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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
The Denver Broncos‘ decision-makers said over and over again in the weeks leading up to Thursday’s first round of the NFL draft they would not “force” a decision at quarterback.
Whether or not the Broncos indeed forced the issue remains to be seen, but what the Broncos did do is make history when they made Oregon’s Bo Nix the sixth quarterback off the board Thursday night. Nix’s selection tied the record of six quarterbacks selected in the first round, set in 1983 when Broncos Hall of Famer John Elway was the No. 1 pick of the draft (by the Baltimore Colts).
In all, a record 23 offensive players — including the first 14 picks off the board — were selected in the first round, breaking the previous mark of 19.
Nix’s selection with the No. 12 pick was the highest the Broncos have taken a quarterback since they drafted Jay Cutler at No. 11 in 2006.
General manager George Paton wouldn’t say Thursday whether the Broncos had six quarterbacks among the top 12 players on their draft board. He did say the team had six quarterbacks graded as first-round picks.
Coach Sean Payton said the Broncos were concerned that they might not get Nix “when Atlanta took [Michael] Penix [Jr.]. … It got a little crazy there for a minute.”
Nix said he believed the Broncos had some interest in him during the pre-draft windup, but that “you never know until you get the phone call,” Nix said.
“I’ll be in a good situation to learn and grow,” Nix added.
“When you look at their scheme, there’s a lot of concepts, a lot of things I’ve run in the past,” Nix said.
Paton said Nix “was just an ideal fit for what we want here.”
After saying they’d be willing to move up or move down in the first round if the right opportunity presented itself, the Broncos stayed put at No. 12, even as the quarterbacks came off the board at an unprecedented rate. When the Minnesota Vikings moved up from No. 11 to No. 10 to select Michigan signal-caller J.J. McCarthy, the Broncos were faced with taking a skill position player, the highest-rated defensive prospect on their board or the sixth quarterback in Nix.
Nix, with his three seasons at Auburn and two at Oregon, was one of the most experienced players in the draft. He had 61 games, with at least 10 played in all five of his seasons. His two seasons at Oregon were a revelation, with 74 of his 113 career touchdown passes as well as back-to-back campaigns with at least a 71% completion rate.
Payton said the Broncos evaluated Nix’s work on the intermediate and deep parts of the field separately, given that almost a third of his completions last season were at or behind the line of scrimmage.
“Let’s do another passing statistic and remove a lot of the short, underneath throws,” Payton said. “Obviously that was part of what they do offensively, but if you remove that and come back with the analytics [he is] still first. I would say his arm strength, you saw it at the pro day, but even at the private workout it was very good. He’s super smart.
“Man, we’re excited. … We’re glad it worked out the way it did.”
The Broncos have missed the playoffs in each of the past eight seasons with five different head coaches, Payton included, and 12 quarterbacks (during the COVID-19 pandemic, running back Phillip Lindsay started a game behind center, so there were technically 13). Denver has just two of its own first-round picks on the current roster — cornerback Pat Surtain II and tackle Garett Bolles — and needs impact players all over the depth chart.
Nix joins a quarterback room that includes Zach Wilson, whom the Broncos acquired in a trade earlier this week, and Jarrett Stidham, who started the final two games of the 2023 season after Payton benched Russell Wilson. Zach Wilson was the No. 2 pick of the 2021 draft.
The New York Jets, after Wilson’s rocky three-season tenure with the team, had told him and his representatives that they would try to find him a new football home.
Wilson, given his on-field struggles — a 57% completion rate with 25 interceptions and just 23 touchdown passes — is a bit of a reclamation project, as the 24-year-old gets a fresh start. Payton has consistently said he would bring in competition for Stidham. Wilson, and now Nix, are part of that in the short term with Nix the potential long-term solution.
