Mel Kiper went with a cornerback for Broncos in latest mock

In one of his laziest mocks for the Denver Broncos all year, Mel Kiper has them skipping out on a quarterback in 2024.

We tend to cover every mock draft from the main journalists, but this one just about made the ‘ignore’ list for me. I am at the point where any first-round pick not involving a quarterback isn’t even worth looking at.

However, with Mel Kiper’s latest mock at ESPN, I plan to expand to where this mock will still somehow include a quarterback in the Denver Broncos final draft class.

12. Denver Broncos
Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Toledo

I thought hard again about giving the Broncos quarterback Bo Nix (Oregon), but I talked myself out of it. I just don’t think Nix is a first-round signal-caller. I have a Round 2 grade on him based on everything I’ve seen on tape. He lit up defenses for the Ducks the past two seasons — he had 74 touchdown passes to just 10 picks — but there’s some risk involved based on what he was asked to do in the Oregon offense. His average pass traveled 6.3 yards downfield last season, which was sixth shortest among 125 qualified FBS quarterbacks, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

Instead, Denver can look to improve a defense that ranked 30th in yards per play allowed (5.8) last season and pair Mitchell with Pat Surtain. Mitchell, my top-ranked cornerback, had 46 pass breakups in four seasons at Toledo, and he ripped off an elite 4.33-second 40-yard dash at the combine. He’s ready to play early and often as a rookie.

Quinyon Mitchell is a fine prospect and would give the Broncos one of the best cornerback duos in the NFL for years to come. This would be an outstanding outcome, but we’ll need to change Kiper’s final outcome in his two-round mock draft.

In the second round, he had the New York Giants trading up to the 33rd spot to select Oregon quarterback Bo Nix. To revise this, we’ll say the Broncos make a big trade with multiple picks in 2024 and 2025 to get up there instead. With the draft value chart, we could expect something in the range of a two thirds and a second with maybe a splattering of later round picks. That’s probably not realistic anyway as teams tend to value next year’s picks less than the current year’s picks and I’d surely not want this team to give up a a 2025 first-round pick for a 2024 second-rounder.

A more realistic outcome would be for the Broncos to trade back multiple times to pick up additional picks and still get Bo Nix at good value. Kind of like how John Elway traded back multiple times in 2012 and ended up getting Derek Wolfe in the second-round while picking up many additional picks. Or the trade back in 2019 to get Noah Fant and Drew Lock.

These possibilities is why I felt Mel Kiper mailed it in with the Broncos in his latest mock. I am sure Mitchell will be a fine cornerback in the NFL, but given Denver’s quarterback situation it would be absurd for them to go this route in the 2024 NFL Draft.

What do you think about this mock from Kiper? Share in the comments section below.