The Broncos have been on a celebration tour for four nearly months since drafting Bo Nix with the 12th-overall pick.
Sean Payton and the Broncos have become national media darlings in recent weeks, and Payton took his preseason victory tour to the airwaves this week to explain the genius behind their decision to draft Nix.
Payton said he was worried that the Raiders, who drafted one pick behind the Broncos, were going to trade ahead of them and take Nix. In an effort to throw off the Raiders on their interest in Nix, Payton said he called the Raiders and made it appear they wanted to move back from pick 12.
“Our concern right behind us were the Raiders,” Payton said on the Scoop City podcast. “Then it was like, ‘Call the Raiders and tell them we might want to move back’… and they didn’t want to move up, and then there’s that minute you wait, and we stay put and the Jets make their pick and then here we are [drafting Bo Nix].”
It was a clever plan to throw off the Raiders, but it turned out to be a waste of time. The Raiders were not interested in drafting Nix with the 13th pick, although a Broncos media personality reported after the draft that the Raiders would have taken him at pick 13.
In the end, it sounds like it was the Broncos who bought into bad intel on the Raiders.
It has been reported by more than one outlet that the Raiders would have taken Oregon State tackle Taliese Fuaga if Brock Bowers had not been on the board. The quarterback the Raiders were eyeing with the 12th-overall pick was reportedly Michael Penix Jr., but once he was off the board, it is widely believed the Raiders were focused on Bowers, Fuaga, or trading down for a cornerback like Terrion Arnold.
Looked ahead, it will be interesting to see if the Broncos are vindicated for taking Nix so early in the draft. He was not considered by many to be a good value at pick 12, but if you listen to the coverage around the Broncos in recent weeks, you might think he’s the next John Elway.
