Denver Broncos: Mock draft has John Elway trading up for QB

Dane Brugler of The Athletic is one of the best in the business and he thinks John Elway is going to make a big trade for a QB in the 2019 NFL Draft.

The Denver Broncos seem to be the team considered around the NFL and NFL Draft world to be the team most likely to be aggressive in pursuit of a quarterback in the 2019 NFL Draft.

John Elway has to get something figured out at that position, and even though opinions on this year’s class are mixed (to say the least), this could be the ideal time for the Broncos to strike and go up to get their young quarterback of the future.

Dane Brugler of The Athletic is one of the best and most NFL Draft minds in the business, and recently put out a two-round mock draft in which the Denver Broncos only have one selection.

Why? Because he’s predicted they will use their second-round pick as part of a package to trade up with the New York Jets to the third overall slot.

Alright, great, so the Broncos are going to give up their second-round pick this year and more for Drew Lock, right?

Not so fast.

Brugler has the Broncos trading up for Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, contrary to everything that has been reported in the last two months about Lock being Elway’s preferred target in this year’s draft at the quarterback position.

Come to think of it, other than a reported meeting between the Broncos and Brett Rypien at the East-West Shrine practices, there has been very little information out there about other quarterbacks besides Lock that the Broncos might have interest in, Haskins included.

Why is that?

Haskins, for what it’s worth, was probably not considered a no-brainer by the NFL to declare early. After putting his name to the NFL Draft advisory board, Haskins opted to leave school early which paved the way for Justin Fields to transfer over from Georgia.

Everyone has been talking about Lock all offseason and rightfully so — he’s exactly the type of player the Broncos would have picked out of last year’s draft. He’s got a great combination of talent, experience, and moxie they coveted in just about every pick and free agent signing in 2018.

With that said, the reason we haven’t heard much about Haskins is that as a redshirt sophomore with no starting experience (really) prior to last season, he probably was considered a ‘down the road’ type of player during the year.

The Broncos undoubtedly had scouts in attendance for some Ohio State games this year, even if it wasn’t John Elway going to visit Haskins. Last year, he only went to see guys who were guaranteed to be going to the NFL Draft.

Haskins has a great reputation and obviously a year’s worth of Heisman-worthy tape. He was phenomenal all season for the Buckeyes and is worth looking into. After all, he is going to enter the pre-draft process as many analysts and teams’ number one quarterback.

He has plenty of time to win the Broncos over. If this offseason is any indicator, the fact that Elway hasn’t yet met with Haskins is less of an indictment on the team’s interest in Haskins and more of an opportunity for Haskins to blow them away and force this trade up.

The NFL Scouting Combine is this month, and Denver will get the chance to spend some time with the Ohio State quarterback. Who knows if he might emerge as their top player at that position by the end of February?