The Denver Broncos seemed to make the right decision in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but what if it didn't go that way?
Doing a re-draft does seem mostly useless, but it's fun to figure out if teams would do things differently with hindsight. The 2024 NFL Draft was one of more fun drafts we have seen in recent years, as six quarterbacks went in the first 12 picks.
The Broncos were obviously the last team to take a first-round QB, and while Bo Nix was the final QB taken, he may have established himself as a high-end QB in the league in his rookie season. Well, if the Broncos had to go through the 2024 NFL Draft again, would they have been able to take Nix?
A re-draft of the 2024 draft has Denver selecting Malik Nabers
In the re-draft from Bleacher Report, the New York Giants took Bo Nix with the sixth overall pick. Well, with the 12th pick, the Broncos take Malik Nabers, the wide receiver who the Giants actually took:
"The Broncos originally landed Oregon quarterback Bo Nix with the 12th selection, but he's off the board here, along with every other first-round quarterback.Kristopher Knox
It's impossible for Denver to justify reaching for another quarterback prospect like Spencer Rattler or Joe Milton III, so the Broncos roll the dice with their Jarrett Stidham-Zach Wilson combo and snag Malik Nabers to help elevate the offense.
Nabers, who was originally drafted sixth overall by the Giants, was as advertised as a rookie. Despite having mostly poor QB play in New York, the LSU product caught 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns.
While drafting Nabers wouldn't address Denver's need for a long-term quarterback, it would help create an impressive receiving corps. Theoretically, the Broncos could be heading into 2025 with Nabers, Courtland Sutton, Marvin Mims Jr. and Evan Engram as their top pass-catchers. That would certainly benefit a quarterback like Stidham or a signal-caller drafted later in 2024 or in 2025."
The re-draft has the Denver Broncos taking Malik Nabers from LSU. If all six QBs were gone in the first round, this probably would have been a very good pick. Denver has needed a legitimate WR1 for a while now, and Nabers would have given them that. However, the biggest question remaining would have been what Denver would have done at the QB position?
There were rumblings here and there that the Broncos had a higher grade than most teams on Spencer Rattler, so the Broncos may have tried to form a Nabers-Rattler combo in the 2024 NFL Draft if they missed out on Bo Nix, but if you ask the team's front office now, they would probably not change a thing.
Perhaps they'd have preferred Jayden Daniels above Nix, but it became clear that all of Caleb Williams, Daniels, and Drake Maye were gone in the first three picks. Overall, this re-draft would have made for a very interesting situation in Broncos Country, but Denver did seem to make the right move with their Bo Nix selection, thankfully.