Broncos make it ‘tough’ on Michael Penix Jr. in Combine meeting

INDIANAPOLIS — Michael Penix Jr. described his formal interview with the Broncos and coach Sean Payton thusly;

“Man, it was an interesting meeting,” Penix said. “It was different than the others.

“But I felt good. I felt confident going into it, and going out of it, I felt confident as well. Playing for Coach Sean Payton, that’d be special. He’s a great coach.”

What made it different? It was simple: Payton and the Broncos wanted to know about what Michael Penix Jr. did wrong.

“Yeah, they were tough. They were tough,” Penix told media Friday morning during a press conference at the NFL Combine. “They pulled up a lot of bad plays.”

Michael Penix Jr. on the bad plays shown by the Broncos in his meeting with them.

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— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) March 1, 2024

But Penix, whose final college game was a rough one against Michigan in the national-championship game, embraced the difficulty of it.

“But it’s good, because at the next level it’s hard. It’s hard to win. I understand that,” he said.

“I feel like in ways, they were just probably trying to see how I reacted to those bad plays, if I can take accountability and stuff like that. And I’m always going to do that.”

Michael Penix Jr. was one of a slew of quarterbacks with whom the Broncos met at the Combine. They also sat down with USC’s Caleb Williams, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, Oregon’s Bo Nix, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler.

Denver also had an informal meeting with Tulane’s Michael Pratt. The Broncos had a pair of interviews with Pratt at the Senior Bowl in late January.

If the conversations with those other quarterbacks were anything like the one with Pratt, they were challenging indeed. But nothing that they shouldn’t be able to handle.

“I’m going to be honest about everything,” Penix said.

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