Broncos?
Gabriel: Yeah, this is one of those where there are plenty of options and you’re not quite sure if any of them are particularly good. How do you think Payton would react to Jameis Winston doing what he did Sunday and eschewing a kneel-down call to get a teammate a run-up-the-score touchdown? Life wouldn’t be boring with Winston and his former Saints coach reunited here. And Winston did throw 14 touchdowns against three picks in seven games with Payton in 2021. Otherwise, like, Jake Browning from Cincinnati for a Day 3 pick? A flier on Tennessee’s Malik Willis?
Kiz: Does Gardner Minshew light up your life? For pure entertainment value, I’d like to see how much swag Baker Mayfield could bring to the Denver huddle. But his price tag will almost certainly be too rich for the Broncos. So let me offer one wild and crazy idea: How would Broncos Country react if general manager George Paton tried to recoup some of his losses from the Russell Wilson trade to Seattle by bringing Drew Lock back to Denver?
Gabriel: Don’t you even dare with that kind of full-circle story. Speaking of former Broncos quarterbacks, do we think that Joe Flacco in Denver’s starting lineup for the final six games has them playing next weekend instead of hitting the golf course? If you’re really going down that rabbit hole, the Broncos’ quarterback coach is a former player, younger than Russell Wilson and knows the system well at this point. How about a Davis Webb/’Stiddy’ competition? OK, that’s actually a joke. I just couldn’t find The Post’s joke font.
One interesting wrinkle to all of this: Free agency comes before the draft, so do the Broncos jump on a Minshew/Winston-type free agent right away and still draft a guy? Or wait until post-draft to see how that shakes out and then troll the free agency leftovers? Interesting times in 2024 ahead, Mr. Kiz.
Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.
