NFL.com Says Broncos Need a 'Plan B' at QB Under Sean Payton

The Denver Broncos have a number of areas on the depth chart to address this offseason. The offensive line needs a makeover, the running back room is completely up in the air, and there could be some moving pieces along the defensive front this offseason.

Finishing last season 5-12 and earning the fifth overall selection in the draft (which was subsequently sent to Seattle via the Russell Wilson trade) helps state the obvious: Denver needs to acquire more talent this offseason.

Perhaps the most underrated need for the Broncos is at backup quarterback. While Denver has spent the last few seasons with Brett Rypien as the team’s primary backup, even calling him up from the practice squad after the Houston Texans attempted to poach him in 2021, his time in Denver could be winding down.

With Wilson getting older and dealing with a myriad of injuries the last few seasons and other factors at play, GM George Paton, with input from new head coach Sean Payton (obviously), should bring in an upgrade at backup quarterback.

NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal agrees with the assessment that Denver needs to bring in another quarterback this offseason.

The Broncos are in a weird spot, with a roster ready to win now if they can improve their quarterback play. Enter Sean Payton. The first priority will be to attempt to improve Wilson's performance because his contract makes it nearly impossible to move on from him. I'm skeptical even Payton can get Wilson to be better than average at this point, so it's not too early to start working on Plan B.

What happens next for the Broncos? Don't miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second and sign up for our free newsletter and get breaking Broncos news delivered to your inbox daily!

As Broncos Country saw last season, Denver might not be a plug-in quarterback away from contention with so many questions along the offensive and defensive trenches, but with better play under center and improved health luck, maybe the team is closer to a playoff berth than we think.

The other factor that should help the Broncos close the gap is, of course, a vast improvement in coaching and leadership with the addition of Payton. Rosenthal, like many, believes that the first goal for the Broncos under Payton will be improving Wilson’s play in 2023 and establishing an offense that can best maximize the quarterback’s talents.

Whether it's a veteran whom Payton trusts (Teddy Bridgewater?) or more likely a rookie for Payton to develop, Denver should start planning for life with a different starting quarterback, which could happen as early as the middle of the 2023 season. Payton figures to be around longer.

If Payton and Paton share a brain with Rosenthal, then Denver might consider looking to add new talent to the quarterback room. Just like NFL insider Mike Garafolo recently predicted, Rosenthal believes that Payton's shelf life is much longer than Wilson's in the Mile High City.

The biggest catch in Rosenthal’s call for Denver to acquire a quarterback in the draft this offseason is the massive drop-off in talent that presents itself in the 2023 class. Anyone who followed the Senior Bowl this year learned that it was one of the worst quarterback groups Mobile has seen in some time, with the event's Executive Director, Jim Nagy, stating that it’s possible none of the throwers could be drafted in the top 100 this year (in what is reportedly a down year in talent in the draft overall).

Thanks in large part to the additional COVID eligibility year that many players are receiving on top of the seismic shift in college football due to NIL (name, image, likeness) that now allows players to be paid in college football, many prospects who could have easily been developmental quarterbacks in the middle-rounds mold are instead returning to play in the NCAA in 2023.

Such players as Washington’s Michael Penix, Oregon’s Bo Nix, former North Carolina State and now Kentucky’s Devin Leary, South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, Miami’s Tyler Van Dyke, Wake Forest-turned-Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Washington State’s Cameron Ward, Arkansas KJ Jefferson, and Maryland’s Taulia Tagovailoa all were quarterbacks who could have declared this year and been drafted.

Instead, these players all return to college for another year to boost their stock (and get paid while doing so). After the big four in the 2023 draft — Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s CJ Stroud, Kentucky’s Will Levis, and Florida’s Anthony Richardson — there is an incredibly steep drop-off in talent.

That next group of QB prospects includes Fresno State’s Jake Haener, Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell, and others. Stanford’s Tanner McKee could be a mid-day prospect and seems to be the only one in this group who is a.) healthy and b.) falls in between the round-one players and the day-three players at the position.

The QB that will be hard to decipher will be Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker. Playing in an extremely simplified offensive scheme (the same one that helped Drew Lock throw 44 touchdowns in 2017), Hooker’s already difficult evaluation will be that much harder coming off of an ACL injury. He was likely a Day 2 prospect but now could fall in the draft and miss the majority of his rookie season.

Given the lack of quality QB depth in the 2023 draft after the top players, the Broncos' best course of action will likely be pursuing a veteran to help stabilize the room. While Rosenthal suggested Bridgewater and the staff that had Bridgewater, it might be awkward to bring him back to Denver, given how things played out for him in 2021.

Other veterans who could be options for Denver, given their availability, would be Andy Dalton, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Case Keenum, CJ Beathard, and Taylor Heinicke. The name this writer would be most interested in would be Jacoby Brissett.

Coming into an impossible-to-win situation in Cleveland last year amid the circus surrounding the Browns organization and the Deshaun Watson trade, Brissett played admirably for a team that fielded a horrific defense. On the year, Brissett earned an EPA/Play of 0.115 (good for ninth best in the NFL among QBs with at least 400 dropbacks), with Football Outsiders grading Brissett as the seventh-best signal-caller last season with a 13.0% DVOA.

Of course, these stats evaluate the “system” as much as the individual, but the Browns' offense was humming with Brissett under center in 2022. Furthermore, he is beloved in the locker room.

Having played for four different organizations, Brissett has been discussed as a 'glue' player in every place he's been. What he was able to do last season with the chaos in Cleveland cannot be understated.

Brissett would not be a long-term answer for the Broncos, but he could come in and provide the type of personality and play this Denver locker room needs right now. If Wilson struggles again in 2023, Payton could pull the plug and go with Brissett (or another backup quarterback) to protect the Broncos from Wilson suffering an injury.

As Over the Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald stated in an article this past season, the Broncos could and should bring in competition this offseason.

“If Wilson struggles again the team should bench him if only to protect themselves from an injury kicking in the $37 million in salary protection in 2025 as well as $4 million in 2026 injury protection.”

This is now Payton’s team, and as such, the Broncos need to prepare for the contingency of possibly moving on from Wilson if his poor play from 2022 continues. If Wilson can’t even reach average level under Payton, as Rosenthal believes, the Broncos certainly do need to go out and upgrade the QB room and add talent that can give the team options going forward.

Follow Mile High Huddle on Twitter and Facebook.

Subscribe to Mile High Huddle on YouTube for daily Broncos live-stream podcasts!