Everyone hates the bearer of bad news, or the messenger they choose to shoot, but it’s recently become apparent that many in Broncos Country haven’t quite come to terms with what the 2024 season is going to be for the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos are not prioritizing winning this season. They’re prioritizing a rebuild. And, on top of that, they’re comfortable not finding their quarterback this year.
Had they felt the desperation that many in the fanbase are feeling, they would’ve played damaging cap games to sign Kirk Cousins, or not let Minnesota outbid them for Sam Darnold at $10 million. They didn’t make those moves because they understand their predicament, and it’s time Broncos Country did too.
The quarterback problem will not be solved in 2024.
The best free agent left, by a wide margin, is the ghost of Ryan Tannehill. Meanwhile, in the draft, the Denver Broncos would have to trade multiple first round picks, and likely more, to get in range of J.J. McCarthy — a second-round-caliber QB prospect, according to the NFL Draft’s advisory committee. Maybe they stay put for Bo Nix or circle back for him later in the draft. And, even then, unless the quarterback prospect that’s unanimously viewed as no-better-than the fifth-best option in his class hits the ground running, the Broncos will remain without an immediate quarterback solution.
After seeing fans argue against the idea of adding elite tight end, wide receiver, or offensive line prospects, because allocating resources there means quarterback will remain bad, I decided to explicitly outline the options still remaining on the table for the Broncos, to demonstrate that this problem will not be solved in 2024. It’s best to face that uncomfortable reality and brace yourself for it, instead of deluding yourself into thinking the hurricane isn’t coming your way. It’s headed straight for you, and it’s making landfall in September.
Note: The factors used to determine these rankings were, the quality of the quarterback and cost of acquiring that quarterback. Now, there are very strong arguments to be made that the Broncos shouldn’t target the highest-quality quarterback available, as losing games is currently in Denver’s best interest. That said, the argument that is giving me a migraine is the idea that ‘the Broncos can’t add an awesome wide receiver, because who’s throwing him the ball in 2024?’ The answer: The quarterback they add in 2025, and boy howdy, will that quarterback be glad he has an elite weapon to throw to, a la Burrow’s breakout once Ja’Marr Chase was added to the fray. So, with all of that in mind, quarterbacks aren’t getting bonus points for being bad, as people are scared of adding these high-end ancillary pieces, as they believe it will result in the quarterback position being bad in 2024. The fact these freaks are also hung up on solving quarterback right this instant, instead of circling back when Denver has a top-5 pick means we are going to be focusing exclusively on what the quarterbacks are likely to remedy. The growth McCarthy and Nix might experience from 2025 on is irrelevant to these dorks, as they need their quarterback right now.
So, with that in mind, let’s find out just how good things can get with our No. 1 option:
1. Ryan Tannehill
Ok, do you see the point now?
Has it been made clear?
If all you care about is finding quarterback viability for the 2024 season, Ryan Tannehill is your best option by a healthy margin.
J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix are more intriguing options with more long-term upside, but, as we’re focusing on members of Broncos Country that need their solution in 2024, that long-term upside doesn’t matter. Instead, we’re left looking at what can immediately be provided in the short-term, and through that lens, Tannehill likely has Nix and McCarthy beat.
Now, both McCarthy and Nix are intriguing options for the Denver Broncos in this year’s draft, but both also share a similar wart in their evaluations — neither has a lot of film that easily translates to the NFL game.
J.J. McCarthy was often able to play a secondary role to the run game. He was a part of the supporting cast. He might not be ready to be a quality NFL quarterback year one, considering how sheltered he was at Michigan. Nix, on the other hand, didn’t operate a pro-style passing attack. Now, as our own Robert Davis laid out, you can see flashes of NFL-type processing on Nix’s tape, but unfortunately, those flashes are few and far between. Nix probably isn’t ready to operate Sean Payton’s complex pro-style attack at a high level throughout his rookie season.
Ryan Tannehill though? That’s a lot easier to imagine.
Among the 42 quarterbacks with at least 150 non-garbage-time snaps in 2023, Tannehill ranked 25th in adjusted EPA per dropback — one spot ahead of Russell Wilson — and 30th in success rate. His neighbors in those metrics, along with Wilson, are Gardner Minshew’s, Joe Flacco’s, Sam Howell’s and Justin Fields’s of the world. In other words, Tannehill is right on par with the other veteran options the Denver Broncos missed out on. He’s not going to be an engine that carries a talent-poor roster to the playoffs, nor do the Broncos need him to be.
He’ll keep the offense competent and functional, which is valuable to an offense’s development, as Jared Goff has clearly demonstrated these past two seasons, and that’s exactly what the Denver Broncos need as they position themselves to find their long-term answer at the position in 2025.
2. Bo Nix or J.J. McCarthy
All the aforementioned concerns about Nix or McCarthy hitting the ground running in 2024 still apply here.
That said, scroll down and look at the other options.
Nix and McCarthy are both talented enough and both show enough good on their college film that it is much easier to imagine one of them being a good rookie than it is to imagine Carson Wentz traveling back in time to 2017.
The biggest issue with Nix and McCarthy presently is that the Denver Broncos will likely have to pay an extreme premium to acquire either.
For almost the entire process, Nix has been discussed as a Day 2 quarterback. The last time he actually played football, he was considered a lesser prospect than multiple quarterbacks expected to enter the 2025 NFL Draft. Yet, now, he’s suddenly being discussed as a top-12 pick and someone head-and-shoulders better than anyone in the 2025 NFL Draft Class, despite no games being played to support such a rise.
McCarthy run through the National Championship is at least a little more compelling on that front, but still we’re talking about a quarterback that wasn’t certain to go in the top 20 picks of the draft a few mere months ago, and will now cost the Denver Broncos multiple first round-picks to acquire.
That’s a rapidly inflating market that should make Broncos Country anxious, especially considering the fact they’ve just seen the damage of missing on such a QB gamble firsthand.
3. Carson Wentz
Here comes the cliff face, y’all.
The best veteran available, outside of Ryan Tannehill, appears to be Carson Wentz, as he’s at least been a solid NFL starting quarterback at one point in his career.
Yes, it seems incredibly unlikely he’ll re-discover that once-elite form, but he’s also been a Week 1 starter for seven seasons, spanning three teams. He knows the day-to-day responsibilities of being a starting quarterback, had been through that process in different settings and with different offenses and coaching staffs. He’s also probably been better than bottom-five starter in Washington and Indianapolis, the last two times he was given a starting job. Meanwhile, any other available quarterbacking option that hasn’t been named yet seems certain to be a bottom-five starter.
The big concern with Wentz, outside of him obviously not being very good, would be his impact on team culture.
It’s been widely reported that Wentz’s teammates haven’t been the biggest fan of him and that he hasn’t been the most popular figure in the different locker rooms he’s been in.
As the Broncos embark on a rebuild and launch a fresh era of Denver football, do you want someone with those concerns helping shape the foundation of the team’s culture? Probably not.
4. Blaine Gabbert
In recent years, when forced into action as a backup, Gabbert has looked like one of the NFL’s upper-third backups. He’s also spent the past three seasons learning under the likes of Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes — the sport’s Michael Jordan and LeBron James figures.
That said, he’s still Blaine Gabbert, and we really haven’t seen anything over the entirety of his long career to suggest he’s anything more than a solid backup.
Now, to be fair, that’s a much better option than Ben DiNucci, but he also isn’t coming close to easing the pain of Denver Broncos’ quarterback woes.
Along with at least being a functional backup, Gabbert can be a little bit of a gunslinger, and that make the bad football the 2024 Broncos produce more fun to watch.
5. Trevor Siemian
I’m breaking my own rule here.
Trevor Siemian probably isn’t the best quarterback left.
While it might have been the fault of Nathaniel Hackett, Siemian looked extremely unimpressive last year and was promptly benched by a Jets club even more desperate for QB answers than the Denver Broncos.
The best quarterback left at this point is probably either Kyle Allen or Brian Hoyer. But, if you’re going to sign one of those guys, why not save a little money, be a little worse, and reunite with an old friend?
