During OTAs and minicamp, the Broncos allowed all three of their quarterbacks to take reps with the first-team offense. Each of returnee Jarrett Stidham, trade acquisition Zach Wilson and first-round rookie Bo Nix continued to spend time with the starters during the opening week of training camp, but that three-man race will soon be thinned to two. 
“The rotation has been pretty consistent,” head coach Sean Payton said (via Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette). “I think that will begin to change a little bit as we get into the next week and a half to two weeks… We’ve kind of been in this pretty consistent pattern and I think it’s hard for that to stay the same throughout all of camp.”
Giving additional reps to the Week 1 starter is a logical approach, although Payton and his staff have not given a firm indication of which signal-caller is the likeliest to start the season atop the depth chart. What is known at this point, to no surprise, is that Nix will not enter the year as QB3. The competition for at least a backup role will thus come down to Stidham and Wilson.
The former has familiarity with Payton’s system dating back to last year, leaving him ahead of the latter in the pecking order. Indeed, Tomasson notes Wilson is the likeliest to drop out of the rotation once a switch is made. The 24-year-old failed to establish himself as a starter with the Jets, ultimately finding himself being dealt to the Broncos for a swap of Day 3 picks. Indications from last month pointed to Wilson having ground to make up on Stidham, and the limited opportunities both have had so far would make it unlikely a signficant change has taken place in that respect.
Wilson would need to clear waivers (unlike Stidham) if he were to finish camp at the No. 3 spot. Going that route would create $2.7MM in dead money, a consideration which could allow Wilson to remain on the 53-man roster. Recent rule changes have, on the other hand, made it easier to elevate passers from the practice squad to the emergency third-string role on gamedays. That could sway Payton to carry only two passers and stick with Nix and Stidham (in one order or the other) during the fall.
Plenty of time remains before the Broncos’ preseason schedule, something which will offer another opportunity for the team’s QB competition to be evaluated. By that point, only two contenders will likely still be in the running for the Week 1 nod.
Most likely Wilson
Wilson will soon be back in Utah hooking up with his mom’s friends. I hope he invested his money wisely.
Wilson’s uncle founded JetBlue. I think he’ll be OK financially even if he used his signing bonus to light cigars with hundred dollar bills.
Just because his uncle is set, doesn’t mean that Zach has an inserted silver spoon. Zach doesn’t even have the name recognition to carry into a meeting, tell a profound story, and sway an investor.
Also, fast fact, David Neeleman his uncle was actually the CEO and not the founder of Jet Blue. He did co-find Morris Airline and is the founder of Azul Air, the largest domestic carrier in Brazil.
Neeleman founded JetBlue.
Wilson is set for life.
3 seconds on Google leads me to:
David Gary Neeleman (born October 16, 1959) is a Brazilian-American businessman. He has founded five commercial airlines: Morris Air, WestJet, JetBlue Airways, Azul Brazilian Airlines, and Breeze Airways. Along with Humberto Pedrosa and Aigle Azur, he owned 45% of TAP Air Portugal.[3] In 2017 he became a citizen of Cyprus.[4]
So yeah the dude founded Jet Blue
Oh and he’s filthy rich
Who cares what his uncle is worth. If my uncle had a billion dollars it would put exactly zero dollars in my pocket. If it was his father it would be a different story.
I don’t know if you know any exorbitantly wealthy people, but I highly doubt that’s true.
oh wow I wonder who
The media acts like they know who will start. It doesn’t know. Neither do fans. Still a lot of football to determine the starter and backup. Wilson is likely running third bit anything can happen.
I’m eagerly waiting the update that claims the Broncos will bring Jay Cutler back to be the starter 🙂
Confused by this sentence…. “Wilson would need to clear waivers (unlike Stidham) if he were to finish camp at the No. 3 spot.”
Why would he need to clear waivers simply because he is listed as the #3?
Wouldn’t he need to clear waivers if he were released and the Broncos hoped to place him on the practice squad?
Can’t they just simply carry three QBs on their roster? I read somewhere that 13-14 teams last year carried three QBs.
Assuming they mean emergency QB3. Not sure why that’s mentioned, but maybe Denver doesn’t carry 3 QBs normally?