ESPN analyst: There’s a ‘wide’ draft range regarding Bo Nix

It’s mock draft season. It’s misinformation season. Disinformation season, too.

And it seems like everyone with a microphone and a laptop in the NFL Draft universe has a take on what the Broncos might do with the No. 12 overall pick. But they’re mostly guessing.

“We do every week sort of what we call our draft notebook, and we answer three or five questions in round-table form, and one of them [recently] was which was the team that was giving you the most headaches in terms of projecting what they’ll do in the first round, and my answer was obviously Denver,“ ESPN NFL and draft analyst Field Yates said on a recent conference call.

Yates’ most recent mock had the Broncos selecting Oregon quarterback Bo Nix with the No. 12 overall pick. But projecting him — and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., who visited with the Broncos last week — is a difficult task.

“I mentioned that Bo and Michael Penix Jr. are the players that had maybe had me most flummoxed in terms of where to place them; the range is so wide,” Yates said.

Basically, either could go as high as the Broncos’ general area of the draft — in the early part of the first round’s middle range — or they could slip into Day 2, maybe even into the third round.

One thing is certain: The Broncos will not stand pat at quarterback. Sean Payton and George Paton have declared they will bring someone into the building to join Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci.

“They’re going to add, at some point. They might even double-dip in the draft because you need probably four arms at this point of the offseason,” Yates said.

“While I did hear Sean Payton reference some available arms out there, you know, the pickings are getting pretty slim here in terms of guys that have experience and maybe even some age on their side.

But as Yates believes, the lack of a second-round pick puts the team into a tough slot, which may necessitate overdrafting a prospect like Bo Nix if they can’t make a trade down to get him.

“Signs to me point to taking a quarterback early in the draft, and without a second-round pick, I just don’t know that you can bank on a quarterback being available in the mid-70s to be your starting quarterback on Day One,” Yates said.

Of course, Sean Payton has never been a head coach for a team that selected a first-round quarterback.

“When they’ve got Drew (Brees), what’s the point of taking a first-round quarterback?” Yates said, referring to the 15 seasons Payton had with Brees as his quarterback. “So, I think it’s possible.

“Bo, Mike, very capable players. They get the job done in different ways. If I were Denver, I would be thinking long and hard about either of those options.”

And in the cases of either Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix, Yates believes Sean Payton’s expectations for the team could factor into the QB decision.

“It was Sean Payton’s own sort of assessment that this team is already playoff-ready. He felt that way going into last year. I don’t imagine that he feels any different this year. And I just don’t think you want to have this much uncertainty surrounding the quarterback spot as they do right now.

“So, I had them with Bo Nix in the first round, No. 12 overall. Maybe it’s low-hanging fruit to make some of the comparisons or note that some of the things that that he does very well — processing, accuracy — are things that are in line with Drew Brees.”

And that’s part of why a passel of mock drafts have Nix going to the Broncos.

“Quarterback feels like priority A, B, C and D right now in Denver,” Yates said.