© Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Broncos Kick Off OTAs With One Eye Focused on 2024 NFL Draft
The Denver Broncos reported for OTAs on Monday but the roster will look very different after the NFL draft.
While fan scrutiny is squarely on the NFL draft, the Denver Broncos are kicking off the 2024 offseason training program. Players are reporting to Centura Health Training Center on Monday.
Head coach Sean Payton's second year with the Broncos officially gets under way. This first OTA will be marked by Payton meeting with the team for the first time this year, and will then matriculate to a strength and conditioning focus.
The Broncos that eventually take the field on opening week in September will look a bit different than the crew that checks in for OTAs on Monday. The Broncos hold eight selections in the draft, which kicks off on April 25, including the No. 12 overall pick.
The NFL fully expects the Broncos to draft a quarterback. Even if, for some reason, said quarterback isn't procured in Round 1, at some point, Payton will add to the room with a selection in the draft. With a QB depth chart comprised of only Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci, the Broncos have no choice but to draft one.
Broncos fans aren't exactly confident in a current QB room that is widely viewed as the worst in the NFL. It's possible that Payton believes himself to always be the smartest guy in the room and, thus, the savviest coach in the NFL, and could talk himself into believing he can make hay with Stidham as his QB1 in 2024.
But Payton deserves more credit than that. He is absolutely one of the NFL's brightest, most forward-thinking offensive minds, and he has eyes, too. Expert eyes, in fact, that witnessed the same performance that fans did over Stidham's two starts to end last season.
Stidham turned in a replacement-level performance as Denver's starter in those two games. Where the Broncos lacked explosiveness and playmaking potential with Stidham at the helm, he did keep the offense on schedule, got the ball out on time, avoided sacks, and protected the ball — all of which was marked improvement over Russell Wilson.
However, the Broncos' offense failed to palpably out-score Wilson's iteration, averaging just 299.5 yards from scrimmage and 15 points over those two games. While it's possible that Payton views Stidham's paltry numbers and the offense's overall production as too small of a sample size to disabuse him of the notion that Stidham could be an NFL starter, it's doubtful.
To quote right tackle Mike McGlinchey, Stidham is a "very capable player." Stidham is valuable in so far as every NFL team needs a competent fail-safe quarterback to back up the starter in a pinch. But that's a far cry from being a bonafide starting-caliber QB, let alone a franchise guy.
Thus, the onus is on Payton and his front-office counterpart, GM George Paton, to identify and secure a future franchise quarterback in the draft this year. As an organization, the Broncos have never drafted a long-term franchise QB, and after eight years of relative incompetence under center in which the team tried every possible veteran path to skip over the trial-and-error process of developing a young signal-caller, it's time to go back to the well — the NFL draft — and do it the hard way.
What better coach to oversee such an intensive, pivotal search than Payton, one of the modern NFL's top quarterback whisperers? Even though the Broncos are just outside the top 10, the team is in good hands and within striking distance of obtaining the most elusive and sought-after commodity in the NFL.
The mythical franchise quarterback.
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