The Broncos appear to have narrowed their quarterback competition to two contenders. As expected, trade acquisition Zach Wilson lost out on first-team reps during training camp this week, increasing the attention shown to incumbent Jarrett Stidham and first-round rookie Bo Nix. 
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The latter has long been expected to take the reins at some point in 2024, as Day 1 passers often see regular season action at some point in their rookie campaigns. Nix, 24, is a veteran of 61 starts in college and is better positioned than most to handle first-team duties right away. At a minimum, the Auburn and Oregon alum will not start the year occupying the No. 3 spot on the depth chart.
Nix is still a strong candidate to earn the Week 1 nod, though. The 12th overall pick “appears to have edged past” Stidham in recent practices, Mike Klis of 9News writes. Both signal-callers received first-team reps, but Klis notes the rotation has left the door wide open for Nix to continue impressing Sean Payton and the coaching staff. Indications from June pointed to him being the favorite in the long run, so this latest update comes as little surprise.
Stidham made a pair of starts to close out the 2023 season, Payton’s first as head coach in Denver. The soon-to-be 28-year-old took over once it became clear Russell Wilson‘s tenure in the Mile High City had realistically come to a close. The longtime Seahawk’s release paved the way for multiple additions, and Wilson’s arrival came shortly before the decision to select Nix – one Payton confirmed was the Broncos’ Plan A all along.
Improved play on offense will be critical for Denver in 2024, and more efficiency in the passing game is needed for the team to return to the postseason. Plenty of time remains for Nix’s potential to be realized at the NFL level, as he could be retained through 2028 via the fifth-year option. The Broncos’ evaluation period before a decision on that front could still very well begin as early as Week 1 of his rookie season.
Love the Bo Nix-Sean Payton fit
Just start the rookie qb and hell or high water let him figure it out
That was always going to happen lmao
Idk the team that willingly traded for Zach Wilson doesn’t inspire much confidence when it comes to making rational common sense decisions.
Idk what Sean saw in him but this was always Nix’s team at least in my opinion.
Remember Brandon Weeden?
“As expected, Zach Wilson lost out on first team practice reps”
There’s a strong base of Jets fans who actually think the organization somehow did him a disservice by not letting him go full Brett Favre. They claim he wasn’t rolled out of the pocket and allowed to just let it rip, except he was allowed to do a lot of things. He just wasn’t very good at any of them. He gave up on so many plays. He ran instead of climbing the pocket. He had awful accuracy. Hell, I don’t even think his arm strength translates into live game action if I’m being honest. He might be one of the worst QB’s I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of watching football. And while I realize Trey Lance, Justin Field, and Mac Jones have been hot garbage, the moral of the story is to never leave your team to become the ambassador for England and let a clown head coach win 2 meaningless games after going 0-13. Trevor Lawrence on this team would have been so perfect. We could have witnessed Zach Wilson and Urban Meyer slaying at bars, a true father-son duo of chaos. It would have been magical, and we were robbed of it because Sean McVay couldn’t beat the 0-13 jets.
Woody Johnson was ambassador tot he United Kingdom, thus he was the US envoy to Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland as well as England.
And your fanboy fantasy about Urban Meyer was punctured forever when he deservedly got run out of Jacksonville. Running outlaw programs in college football is not the way to audition for an NFL job.
Water is wet. More at 11
More water at 11, or is the water just wetter at 11?
Yes
Ah. There’s a Zach Wilson joke in here somewhere with somebody’s mother, but I won’t be the one to make it.
Yup lol
If this kid shocks everyone and becomes an overnight sensation his endorsement potential will be impressive. Basically every company or product with BO in it’s name becomes a potential supporter.
Or a certain chicken and biscuit company hailing from Louisiana…
Whether or not Stidham was actually outplayed by Nix seems irrelevant as to whether or not he’d lose this competition. I find it difficult to believe that a rookie actually knows the system better than a veteran with experience in it, even if he potentially has better long term potential. It’s not Stidham was terrible in his few starts for Payton last year-he wasn’t a revelation, but he was pretty decent and certainly looked more fluid than Wilson. It seems to me that Nix just had to show a basic grasp of the offense for it to be enough to play him. Unless he was completely lost, Nix was probably going to be given the edge over Stidham.
We’ll see if that’s the right approach, but in any case, deciding sooner gives the eventual winner more time in his first team reps, which he and the other players will need to establish a rhythm sooner rather than later.
Wilson needs to stick as Denver is close to mom and her friends.