ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Jarrett Stidham was an NFL rookie in 2019 when veterans giving first-year players dreadful haircuts in practice was still a permissible practice. Stidham had his appointment with Tom Brady. The buzz cut was a tough look for a player who typically wears his long, curly locks with pride.
So, no, Stidham doesn’t feel bad about the rookie chores the Denver Broncos quarterback room has bestowed upon Bo Nix, the 12th pick in April’s draft, whether it’s carrying the veteran’s shoulder pads after practice or retrieving forgotten items from the locker room during position-group meetings.
“Sometimes he’ll kind of bicker back at me and I’m like, ‘Bo, we’ve literally all done this before,’” Stidham said with a grin after Wednesday’s practice. “I make sure he gets his rookie duties, especially being a first-round pick. I actually make fun of him and (2021 first-round pick) Zach (Wilson) all the time because in their rookie contracts, they’ve made more money than I have in my entire career. So those two are not off the hook. I let them have it, for sure.”
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On the field, Nix and Stidham have been on even footing during training camp. A competition that began as a three-way shuffle with Wilson in the mix has been reduced to a battle between the first-round rookie and the sixth-year veteran — both of whom are trying to start an NFL season opener for the first time. Stidham and Nix have largely split first-team reps since camp began (Wilson only had one such practice), and with the preseason approaching, with Denver’s opener at Indianapolis on Sunday, they both know the race is heating up.
“Every day, whoever is out there, it’s competition,” Stidham said. “I speak for myself, obviously, but my job is to go out there and execute at the highest level, no matter who I’m playing with. That’s my job. It’s definitely been a lot of fun. The competition is really healthy and I think it’s bringing out the best in everybody.”
The preseason will test where both quarterbacks stand in their grasp of the offense. Since the start of the spring, Stidham’s year of experience in coach Sean Payton’s scheme has been apparent. He’s making quicker decisions than he did at this time last year. His hot reads, protection calls and other items on a long pre-snap checklist have largely started to feel “second nature.” Nix, meanwhile, doesn’t have the same experience in this offense from which to pull, but he said he is nonetheless entering the critical first preseason test in a good headspace.
“I think the game has started to slow down a little bit,” Nix said Wednesday after an up-and-down practice with the first team in which he opened with some well-executed play-action throws but was later thwarted by the defense’s blitzing pressure. “I’ve started to feel very comfortable with the cadence of the install. There’s a lot more plays that I’m comfortable with than I’m not. The more I see on defense, the better it’s going to get for me going forward.”
From that perspective, Stidham, Nix and Wilson had their struggles with a pressure-heavy period of third down plays midway through practice. Jonathon Cooper buzzed around the edge to register a would-be sack of Nix on one play and then chased him off his mark and out of the pocket to spoil the next rep. Undrafted rookie Levelle Bailey picked up a would-be sack after blitzing unblocked off the middle. The defense threw a wide array of new defensive pressures throughout the period. Wilson on one play had two pass rushers in his face before he could execute a screen pass.
“There’s a lot of communication,” Payton said of what is asked of the quarterbacks in those settings. “We’re installing a third-down package and they are defensively as well, so some of the looks we get, we need to change the protection. That’s the biggest thing, the communication of the protection. Is it staying on or are we changing it? That’s where the stress is.”
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The defense dominated the third-down reps, but Payton saw an opportunity the session created for the quarterbacks and the offense in general. They’ll face a fresh batch of pressure looks from the Colts on Sunday, even if they are running out a largely vanilla scheme in the preseason opener. How do the quarterbacks draw on a session from a few days earlier in practice? Can the offense avoid some of the communication errors that led to breakdowns in protection?
“They’re grinding on the learning process,” Payton said. “The communication, getting the protections, communicating … alignment, assignment, all the details that matter when you get to third down.”
Payton and his staff were set to meet Wednesday night to plan the reps for Sunday’s game. He has already said Stidham will get first-team reps in the preseason. Though the depth chart the team released Tuesday listing Stidham as the first-string quarterback was unofficial and unimportant in the grand scheme of the competition, it appears likely the veteran will get the first crack to operate the top offense in the preseason.
What also appears likely is that Wilson’s turn in the game will come third. His only run with the first team came on the third day of camp, and he’s largely operated the third-team offense since the second week began. The way the competition has unfolded has created questions about Wilson’s future with the team beyond camp. Will Denver keep three quarterbacks? Could Wilson, acquired in a trade with the Jets before the draft, soon be looking for a new team? The fourth-year quarterback insists he isn’t entertaining anything beyond improving his grasp on his role in Denver’s offense.
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“When you really sit down and think about it, I got no control over that,” Wilson said of his spot in the QB pecking order. “It’s not something that … I think the worst thing you can do is let it affect you. And so the best you can do is say, ‘OK, I’m going to take what I got and go out there and try my best and help this team do the best it can getting down the field, complete some passes.’ I think that’s all I’ve got to worry about.”
The quarterback competition will enter a new stage of scrutiny Sunday. There will be preseason film for all the football-watching world to consume. There will be new outside voices chiming in on where the Broncos are at quarterback. But as much as the exhibition opener could feel like an inflection point in the battle, the 15 to 18 reps Stidham and Nix could get in the game won’t serve as a final indictment. It’s especially true for Nix, whose development as the team’s quarterback requires a longer lens. It’s something the 24-year-old said he’s tried to compartmentalize as camp has progressed.
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“Nobody has a higher standard for how I play than me,” Nix said. “So I think that’s the important thing, that you’re not falling back on those who are only seeing parts of it. You are internally challenging yourself to be the best you can be. Most of the time, (outside observers) can see a throw and they may be able to see 25 percent of what actually is going into that throw. I don’t want to necessarily put too much into the outside noise and just continue to play my game. I’ve learned along the way you’re going to miss one. You just have to move on and I feel like I’ve done a better job of not letting it bother me. Just move on to the next play.”
(Photo of Bo Nix: David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
