Broncos Release QB Ben DiNucci + LEAKED: How Sean Payton & Denver Landed On Bo Nix | Broncos News

[Music] what's going on Broncos Country coming up on today's show Denver released a quarterback so we'll break down that news and recap everything you need to know and then I want to take you behind the scenes as Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated had an excellent article where he detailed everything that went into the bow niick selection but first some news here as Jeremy Fowler was the first one to report that the bronos have released quarterback Ben denucci and I'm not too surprised by this really denucci was fighting for a practice squad spot at best but after the additions of Bo Knicks and Zack Wilson within a week I think Denver doesn't want to have a crowded quarterback room like sometimes you see teams try to get four quarterbacks just to help get the drills and get the uh OTAs and mini camp and training camp practices moving along but Denver does not want to steal reps away from stum Nicks or Wilson so they can figure out who the quarterback one two and three are on this team just to have it go to a meaningless sorry Ben denucci but I'm just going to come out right now and say I'm a bit of a sicko and I don't know if you guys feel the same way because we just looked at that quarterback depth chart and ask around the NFL they're going to say it's the worst quarterback room but personally kind of excited for this quarterback battle like it's not filled with a bunch of great historical names like Zach Wilson hasn't sh showed us a lot of good things to be optimistic about Jared STM is very young in his NFL starting quarterback career just four starts on his Bel under his belt and B Knicks is a rookie but I'm very excited to see how this all unfolds like who's qb1 who's qb2 who's qb3 because I don't know if there's any other quarterback room in the NFL where the qb3 has this high of a chance of being the week one starter and it's not a very high chance for Zach Wilson but it's a lot higher than every other qb3 in the National Football League so of course all eyes are on Bo Knicks to be this team's starting quarterback and inevitably that's going to happen that's not a question there's no debate here the question is when does that happen right does it happen as soon as training camp opens up does it happen right before week one like we've seen a lot of quarterbacks get taken in round one not start week one Baker Mayfield Josh Allen Justin Herbert but then we've seen guys like Bryce young last year who really early in training camp was crowned qb1 no question about it so bonck is definitely going to have to earn that top spot he'll have to take it away from Jared stum who is kind of fighting like a a two-front war right now right he's got the Americans to the west and the Russians to the east because Zack Wilson is also competing for the backup job so Jared stum is in a weird position where he's trying to fend off B Knicks for the starting quarterback job and he's also trying to defend off Zack Wilson just in case he loses the starting job he's still the backup on this team so I feel a little bit bad for stum he is in a two-front war at the moment but my prediction on May 8th Jared stum will start week one for the Denver Broncos bonick will replace him early in the 2024 season and Zach Wilson is the qb3 on this roster all season long and Denver keeps three quarterbacks in their quarterback room for all 17 weeks sparring any injuries which I'm sure that's going to happen cuz it's the NFL so that's my prediction right now I know it sounds like it's super easy just to Crown B knck the starter but I think it is Jared stm's job to lose and I don't know if we're going to see anything in training camp where Nicks just Wows the coaching staff because training camp is usually a spot where you can wow the coaching staff with your athletic ability right that's where you see those viral like 15-second videos from training camp appear bonck doesn't have that necessarily he's going to win the job one day because of what he does in the Huddle at the line of scrimmage smart with the football and those are things that pop up in training camp but they don't necessarily overcome like the god-given athletic abilities and that's not something bonix carries into training camp as like whoa look at this guy he's the fastest or he's got the strongest arm we've seen from any Prospect in the last five years now who do you think will be the week one starter phonix Jared stum and I'll toss Zack Wilson on there Zach Wilson's family may be watching right now maybe one of his friends moms is watching so week one starter Nicks stum or Wilson now next up on the show I want to talk about how B knck became a Bronco because Albert Brio from Sports Illustrated he went in detail about how JJ McCarthy Michael pennx and bonick all landed with their respective ball clubs so let's start things off by acknowledging that Shawn Peyton wanted a small circle the article opens up with and we're going to go in depth on some parts of the article about how both I be your pardon Shawn Peyton was in New Orleans in 2017 Drew Brees was like hey can me and my buds come watch the NFL draft from the Saints war room and Shawn pne's like sure no problem awkward conversation we're going to have though because I want to take Patrick Mahomes ultimately that did not happen the Chiefs Leep frog the Saints they took him at 10: but from there Shawn Payne's like I want to keep this a very small circle so the only people that really knew where Denver stood on the quarterbacks were Shawn Peyton George Peyton and CEO Greg Penner they did not want any leaks whatsoever of where quarterback stood on their big board now next in the article Albert Breer kind of outlined how B Nick's pro day was actually advantageous for Denver it happened right in the beginning and sort of in the uh no man's land of legal tampering in the official start of NFL free agency which meant all 32 GMS were not going to stop what they were doing for free agency to go to Eugene to watch a pro day in fact Bears head coach Matt eberl was the only one at the pro day and I'm not really sure why the Bears did that makes me kind of feel like the Bears were like let's give Eber Flo the wrong schedule so we can make some good decisions for free agency and let's send him across the country but the key takeaway from the bow Knicks pro day which did not have a lot of eyeballs at it were the Broncos their Scouts and they watched the tape later on with Shawn Peyton and George Peyton and they liked what they saw but a key thing that the Denver Broncos did was everyone kept their opinions to themselves not to cloud and muddy the Waters of other people's opinions and so once Sean Peyton was asked about what do you think about B Knick while everyone else was quietly like f you know uh live uh was quietly uh completely you know beaming inside about what they saw from Bo nicks's Pro Day here's what Shawn Peyton said I really like the guy I told them and by then the Broncos analytic stuff backed up those feelings with hard facts I'd heard from another team that the analytics had Nick as the draft's most statistical impressive quarterback Denver clearly saw it that way too based on what its own analytics director Scott flasa was bringing back to the football brass so let's talk about Bo nicks's stats for a moment because surface level this guy looks like he should be the first overall pick in the draft right he completed nearly 80% of his passes 4500 yards 51 total touchdowns three interceptions and zero Force fumbles you do a blind quarterback resume with the last 10 quarterbacks taken first overall and I bet a lot of you think bonick is the best of the bunch so why did he fall to 12 right well it requires some digging going all right yeah he got some really good stats but at the same time when you look Beyond uh just surface level here you notice only 11% of his passes were 20 plus yards down the field Michael pennick for example was around 20% of his passes uh in fact 2third of bow Knick's passes were either behind the line of scrimmage or within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage so there is some concern and fairly so in my opinion that b knck did not show enough deep ball passes to believe he can make those passes at the next level which in the NFL maybe you can get by in college by dumping it off to your running back or your wide receiver and quick screens and they do all the work for you but in the NFL at some point you do have to deliver a strike down the middle of the field to convert a third and 10 but there's a lot of good things to Bo Nick's game uh Zack Stevens tweeted out Bo knck was the most accurate quarterback in the draft on sideline throws over 10 yard down the field according to sports info Solutions Nick was more accurate than Jaden Daniels Michael penck Caleb Williams Drake May and JJ McCarthy so the big question for Denver and really for the entire NFL is can bonick deliver down the field that is what everyone is wondering if the answer is yes then the Broncos got an absolute steal of the draft if the answer is no he is what we thought he was based on his college stats then the Broncos may be looking for a new quarterback in a few years because that doesn't mean b knck will be an awful quarterback but it likely means he won't be a franchise quarterback and when you look at the 2024 quarterback classes average depth of Target meaning whether or not the receiver caught the pass just how far down from the line of scrimmage were they when the quarterback threw the ball Caleb Williams you can see an order of where they were drafted almost uh 9.1 yards Drake May 11 yards Jaden Daniels 10 a half Michael penck 10.7 JJ McCarthy 9 .4 and there's Bo Nick sticking out at 6.8 yard by far the lowest in this draft class in fact if you want to compare Bo Knicks to previous round one quarterbacks he's in his own tier I mean look at the other quarterbacks recently who have gone in the first round closest One MA Jones 8.8 and I think we're seeing some issues with M Jones as a passer down the field uh let's take even further back in time right there are some good examples like Justin Herbert 8.8 went to the same College as B Knick and there's no question that Justin Herbert can throw the piss out of the football accurately with velocity down the field but we didn't see that at Oregon and I think maybe Bo Knicks could have the same path as Justin Herbert because he wasn't asked to make those down the- field passes similar to Herbert and ultimately Herbert is viewed as a bit of a gem in the in the draft cuz he was the third quarterback taken in his draft class I think there was a chance that b knck could become this year's Josh Allen now Josh Allen and Bo Knick don't have the same flaw right B Nick's flaw is lack of volume downfield just haven't seen a whole bunch of passes down from the line of scrimmage that was not an issue for Josh Allen at Wy he had no problem chucking the pig skin down the field Josh Allen's uh Josh Allen's um problem at Wyoming was completion percentage right lack of accuracy but the Buffalo Bills believed hey we can correct that and all of a sudden we're going to have a quarterback with very little issues and sure enough it's worked out great in Buffalo so I could see us looking back in a few years going how did B Knicks fall on the draft well if you remember go back in time it was because no one thought he could complete the Deep ball and he just wasn't asked to do it at Oregon but he was able to do it all along that's just not what the coaching staff and the offense called on so this could be an Avenue where we look back and go why did B knck fall oh yeah cuz we were so obsessed with the a DOT and maybe we look back and go why did B Knick not succeed oh yeah because he couldn't complete the ball down the field in college and Shan Peyton the Broncos thought he could fix him and ultimately that is going to be the Difference Maker in my eyes as to whether or not bonck is successful in the National Football League now we have more to read from at Albert Beer's article but first if you want to get a bonck jersey he has not announced the number yet I checked da and I'm sure the Broncos would like him to pick a number and sign his NFL PA contract or whatever so that they can start selling these jerseys but go to chatsports.com Nick you can order it right now and once B Nix inevitably makes that number decision and gets all the contract signed and whatnot Fanatics will just will just um mail you your jersey immediately so you're pre-ordering it now but once the jersey number is in they will send you your brand new bow knck Jersey get it today I put that link in the comments and description of today's video let's read more from Breer to combat the fair criticism that Nicks came from such a screen/ quick game Heavy offense they eliminated throws tagged as given from the evaluation as they did with all of the quarterbacks from there Payton and pton got extensive expansive Advanced stats that elevated Knicks above his peers he was first in two minute drills needing points end of half two-minute drills critical fourth quarter 2-minute drives fourth quarter 2minute and importantly negative play differential he was second to Rattler in Red Zone passing when you read that last bit right there about everything B Nick did Super well last year at Oregon that to me screams Shawn pyton guy not because he is what some people have Loosely compared to Drew Brees doesn't have incredible arm strength but can get the ball out with accuracy no John Peyton and Drew Brees worked so well together because John Peyton had the utmost trust in Drew Brees in critical moments to make the right decision John Payne did not have that trust in Russell Wilson John Payne was Furious throughout the season with Russell Wilson and we saw that play out in like the Lions game where you saw like a one-sided screaming match happen because he did not trust in Russell Wilson to execute what he wanted to do in the play call in the overall game plan from week to week to me when you look at what bow Nick's strengths are those are very key important strengths key situations end of the half two minute drills that is where a coach needs faith in his quarterback to execute and deliver what he wants to see done and Bo Knicks did that very well at Oregon so I'm not surprised that Shawn Peyton looked at that going this is my guy sure Michael panx may be able to throw the ball with more velocity and more accuracy down the field on First and 10 10 on the first play of the game but maybe that's not what Shawn Peyton is looking for at the top of his food chain in a quarterback maybe it is for trust in the last two minutes of the first and second half let's continue reading Peyton Payton and Penner by then knew where things stood on Knicks they also knew they had to keep it to themselves so on the board in the Denver draft room all of the quarterbacks were stashed on the bottom left corner in no particular particular order both to prevent any sort of bias and discussion and also simply to keep the brasses secret I live for these draft stories I don't know about you guys but I just love in a few years when more stuff trickles out about how this guy ended up where he did I don't know but to you but to me it is just football porn and I'm consuming it so for me the draft stories are always great nuggets that come out and I'm a big fan of this one maybe it will like you know look good or look bad in a few years but right now I think it's super cool so sign me up for more of this stuff here uh lastly enough people by then had connected the dots to where Denver had to be careful which is one reason why the Broncos stayed where they were at 12 resisting a trade back and had mild concern that the Raiders could Leap Frog them once penx went at number eight that killed any idea of a trade down since it took that option off the table for a Vegas group that had had been linked to the Washington quarterback Denver was locked in fingers crossed that nothing would change I know that when the draft pick was made my biggest critique was I didn't think he would be a guy worth a first round pick and I would like to see them trade back get bonck in round two so that if bonick doesn't work out you're not out of first round pick this year which would have been three straight years essentially with no first rounder and that to me would have been a real you know baseball bat to the kneecap but if bone Nick is your guy and Shawn Peyton early in the draft process said we don't care where other people think a quarterback should go or a player should go if we like him we're going to take him and I really respect that and admire that in a front office of coaching staff because once Mel Kyper Daniel Jeremiah of the world drop their first two mock drafts we all get an idea in our head of where guys should go and it's really hard to shake that idea but if a coaching staff is absolute that holy crap this quarterback back in our eyes is more than just a good quarterback we think he is the next 15year plus starting quarterback for our team who cares if some Broncos breakdown YouTuber says get him in round two like if you believe he's your guy then by all means you should not mess around just to get an extra second round pick out of a trade move back a couple of spots and hope he falls to you now if you're not absolute that he is your guy but you just wanted to take a quarterback and he was the best one available then then I'm going to be critical of that decision but if Denver believes bonix is the guy meaning like we see very few flaws in him and we think he's going to be the gem of the draft and when it's all said and done he's going to be the second best the first the second or third best quarterback from this draft class then yeah like no problem going with him at pick number 12 you just got to be absolute that he is that good so if you hope the quarterback end or hope the quarterback run ends with bow Knicks hit the thumbs up button we have gone 12 straight videos with over 200 likes let's make it 13 hit the Thumbs Up Button help us to reach a 13th consecutive video with 200 plus likes that's going to do it for us on today's show thank you all so much for tuning in really appreciate it enjoy the rest of your day and I'll see you all tomorrow [Music]