KUSA – If the Broncos do take a quarterback with their No. 5 overall draft pick and he turns out to be a bust, it won’t be from lack of preparation.
Josh Allen, the most physically gifted of the Big Four quarterbacks, is visiting Broncos’ general manager John Elway, head coach Vance Joseph and the offensive coaching staff today at the team’s UCHealth Training.
It will be the third significant meeting between the Broncos and Allen, the talented if inaccurate prospect from Wyoming.
A breakdown of Broncos’ visits with the Big Four:
Baker Mayfield (4): Senior Bowl, NFL Combine, Pro Day, pre-draft visit in Denver next Monday and Tuesday.
Josh Rosen (3): Combine, Pro Day, pre-draft visit in Denver last week.
Allen (3): Senior Bowl, Combine, pre-draft visit in Denver today.
Sam Darnold (2): Combine, private workout.
Mike Shanahan might warn against overstudying. For competitive reasons, Shanahan, the Broncos’ head coach in charge of football operations from 1995-2008, didn’t always meet with his top draft prospects because he didn’t want to tip off other teams as to his interest.
When he took Jay Cutler in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft, Shanahan talked to others who knew the Vanderbilt quarterback, but he didn’t meet him until he drafted him with the No. 11 overall pick.
A decade later, such strategy is rarely employed in the NFL, and Elway isn’t hiding from the fact that even though he just signed free-agent Case Keenum to a two-year, $36 million contract and drafted quarterback Paxton Lynch in the first round just two years ago, taking another QB with the team’s No. 5 overall pick is a real possibility.
Allen is the quarterback who most resembles the style Elway employed when he was the Broncos’ quarterback from 1983-98. Allen is big (6-5, 233 pounds) with an incredibly powerful arm, who can also move around. The concern is he only completed 56.2 percent of his passes in his two full-time seasons with the Cowboys.
Then again, Elway was a 56.9 percent career passer.
Eventually, the bulk of the evaluation will lead back to the college tape. But as there are so many intangibles involved with the quarterback position like poise, confidence, ability to lead and character, the Elway-led Broncos’ decision makers are getting a feel for the Big Four while they’re away from the playing field.
