• I was joking with a few guys over the phone last night that this, as I see it, has become the draft.
What does that mean? That teams will be on the clock at pick Nos. 10, 15 or 20, and see a player they like, but want to get him, say, five picks later, thinking he’ll still be there. The problem, then, will be that there’s an oversaturation of teams looking to move down and very few looking to come up. So this is the draft where, if you’re a GM or a coach, and you see a guy you like, you’ll say , and just take him.
It happened last year at No. 12, where the Denver Broncos had Bo Nix as the second-best quarterback in the draft, behind only Jayden Daniels, and decided not to worry about the draft slot, and just went with the guy they loved. Eighteen starts and a playoff berth later, and I don’t think anyone really harps too much on the value the Broncos got at 12 rather than trading down to get him somewhere else.
Nix might’ve taken a pretty good tumble if he didn’t go at 12. The only team I’ve been able to find that I think would’ve considered taking him in the first round was the New Orleans Saints, who took Taliese Fuaga at 14. Maybe they’d have taken Nix, given the chance. But if he’d gotten by New Orleans, I think he might’ve fallen to the second round.
Denver didn’t have a second-rounder—it actually went to the Saints as part of the Broncos hiring Sean Payton. So they chose not to try to get cute. They said, in short, .
I think there’ll be a lot of that tonight.
