2020 NFL Draft: Justin Herbert goes No. 1 in first-round NFL mock draft

It is time for John Elway to get serious about the quarterback position. I understand he won the Peyton Manning sweepstakes and got to two Super Bowls with the legend. It is tempting to re-create the magic that led the team to so many years of relevancy. But Elway needs to learn that nostalgia is no way to build an NFL franchise. Peyton Manning is a generational talent.

Only in the rarest of rare circumstances to do generational talents become available in free agency. It is time for Denver to do this quarterback thing the right way and find a quarterback in the 2020 NFL draft and develop him.

In Joe Burrow, they will find a quarterback with lots of skill and potential to help this team get to the next level. The Heisman front runner has had a breakout year with LSU. Burrow is passing with a 78.6% accuracy rate this year, having thrown 38 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions in 10 games this year. Burrow has everything the general manager of the Denver Broncos likes in a quarterback: he’s tall (6-foot-4), he can throw it deep and has had success with his previous team.

In the Mile High city, can you imagine how many more yards per game Burrow could throw? The team would still need some help, as they are short an elite wide receiver this year. But they would finally have that pesky quarterback carousel finally shut down.

The coaching staff could finally invest in a new, mobile, high flying quarterback, with no bad throwing habits that they knew would be there longer than that season.  In a division that is set to have Patrick Mahomes in it for the next 15 plus years, along with a resurgent Raiders as well, Denver needs to settle on a quarterback now, and develop him the right way.

An argument could be made that last year’s second-round draft pick Drew Lock, is the Broncos future. It is unclear what the Broncos plan to do with Lock, as his pre-season looked pretty rough.

It is not a vote of confidence in the first year rookie that Brandon Allen was selected to start over him to replace the injured Joe Flacco. In any case, it shouldn’t matter with the most important position on an NFL team. If Drew Lock is not progressing, keep him on the bench and draft the city’s next quarterback of the future.

I believe that the Denver Broncos are poised to get an elite quarterback this year in the draft. If Joe Burrow falls to them at number 7 in the 2020 NFL draft, they would be wise to take him and develop him into the next star quarterback in a long line of elite quarterbacks that have started for the team.

I understand that a quick fix in free agency is tempting, Mr. Elway. The Sunk-cost fallacy is a strong impulse to break, especially since your previous sojourns into the free agency quarterback market have been fruitful in the past. But very few teams win with a free-agent quarterback these days. And the few that do probably still regret that they did it in the first place (see Minnesota Vikings 2018). Nothing beats that first contract, low cap costing quarterback on a rookie deal.