Heading into a 2024 NFL draft that saw a record six quarterbacks get taken in the first 12 picks, Caleb Williams was widely viewed as the clear-cut consensus top quarterback of the class. Though five other teams took quarterbacks early in the first round of the draft, it seemed that any quarterback-needy team would have taken Williams if they had the No. 1 pick.
That might not have actually been the case for the Broncos and head coach Sean Payton though, who ended up selecting Bo Nix with the No. 12 pick. According to a section of Seth Wickersham's new book American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback, detailed by Jon Greenberg of The Athletic, Payton scouted Williams prior to the 2024 NFL draft and had doubts if he could "excel" at the NFL level.
