Division Rival Poised to Leap-Frog Broncos for 1st-Round QB

The Denver Broncos can't let this happen to them.

Los Angeles Chargers v Denver Broncos / Perry Knotts/GettyImages

This week marks the NFL’s annual power summit that convenes owners, team executives, and coaches for multiple days filled with meetings to discuss league rules and procedures, preparing all 32 teams for the upcoming season.

These meetings create the opportunity for discussions about the NFL draft, which is rapidly approaching next month. Denver Broncos fans have worried about whether head coach Sean Payton has begun his search for a potential trade partner in hopes of landing one of the top four quarterbacks in the 2024 draft class.

The Arizona Cardinals are open for business at No. 4 overall, but that spot in the draft could be in hot demand. Russell Wilson was jettisoned with the Broncos on the line for a whopping $37.8 million guaranteed portion of his 2024 salary as the controversial QB inked a $1.2M veteran minimum deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Payton’s current QB room consists of Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci, as the Broncos have remained eerily quiet in free agency at the signal-caller position. Maybe Payton is playing his cards close to his vest, or perhaps he has already laid the groundwork for his 2024 campaign. 

In a recent episode of The Draft Show on NFL+, famed draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah and NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport discussed a Broncos divisional rival potentially leapfrogging Denver to draft a QB.

Jeremiah asked, "The quarterback teams between the Denver Broncos at 12 or the Raiders at 13, if one of those two teams were going to jump for a quarterback which one of those two teams would make the most sense?”

“The Raiders probably make the most sense in getting a quarterback,” Rapoport answered. "Sean Payton has won with a lot of quarterbacks who are not as good as Jarrett Stidham. I do think they’ll add a quarterback, but I don’t know that the urgency is there because he’s so good that I think they say you know what, we can take some raw materials, and we will get that person to perform. It feels like the Raiders with Antonio Pierce, the urgency is there from the head coach, getting a quarterback makes sense. Whatever happens this year, if you get a guy, you can at least say we’ve got a guy for the next ten years. I don’t know where it’s going to be, and to me, it’s going to be pretty hard to trade up, but I think they’ll give it a shot.”

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The Raiders are currently on an eight-game winning streak over the Broncos, tied for the longest in the series, back when Denver logged eight consecutive wins from 2011-2015. Denver has yet to win a football game in ‘Sin City,’ and hasn't beaten the Las Vegas Raiders since relocating in 2020. 

The last time the Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders was in 2019 in Denver, led by then-head coach Jon Gruden, 16-15. After the Raiders terminated Josh McDaniels in the middle of last season, then-interim head coach Antonio Pierce beat all three divisional opponents, compiled a 6-3 home record, and finished second in the AFC West with a clean sweep against the Broncos.

The Raiders officially named Pierce their 23rd head coach in franchise history earlier this year. The defensive guru’s current QB room consists of the newly-signed Gardner Minshew II, Aidan O’ Connell, and Anthony Brown. 

For now, it appears that Denver's loathed arch-nemesis is gearing up for its chance to acquire a franchise QB in April. That could mean the Raiders move ahead of Denver in the first round, or it could be standing pat and playing it cool in hopes that a prospect slips to them.

“You can get somebody with a high upside, and I would not sleep on a name that hasn’t been mentioned much,” Jeremiah explained. “But Michael Penix Jr., I would not sleep on that one with the Raiders there at 13 which could surprise some people.”

Imagine if the Raiders' streak of dominance over the Broncos not only continues into 2024 but is led by a first-round quarterback who was stolen away from Payton in the draft. That could be unforgivable for the masses of Broncos Country.

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