After Ditching Russell Wilson, Sean Payton’s Broncos Play Chess While Others Played Checkers to Cleverly Draft Bo Nix

A lot went into drafting Bo Nix into the Denver Broncos after Russell Wilson was ousted from the team. It was not a one-day process, rather the team’s GM and HC had their eyes set on this prospect for quite some time. Sean Payton and his convoy didn’t want any setbacks so they acquired Zach Wilson from the Jets for a reasonable deal in case they failed to draft Bo Nix, the QB out of Oregon.

While people thought that the Denver Broncos needed to have a top 5 pick to get their hands on a respected quarterback, the team’s fairly unassuming approach to drafting did all the wonders. To draft a QB who had a 4,508-yard season, Payton and his team hatched a scheme by ranking the 2024 class QBs in a random order and other teams fell for it!

How did the Denver Broncos get their hands on Bo Nix?

While everyone knew that the Denver Broncos were going to draft a QB, no one had an idea as to who it was going to be. The Broncos did a good job of concealing their intentions to avoid giving Nix away to their competition. So how did Sean Payton and his colleagues avoid giving Nix away? Albert Breer unfolded the mystery in his recent piece on Sports Illustrated.

Breer reported that the Denver Broncos and their management had listed the 2024 class of QB’s in “no particular order” on their draft board in order to “prevent any sort of bias in discussion and also, simply, to keep the brass’ secret.” This was one of the most simplest, yet genius tactic used by the team to hide behind a smoke screen and not let the opponent know what’s coming for them.

The Broncos finally acquired Bo Nix as the No. 12 overall pick and was the highest the Broncos have ever taken a quarterback since 2006. The Broncos were a little worried about who to draft when the Minnesota Vikings traded a spot to acquire JJ McCarthy, leaving the Denver team with two choices: either to get a top defensive prospect or to get a quarterback. But Payton already made up his mind about drafting Nix after he had a detailed analysis of him.

So why did the team use a conniving tactic to hire the QB? Is there something special to him that we all missed? Only Sean Payton and the GM George Paton had the answer to that question.

Reasons behind Sean Payton championing Bo Nix

George Paton, the GM had his eyes set on Nix for a while before the team decided to draft him. He saw Nix throwing once at Auburn and again at the Pac-12 title game. Per Breer, the college director Brian Stark and a local scout David Bratten were so impressed by Nix, that they decided to fill George Paton’s year, but avoided sharing their opinions with the Broncos’ head coach.

But later, Sean Payton admitted his liking to Nix and said, “I really like this guy.” But that’s not all. The Broncos’ inhibitions became a reality when their analytics department pegged the Oregon QB to be the “draft’s most statistically impressive quarterback,” and rightly so. Nix completed his college season with 77.4% completion for 45 touchdowns over 4,508 yards. Breer wrote in his article that Nix was offense-heavy, fast, and had a team-centric approach. Sean Payton liked those qualities.

For most people, these numbers resemble that of a trained NFL QB who’s already a starter. Sean Payton wanted someone who knew football and had some creditability backing him. Also, in the past information came to the surface that he needed someone that he could mold to be a Super Bowl-worthy quarterback, perhaps to re-live the nostalgia days that he had with Drew Brees.