Clough: Broncos shouldn’t force taking a quarterback in the Top 5

It’s clear the Denver Broncos will make it a point of emphasis to upgrade the quarterback position next year. General manager John Elway said as much this week.

During Tuesday’s end of the season press conference, Elway said the “position didn’t perform” as well as the organization wanted it to in 2017, and it’s an area the team needs to improve heading in next season.

“It’s not just on them. I think there are a lot of circumstances that went into that and put them in tough situations,” Elway said. “We didn’t perform as well as we liked. That’s obviously a position that we feel like we have to get better at going into the next season.”

But, addressing the quarterback position the Broncos don’t necessarily need to do with its top-five pick in this year’s NFL Draft, 104.3 The Fan’s Sandy Clough said Wednesday.

“I’d defer on the quarterback choice. If you’re not overwhelmed with any of these guys, you can’t make any one of these guys a top-five pick,” Clough said. “I know you need a quarterback, but there are different ways and different opportunities in the draft to get a quarterback.”

Likely as many as nine or 10 signal-callers could go in the first two rounds, Clough said. If there’s not much separation between them, the Broncos are “likely to get as good a quarterback in the second round when you select as you would with a top-five pick.”

“I’d still take Saquon Barkley. And if he’s not there at No. 5, and I would guess he would not be, I would, proverbially speaking, move mountains to try to get him,” Clough said of the highly-touted Penn State running back.

“He is a play-maker. He is a difference-maker. He is a game-changer. He is a game-breaker.”

“Schlereth & Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth said this week that taking a quarterback at No. 5-overall would be a reach, and that pick could be used to help fill a lot of different holes.

“The first thing I would want to do is find myself a veteran quarterback who’s going to be available,” Schlereth said. “Somebody you can count on. Somebody that you know can elevate your team on the offensive side.

“If that veteran quarterback is available, and you can do that, then use that fifth-overall pick to either trade down and amass other picks and try to address areas of weakness — o-line, tight end, some of those positions — and then find yourself somebody late in the first round or early in the second round as a quarterback that you feel you can develop.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.