The Denver Broncos will sit rookie starting quarterback Bo Nix in the preseason finale vs. the Arizona Cardinals. Jarrett Stidham will start the game, taking eight to 12 snaps, before giving way to Zach Wilson, who’ll play the rest of the game.

We’ll see if that’s how it plays out for Stidham, or if he ends up seeing more playing time. But it would seem that the Broncos are leaning heavily toward him being Nix’s primary backup.

Where does that leave Wilson? Broncos head coach Sean Payton revealed his expectations for the newcomer quarterback entering what could be his last appearance in the Orange and Blue.

“The first thing is, I’ll give him an opportunity maybe—I know it will, with the second group,” Payton said of Wilson. “So often it’s hard to evaluate that position if the other elements aren’t working. So just watching him really follow up the week he’s had in practice and take it to the game, run the huddle and just seeing him play.”

When he took to the podium on Wednesday to announce Nix as the starter, Payton described Wilson’s momentum in practice as being on a “heater,” a baseball term meant to describe pitchers in the zone. Payton wants to see it translate to the live-bullet grid-iron.

Now Broncos Country sees why Stidham is only getting a handful of snaps. If it plays out the way Payton hopes, Stidham will only get two, maybe three drives.

Payton wants to quickly turn the page to Wilson to give him the opportunity to ply his wares with the second-team offense. In Game 1, Wilson played surprisingly well as the No. 3 quarterback, with mostly the third-stringers, but with that same unit, he struggled in Game 2, facing relentless pressure.

Never say never because it’s the NFL and anything can happen, but Payton doesn’t sound like he’s necessarily expecting Wilson to go out and seize the Broncos’ QB2 job from Stidham. Rather, the Broncos head coach wants to make sure Wilson is given a solid opportunity to punctuate his summer under Payton’s tutelage with a showing that could see him catch on elsewhere.

“No, we’ve got a pretty good idea [of] the direction we’re going,” Payton said of the competition for backup quarterback. “We’re going to meet here in about five minutes. [GM] George [Paton], myself, a few others and kind of go through the depth chart as we see it and the discussion players. I think we’ve got a real good handle on that room specifically. We’re not announcing anything, but I like—I’ve said this, I’ll say it again, I like the room. I feel like we’ve gotten better and this will be a good test, [a] good opportunity for Zach getting work with the second wave. He’ll get a lot of snaps.”

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If Payton likes the room that much, perhaps the Broncos will end up keeping Wilson and carrying three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. With a young, healthy first-round quarterback taking the starter’s snaps, I doubt Payton will ultimately want to ‘waste,’ so to speak, a roster spot on a signal-caller who’ll do nothing but hold a clipboard.

“Certainly, good question,” Payton said about carrying three quarterbacks. “I think we’ve studied 14—last year of the 32 teams, just under half the league—I know the rule recently changed. If, in fact, you do—this came after the 49ers-Eagles game, the third comes up [from the practice squad] without any count. Ultimately, I think most importantly, you’re really looking at your assets when we make that decision.”

Payton is speaking to the new NFL rule that allows teams to elevate and dress a practice squad quarterback to make him available as the “emergency QB” without him counting against the gameday roster or 53-man roster. But Wilson’s not going to make it through waivers.

In a perfect world, Payton would hope that he could waive Wilson, and re-sign him to the Broncos’ practice squad. But as the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft, if the Broncos waive Wilson, there will be some team(s) out there that’ll claim him, with a coach who loved him as a prospect coming out of BYU, intrigued by what the still-young quarterback looks like in his system after a half-year under Payton’s wing.

Even if Wilson goes out on Sunday and turns in another relatively unimpressive performance, if the Broncos waive him, it’s a virtual guarantee he’ll get claimed off waivers because of his draft pedigree and the Payton QB shine. However, there’s one last play for Payton within the realm of possibility: a trade.

Payton is going with Stidham as his QB2. But if Wilson can impress vs. the Cardinals, perhaps the Broncos could trade him to a team that doesn’t want to leave its backup quarterback fate up to chance on the NFL waiver wire. I have my doubts about that possibility.

But, again, it’s the NFL. We have to remain open to everything, even the slim chances.

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Coach Prime can’t take the heat.

The University of Colorado has informed the Denver Post that coach Deion Sanders will no longer answer questions from columnist Sean Keeler. Colorado attributed the decision to “a series of sustained, personal attacks” in Keeler’s coverage of the program.

Pressed for evidence to support the conclusion, a staff member in the Colorado sports information office said the Keeler has used phrases such as
“false prophet,” “Deposition Deion,” “Planet Prime,” “Bruce Lee of B.S.,” “the Deion Kool-Aid” and “circus” in reference to Sanders and the program.

The fact that Colorado felt compelled to issue a statement to the Post is a surprise. Deion already froze Keeler out during a recent press conference, along with others from media outlets he has deemed to not be sufficiently compliant.

It really is a bunch of crap. Deion doesn’t want to be scrutinized, by anyone. He thinks the media covering the team should support the program, too. Without expressing any criticism or asking any tough questions. Even when criticism or tough questions are required.

It dates back to his time at Jackson State. Deion has tried to build a personality cult, not a football program.

Hopefully, the Post will fight back. Colorado is a public university. It should not be able to shut out major publications, including the biggest newspaper in the state.

If the Post doesn’t loudly challenge the decision, Deion and the Buffaloes eventually will be covered by a group of sycophants who would far sooner tee him up for an AFLAC pitch than dare to inquire about a clock-management error.

Deion is one of the greatest football players of all time, but this is pathetic. And even if the powers-that-be at Colorado are taking Deion’s side on this for now, it puts even more pressure on him to win more games than he loses, sooner than later.

With Bo Nix named starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos, fans and media alike have wondered how the division of labor would shake out in preseason Game 3 vs. the Arizona Cardinals. Would Nix even play? If not, who would start and how would the snap count shake out?

Broncos head coach Sean Payton ended the suspense on Friday, revealing that Nix will not play, and that Jarrett Stidham will start the game, getting a few snaps, before giving way to Zach Wilson, who’ll play the rest of the contenst.

“You’ll see Stidham with the first series or so,” Payton said. “I’d like to see him get 8-12 plays, and then we’ll get a lot of work with Zach at some point in that first or early second quarter.”

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There are questions about which quarterback makes the most sense to serve as Nix’s backup this season. Stidham has been with Payton longer, but it would cost the Broncos $2.3 million more to keep him as the backup than it would Wilson.

Meanwhile, Wilson — the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft — has 33 NFL starts under his belt. Compared to Stidham’s four, from an experience perspective, Wilson is vastly more battle-tested.

However, Wilson is a bit more erratic. He’s a significantly more talented quarterback, but not as buttoned-down, and, thus, not as trustworthy as Stidham.

That’s why Stidham will start Game 3 and why Payton is probably leaning toward him being Denver’s QB2. But if injury were to befall Nix, Stidham could perhaps be more trusted to maintain some schematic stability, he doesn’t have the upside juice to truly thrive as an NFL starter.

Wilson busted out of New York, which means the odds that he’ll ever become a thriving NFL starter are slim. But that enormous ceiling is still there, and if there’s any NFL coach who could help Wilson come close to reaching it, it’s Payton, whose quarterback resume is long and distinguished, dating back to his time as offensive coordinator for the New York Giants in the early 2000s, which saw Kerry Collins morph into a franchise player.

The list of quarterback accomplishments on Payton’s NFL resume includes Collins, Quincy Carter, Tony Romo, Drew Brees, Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston, and even Russell Wilson, whom Payton managed to extract a 26-touchdown season out of last year, despite it being an extremely poor fit for the venerated coach. So, if the Broncos had to turn to their QB2 this coming season, for some Football God-forsaken reason, Wilson is the one who could give Payton something to actually shoot for beyond a .500 finish at best.

‘Stiddy’ is a fail-safe, nothing more. And he costs nearly twice what Wilson would to keep rostered in 2024. However, based on the playing time plan Payton has laid out for Game 3, it would seem that Stidham is clear frontrunner for QB2.

It would take a Herculean break-out for Wilson to disabuse Payton of that notion. Stay tuned.

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