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Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer has been talking to General Managers, executives, scouts, and just teams in general to gather information on the current pulse of what they expect to happen in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
The dust has settled on the major moves of free agency so the draft plans are beginning to form and potentially even finalize. You also have the Pro Day circuit happening where many coaches, GM’s, and scouts are getting a first-hand look at the top prospects in the draft and how well they test in athletic drills. After this, we’ll see virtual meetings pickup, but teams are beginning to figure out what they want to do and are figuring out what other teams are planning on doing. All this information has been gathered by SI’s Albert Breer and he has come up with a first-round mock draft that has an interesting result for the Denver Broncos.
.@AlbertBreer ran his Mock Draft 1.0 by a dozen teams to see what they thought.
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) March 26, 2021
He came away with one first-round trade and QBs going 1-2-3-4
Full Mock: https://t.co/9en4xE0LNd pic.twitter.com/sZ1E6cSVgt
Breer has the Denver Broncos trading up to the third overall selection with the Miami Dolphins and selecting Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
3) Denver Broncos (trade with the Dolphins, who currently have this pick via the Texans): Justin Fields, QB, Ohio State
Curveball! Carolina and New England could make moves up, too. But new Denver GM George Paton has been on the ground at the quarterback pro days, and I’m not ruling out a big first statement from the new guy in charge. The Dolphins will receive the Broncos’ No. 9 pick below.
This would be a major move by newly hired General Manager George Paton. With this move, he would secure his potential quarterback of the future and just continue having an excellent first offseason as the Broncos General Manager.
Now I know we have plenty of Drew Lock supporters in this fan base still but the actions of the Broncos appear to be of a team that will at the very least be exploring a trade-up for a quarterback. They have already tried to trade for Matthew Stafford, they were expected to seriously pursue Deshaun Watson before his off-the-field issues happened, and now Paton is a regular on the Pro Day circuit where he is watching all the top quarterback prospects. Add in the “win now” moves by Paton and you can see why many are coming to this conclusion.
Fields may have the strongest arm in the draft and potentially the most athletic quarterback in the draft as well so his impact at the quarterback position could be immense. He needs to speed up his processing but his accuracy and game-breaking ability would make him an exciting addition to the Broncos offense.
Personally, I would love this pick. Paton would be able to do something John Elway was never able to do during his entire tenure as General Manager by being able to draft a top quarterback prospect. No late first-round or second-round projects but actually a legit top quarterback prospect. I think Fields can be a top 10 NFL quarterback and could have success as early as his rookie season. Pairing him with the Broncos electric offense and potentially top 5 defense could lead the Broncos back to the postseason.