Report Reveals How Far Broncos Went to Cloak Bo Nix Intentions on Draft Day

Prior to landing in Normandy on D-Day, the Allied army famously used inflatable tanks and planes to confuse German intelligence as to their true numbers and intentions. In the build-up to the 2024 NFL draft, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and GM George Paton weren't nearly as creative, but they still took their smoke-and-mirror routine seriously.

According to The MMQB's Albert Breer, the Broncos duo created a dummy draft board that ranked their quarterback preferences in "no particular order." Running a draft version of a play fake wasn't just an exercise in football espionage, as Breer noted that Denver's mission was to internally "prevent any sort of bias in discussion and also, simply, to keep the brass' secret."

The approach helped Payton and Paton, as well as assistant GM Darren Mougey and director of college scouting Brian Stark, avoid any preconceptions of the prospects as the board fell in real time. As much as the Broncos wanted to keep an open mind, even by their own admission, their sights were set firmly on Oregon quarterback Bo Nix at No. 12 overall.

"The private workout where we spend just three hours just meeting with Bo, just getting to know him," Paton explained after Day 1 of the draft. "Sean can talk about the test they gave him. Then, just watching him throw. So that was kind of the start, and then you get through more tape, and more tape and he was just an ideal fit for what we want here."

Keeping their intentions secret was crucial to the Broncos' goal of landing Nix, which meant limiting the circle of trust, as it were, to a precious few. Payton and Paton, alongside Broncos co-owner and CEO Greg Penner, were central to the deception working.

In the final analysis, it's debatable whether the Broncos really needed to throw anyone off the first-round scent of Nix, especially considering how the board fell with five quarterbacks going in the top-10 picks.

Indeed, former ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay went so far as to call the Broncos' selection of Nix an "arrogant" pick. Still, McShay couldn't deny the fit of Nix landing with Payton in Denver.

"I do think that he's going to wind up being better in Denver than he would've been just about anywhere else in the league as a second-round pick," McShay said, alluding to the possibility of Nix slipping into the second round. "But my goodness, this is an arrogant pick. This is an arrogant pick."

Opinions will always vary but there's no denying that Nix's skill set fits ideally with Payton's philosophy and scheme. Subsequently, the Broncos went to great lengths to ensure they landed Nix. Whether the team's tactics were necessary or not (the answer is only deducible in hindsight), the ultimate goal was getting the right fit under center.

Nobody in the Broncos draft war room expected Washington's Michael Penix Jr. to go to the Atlanta Falcons at No. 8 overall. When Penix went off the board so early, followed by Michigan's J.J. McCarthy two picks later, Nix ended up falling right into Denver's lap at No. 12.

The way the board falls is out of any team's hands. All the Broncos could do was put in the work from a scouting perspective and be as prepared as possible to act when opportunity knocked. Paton gave a lot of credit to his scouting department for a reason.

"As I have said a number of times, this is our Super Bowl for the scouts and our personnel department," Paton said during the draft. "These guys work all year for these three days."