Denver, CO
What did Broncos’ last two games say about Jarrett Stidham and quarterback outlook for 2024?

LAS VEGAS — The conclusion of the Jarrett Stidham experiment wasn’t pretty.
Down 14 with 1:08 left against the Raiders, Stidham’s pass to wide receiver Jerry Jeudy fluttered inside Allegiant Stadium before it was picked off by safety Tre’von Moehrig, solidifying a 27-14 loss on Sunday afternoon.
When Stidham replaced nine-time Pro Bowler Russell Wilson as the Broncos’ starting quarterback, head coach Sean Payton hoped the move would ignite the offense. Stidham had his moments. He threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Lil’Jordan Humphrey against the Chargers in Week 17. And against the Raiders, he connected with Jeudy for a 24-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
But overall, he wasn’t the “spark” the Broncos were searching for. Denver averaged 15 points over the final two weeks, with 14- and 16-point outings standing as the Broncos’ two lowest scoring outputs since their 1-5 start. The Broncos were knocked out of playoff contention and Sunday’s loss secured their seventh straight losing season.
Payton thought Stidham, who threw for 272 yards, a touchdown and an interception, battled, but the coach didn’t provide a clear indication as to whether the last two starts were enough.
“I mean, you evaluate everything — practice snaps, training camp, preseason and regular season — for all these guys,” Payton said. “But this wasn’t about trying to get a look at Jarrett. It was about trying to win.”
Payton said the offseason will involve “a lot of work.” The quarterback position will certainly demand the most attention.
Whether Stidham showed enough to be in consideration for the starting job next season or not, he could be the best option, given the current landscape of the team. If it cuts Wilson, Denver would be forced to eat $85 million in dead cap money.
The free-agent market isn’t pretty, either. Perhaps, the best quarterback who will be available is Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins — a 35-year-old veteran who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in October.
Regardless, the Broncos likely won’t have the cap room to sign any big names.
Denver could go the route of signing someone cheap like Indianapolis’ Gardner Minshew or reunite Payton with New Orleans backup Jameis Winston. But would those players be an improvement from Wilson, who threw for 3,070 yards and 26 touchdowns?
The Broncos could, of course, draft a quarterback. They now have the 12th overall pick following Sunday’s loss, meaning they are more than likely out of the running for USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and possibly LSU’s Jayden Daniels.
Still, there’s a chance the Broncos could roll the dice on Washington signal caller Michael Penix Jr. and his iffy injury history. He’s had a clavicle injury, a dislocated shoulder and two torn ACLs.
At this point, the Broncos’ best-case scenario could be rolling with Stidham next season as a starter and drafting and developing a quarterback.
It was clear postgame that Stidham wants a shot to be the starter next year. And despite his delivering uninspiring performances in the final two weeks of Payton’s first year in Denver, he might be Denver’s short-term answer until a long-term solution comes to fruition.
“I want to be on the field for every snap next year if possible,” Stidham said. “They see me every day and know what I’m capable of. I’m just disappointed that I didn’t help those guys in the locker room win today.”
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Denver, CO
Prolonged ‘Welly weather,’ our first taste of winter and Lisa’s official first-snow prediction for Denver

Lisa Hidalgo and Ryan Warner were ready to bust out the rain boots for their September weather and climate chat.
Denver7’s chief meteorologist and the Colorado Public Radio host delved into a rare, days-long rainy stretch, our first taste of winter and the pair’s official first-snow-date prediction for Denver.
‘Welly weather’
“Two things happened this week that rarely happen in Colorado,” Warner said. “The first is that when I went to bed it was raining. I woke up and it was raining. And two, the rain meant I could wear my ‘Wellies,’ my Wellington boots.”
“These are rare events,” the green-rubber-boot-clad Warner quipped during the conversation.
Warner and Hidalgo held their conversation on the heels of an unusually rainy spell. In Colorado, rain storms often come and go quickly. This week’s rainfall, though, came during a slow-moving storm.
“It’s more the direction of it and where it camps out,” Hidalgo explained. “So as you get a low pressure system rolling through the state, and we get all this moisture that wraps around the back side of it, it jams up against the foothills. It’s called an upslope flow.”
In the winter, such a storm would’ve meant inches of snow in Denver. With September highs in the 50s, though, it came down as rain in town as it snowed in the high country.
First taste of winter
The National Weather Service in Boulder estimated Tuesday that “a widespread 5-10 inches” of snow fell at the highest elevations – above 10,500 to 11,000 feet – during the September 22-23 storm.
For the snow-lovers out there (keep scrolling if that’s not you)…
Some healthy snowfall over the past ~18 hrs for some of our higher elevations (mainly east of the Continental Divide above 10,500′).
Pictured: Dakota Hill (Gilpin Co; left); Killpecker (Larimer Co; right) #COwx pic.twitter.com/46surChItd
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) September 24, 2025
Hidalgo noted things would quickly warm up after what was the area’s first winter weather advisory of the season.
“But this is just a hint of what’s to come,” she said. “And, obviously, we’re going to see a lot more alerts as we get into fall and into winter.”
When will Denver see its first measurable snow?
On average, the first snowfall in Denver happens on Oct. 18. The window has already passed for our earliest first snow, which happened on Sept. 3. The latest first snow in Denver is Dec. 10 – Lisa’s birthday.
With all of that in consideration, Hidalgo predicted this year’s first snow in Denver would fall on Oct. 24.
Warner’s guess? A potentially soggy evening of trick-or-treating after an Oct. 29 first snow.
More weather in-depth
Lisa and Ryan touched on studies on potential connections between both lightning and snowmelt on Colorado’s year-round fire season. They also discussed a study that suggests the eastern half of Colorado is drying out faster than the western half.
For more in-depth weather analysis, watch their full weather and climate chat in the video player below:
Denver, CO
Denver Zoo animals don’t just do tricks, they help vets with their own healthcare
Denver, CO
Some Park Hill residents feel Denver is failing on minority outreach in golf course discussion

Saturday morning at Park Hill’s Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center, the City of Denver held a community open house to talk about its next big project: the city park and open space that was formerly the Park Hill Golf Course.
“It’s quite rare for a city to have this large of a park coming in. So it’s really important to us that that process is driven by the community,” said Sarah Showalter, director of planning and policy at the city’s Department of Community Planning and Development.
Residents got to see the plans for the park and the future the city has in store for the surrounding neighborhood.
“The voters clearly said that 155 acres should be a park, but the community is still looking for access to food and to affordable housing,” said Jolon Clark, executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation.
It seemed to be a good turnout, which the city likes, but two groups that appeared to be underrepresented were Black and Latino people, which is a problem, since Park Hill is a historically Black neighborhood.
Helen Bradshaw is a lifelong Park Hill resident. She and Vincent Owens, another long-time resident, came to the open house and said the problem is simple: the city isn’t meeting the neighbors of color where they are.
“The people who are just the average go to work, they might be at work or they have to work today or, you know, they couldn’t get a babysitter or something like that,” Owens said. “A lot of the elders on my block, they’re not going to come to something like this. So, you need to canvass and actually go get the voice of opinion, or they don’t know about it.”
Bradshaw and Owens say they want a neighborhood park and space for the neighbors by the neighbors. They also want a grocery store and opportunities for people who were part of the neighborhood long before it became a gem for development.
The city says that’s what they want as well, and that’s why they want everyone in Park Hill to give their input until the project is done.
“People can go to ParkHillPark.org and they can fully get involved and find out what the next engagement is, how to provide their input, you know, through an email, through a survey,” said Clark.
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