Even if it’s not a potential franchise quarterback such as Mark Sanchez, sheer numbers say the Broncos will select a quarterback in the upcoming draft.
The Broncos finished the 2008 season with three quarterbacks: Jay Cutler, Patrick Ramsey and Darrell Hackney. All were long gone from Dove Valley on Friday when inclement weather forced the Broncos to move their first minicamp session down the street to an indoor sports bubble.
Luckily for the repetition of it all, Kyle Orton and Chris Simms are healthy. They are all the Broncos have to take snaps from center. Although two veterans with playoff pedigrees may be fine come early September with the start of the regular season, most NFL rosters carry a third quarterback.
“You don’t want to go into training camp with only two quarterbacks, certainly, but it’s doable if that’s what the situation is,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. “But you would love to have a third quarterback that could be competitive.”
Expect that third passer to come either next Saturday, when the Broncos have the No. 12, No. 18 and No. 48 picks through the first two rounds of the NFL draft, or next Sunday, when they start their day with two picks in the third round and end it with two more in the seventh.
The Broncos’ next quarterback may not be Sanchez, the latest product from the quarterback factory that is the University of Southern California. But then again, it might.
According to an NFL source, McDaniels and Broncos general manager Brian Xanders have scheduled a private workout with Sanchez for next Tuesday.
“I know it sounds like the hokey answer or whatever, but it’s the truth — to be a quarterback in this league you have to be able to let things roll off your shoulders,” Simms said about the prospect of the Broncos drafting a quarterback with a top pick. “There’s too many talk shows, a lot of you guys writing articles, and you guys aren’t always going to say good things about me, and I understand that.”
With an extra pick in the first and third rounds, the Broncos have plenty of trade ammunition to move up from their No. 12 spot to select Sanchez, who figures to go somewhere in the top 10.
Draft analyst Mike Mayock of the NFL Network says Sanchez has a better NFL future than the other two quarterbacks projected for the first round, Georgia’s Matthew Stafford and Kansas State’s Josh Freeman.
“Sanchez is most accurate of the three,” Mayock said. “He might not have as much arm strength. He might not be quite as exciting. But at the end of the day, if I’ve got a top-10 pick and my job is on the line at the quarterback position, I’m taking Sanchez.”
The Broncos have several options with their five picks within the top three rounds next weekend. One thought is to use the bulk of their early picks on fortifying the defensive front seven. Select a nose tackle such as B.J. Raji, Peria Jerry or Ron Brace; a defensive end such as Tyson Jackson or Robert Ayers; and either a pass rusher like Brian Orakpo or a safety like Malcolm Jenkins or Louis Delmas.
Get a quarterback later, where such undeveloped but proven winners such as Stephen McGee, John Parker Wilson and Graham Harrell can be had.
“This draft could really strengthen the defense,” said Mel Kiper Jr., the original draft guru. “And it will be interesting to see if Sanchez is in the plans. I think at some point they’re going to draft a quarterback late, as they typically have under McDaniels. This will be a fun draft to see how they work it, and I think it’s got to be defense. They have a chance to really step it up, and they have to.”
Remember, McDaniels came from New England, which got Tom Brady in the sixth round and Matt Cassel, who didn’t start one college game at quarterback, in the seventh. When rating quarterbacks, McDaniels places a greater value on won-loss records than most scouts might. This became obvious when he flirted with the idea of dealing Cutler for Cassel, which led to a fractured relationship that in turn led to the trade of Cutler for Orton and a trove of draft picks.
McDaniels will likely see quality quarterbacks in this draft when others won’t.
“We’ve evaluated all the quarterbacks in this draft, and there’s more than a handful that are pretty good players and would fit in and play well in this league and for our team,” Mc- Daniels said. “If it fit right where we had to draft a player, then we would be interested in drafting a quarterback if that would help us.”
Another draft plan would be for the Broncos to package the No. 12 pick and another draft pick and move inside the top 10 to get Sanchez. The thinking here is that after trading away a franchise-caliber, young quarterback in Cutler, the Broncos should recoup the loss of such a rare commodity while they’re in such an advantageous draft position.
Sanchez, the thinking goes, would immediately give the Broncos great value in return for Cutler.
“The way I look at this is, there’s only six or seven franchise quarterbacks in this league,” Mayock said. “Getting rid of one of them, I don’t understand the whole thing. But now what you do is you go get another one. And the guy that fits them the best is Sanchez.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
