by Jerry Murr – Colorado Sports Connection
Love ’em or leave ’em – Zach Wilson is a Denver Bronco! Just days before the quarterback-desperate Broncos head into the first round of the 2024 draft. Does this mean that Payton and George do not select a QB at number 12? OF COURSE NOT! Anything is possible.
Could the new young signal caller be used as trade bait? I believe that is very unlikely, but Sean Payton is said to be impatient. So look for the Broncos to do whatever they can to try to move up to get one of the big 3 QBs (Williams, Maye or Daniels). I strongly urge them to not fall into the trap of drafting one of these three unless there is some evidence that the next Patrick Mahomes is among them. Some believe he is. I, simply do not. The odds of drafting a first-round star quarterback are stacked against that happening. Don’t get me wrong, the next great QB has to come from somewhere, right? Here’s the deal. Wilson 2.0 was drafted number 2 in the 2021 draft. By many talent evaluators, he was considered to be one of the best in that class. Other than Trevor Lawrence, I was not a huge fan of any of those signal callers in the top 10 of that draft. On the other hand, Zach Wilson, at 24, in the 6th round of the 2024 draft – now that is something I could and do get behind!
Unfortunately, Zach was drafted by the New York Jets. Whatever their past, the Jets hired a new coach that same year and were blazing “new beginnings”. Saleh, one of the young guns from the Kyle (Mike) Shanahan coaching tree is truly a great coach, but he is a defensive guy. He was Kyle Shanahan’s defensive coordinator before landing the Jets job as HC. So, as we saw with Vic Fangio here in Denver, quarterbacks, especially young ones are typically not going to get the attention they need to be properly developed. By the way, the college game does not develop them as well as they used to. All that said, Zach Wilson has now landed somewhere where the coach will give him the coaching that he will need to be successful. Maybe he is too far gone already, a la David Carr? Whatever fans believe about Sean Payton, he has proven to be extremely adept at developing quarterbacks with some talent. (See Jameis Winston, Teddy Bridgewater, and of course Drew Brees.)
So what does this all mean for the Denver Broncos? It relieves some of the pressure of drafting a quarterback early. There are plenty of other signal caller options available this year if they want to wait. Whether it is Bo Nix, Michael Penix Jr., JJ McCarthy, or a slew of second, third, fourth or even fifth-rounders (Reed, Pratt, Lombardi, Milton etc.). With the addition of Zach Wilson, the pressure is off! At least optically. Maybe this is all just a ruse to throw teams off the true scent of their draft intentions. Whatever the case, now that they have another quarterback on the roster, SP and GP can now be patient in choosing another quarterback.