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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When the Broncos opened their OTA practice session to the media for the first time Thursday morning, it was Bo Nix, the rookie in Denver’s three-way quarterback competition, who led the first-team offense.
But before anyone had time to conjure any hyperbole — Look how quickly Nix earned the starting job! — coach Sean Payton shared a critical piece of information from the two previous closed practices.
“We’re rotating all of them right now,” Payton said of Nix, incumbent Jarrett Stidham and trade acquisition Zach Wilson. “So Tuesday, Stiddy ran with the ones and then Zach (on Wednesday) and then Bo. We’ll keep doing that right now. … There’s going to be a time where you can read into the reps. I don’t think it’s early in OTAs.”
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Perhaps training camp will provide a better chance to decipher a pecking order in Denver’s first quarterback competition since Teddy Bridgewater beat Drew Lock for the Week 1 job in 2021. It’s not just the starting job that is up for grabs. Nix’s place on the roster is secured, but that may not be true for Wilson and Stidham. Those two could be battling for their very NFL existence. The stakes will be significant as the offseason heats up. Preseason games will serve as critical evaluation platforms.
“They’re all in a race to learn this system,” Payton said.
🔙 at it.#BroncosOTAs highlights: pic.twitter.com/wRab9SYg5w
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) May 23, 2024
Payton wants the quarterbacks to create the foundation that will ultimately serve them in the competition ahead. As new wide receiver Josh Reynolds pointed out Thursday, the Broncos are still in the “vanilla” phase of their installation. The coaching staff isn’t as honed in right now on how the ball is being thrown by each quarterback as much as it is evaluating how well each player is processing play calls, moving in and out of the huddle, making checks and getting the snap off in time.
It is in those areas that Nix has impressed the coaching staff early. He exhibited a consistent and quick pace Thursday as he brought the play calls from offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi into the huddle. He made the call clearly and got his teammates to the line of scrimmage, where he made quick and decisive checks. It was the command of that pre-snap process at Oregon, where Nix was given full control of the offense, that enticed the Broncos during the draft process. They’ve been pleased with how those traits have carried to the earliest stages of his pro experience.
“He’s farther along than most” rookies, Payton said of Nix. “We’re talking about a player who has played 61 games. He’s extremely smart. He’s picked it up very quickly.”
His ability to grasp the offense quickly and get the ball exactly where Payton wants it to go may be Nix’s biggest edge in the competition. But the other two players have their own advantages. It took only a few minutes of watching the quarterbacks go through individual drills Thursday to see that the ball comes of Wilson’s right arm in a unique way. He delivered balls up the seam with an effortless flick of the wrist, as aesthetically pleasing as a spiral can be.
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The arm has never been a question for Wilson, who said he was eager for “a fresh start” while addressing local reporters for the first time since last month’s trade. Whether he can be the best version of himself in the competition will come down to whether he can find a more steady approach to the game in Denver.
“I need to be consistent every single day,” Wilson acknowledged. “Understanding the offense, understanding what I’m asked to do, taking care of the football and how quickly I can get the ball out of my hands to some of the playmakers that we have, too.”
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For Stidham, the edge is continuity. He’s the quarterback who was in this system a year ago. Though the scheme, Payton has stressed, can be adapted around the strengths of various signal-callers, the verbiage remains largely unchanged. That has helped Stidham be further along than he was at this time last year.
“I’m way more comfortable,” said Stidham, whose four career starts have come across the past two seasons. “I’m not out there thinking as much, I’m just out there playing free and playing more confident, which is great. It’s been good.”
The context being written between the lines suggests Nix has a real chance to become Denver’s first Week 1 starter since John Elway in 1983. Payton on Thursday reiterated a philosophy on rookie starters he shared during the league meetings in March, weeks before Denver drafted Nix.
“Some of it is a byproduct of what you have in the building,” Payton said. “If you have a starter in the building, then that’s the path you go. Then sometimes you don’t have that luxury, and then (starting the rookie is) the path you go. A lot of it is dependent on the quarterback, his mental makeup. So I think it just varies.”
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Stidham and Wilson began last season as backups. The Broncos don’t have a bonafide starter in their building, lending credence to the rookie path Payton outlined. But it’s May. Hard decisions don’t have to come yet. And Payton doesn’t expect the other quarterbacks in the room to just clear the way for Nix, no matter the edge the first-round pick may have.
“I’m here to compete,” Stidham said. “I’m not going to just sit down and let someone else walk in here and (have the starting job). I’m going to work my butt off to get the job. I’m super excited about it.”
Other observations
• Payton outlined three areas outside quarterback where he sees major competition brewing this offseason: wide receiver, running back and the secondary.
Let’s start with the backfield. The Broncos drafted Audric Estimé in the fifth round and signed Blake Watson as a college free agent. Both could make the roster. Watson was particularly impressive Thursday, demonstrating the pass-catching ability that made him one of the best receiving backs in the country last season. The three holdovers at the position — Javonte Williams, Samaje Perine (worked on a side field Thursday) and Jaleel McLaughlin — will face a challenging battle to maintain their roles this offseason.
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• After missing the past two seasons due to injuries he suffered in training camp, Tim Patrick is healthy and seemingly relishing his spot as the veteran in Denver’s receiver room. With Courtland Sutton not in attendance as he continues to work out on his own in Florida, Patrick is the most tenured Broncos receiver in the program. He led the line during individual drills for the position Thursday and made several impressive grabs in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work, including a toe-tap catch on the sideline on a throw from Nix.
“He’s smart, he’s tough, and I would say he’s one of the leaders in that room,” Payton said.
Tim Patrick runs a drill during Thursday’s session. (Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)
DeVaughn Vele, the seventh-round pick out of Utah, had a strong performance Thursday after starring at rookie minicamp two weeks ago. He’s fluid in the middle of the field and hasn’t dropped a pass yet during sessions open to the media. Troy Franklin had an impressive grab up the seam on a deep throw from Stidham, demonstrating the top-end speed that helped Denver’s fourth-round pick shine at Oregon.
• In the secondary, Brandon Jones was the Broncos’ top offseason edition. He joins a safety mix that includes his former University of Texas teammates, Caden Sterns and P.J. Locke, and he said their presence on the roster helped influence his decision to join the Broncos after spending the past four seasons with the Dolphins.
“Being a free agent, throughout the whole process, anybody I had connections with at any team in the league, I was kind of picking their brains and seeing what kind of scheme they run,” Jones said. “For sure with those two guys. I got into it with them, just tried to learn the defense to see what the similarities and differences were and that sort of stuff.”
The top play by a safety Thursday though was made by Omar Brown, the undrafted rookie out of Nebraska who zipped from the boundary to close off an underneath route and pick off a pass from Wilson.
• Payton said he is “not concerned” with Sutton’s absence from Denver’s offseason program, which continued this week, as the veteran wide receiver angles for a new contract.
“I know Courtland; he’s a tremendous worker,” Payton said. “You guys know him, a tremendous makeup, leader of our team. That will sort itself out.”
• Other participation notes: Defensive linemen D.J. Jones and John Franklin-Myers were not present Thursday.
Tight end Greg Dulcich, who dealt with hamstring injuries throughout the 2023 season, worked out on the side, but Payton noted the third-year player is “close” to full participation and won’t have to be held out of training camp. Sterns, who is recovering from a knee injury, did not practice. Estimé left the field and entered the locker room midway through practice and didn’t appear to return.
• Payton confirmed linebacker Drew Sanders had successful surgery on an Achilles injury suffered last month.
“Fortunately, it was an early enough timeline; we’ll bring him back (this season),” Payton said. “I don’t want to say October, but the good news is the surgery was done, it was clean. There wasn’t anything complex about the injury, and it was just something unusual.”
(Top photo of Bo Nix and Jarrett Stidham: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5516212/2024/05/23/broncos-otas-qbs-bo-nix/