Broncos mulling bucking long-standing Sean Payton trend

Bo Nix is the Broncos’ starter, a development his draft status and college experience long signaled. This leaves the team’s veteran arms either competing for one roster spot or set to determine which passer is Nix’s immediate backup.

Sean Payton kept only two QBs on the active roster for most of last season, and the Saints regularly rostered only two passers during Drew Brees‘ tenure. With more uncertainty in Payton’s current QB room, however, an exception may need to be made.

The Broncos are not against carrying three passers on the 53-man roster, with Payton indicting this is under consideration, via the Denver Post’s Troy Renck. While an offseason rule change allows an unlimited number of practice-squad elevations for an emergency third quarterback, the Broncos would run the risk of losing one of their backups if they made a cut by Tuesday’s 3 p.m. CT deadline.

The second-year Denver HC might be posturing to potentially drive a trade, but the Broncos’ backup options have disparate profiles. With Nix going into his first season, the team keeping Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson would make sense. The former brings experience in Payton’s system, having signed a two-year deal worth $10M in the HC’s first Denver free-agency period, with the latter supplying higher upside — albeit with a low floor Jets fans observed for the past three seasons.

Last year’s spree of quarterback injuries leaguewide also could give the Broncos a potential trade chip, as the team carrying all three could precede calls. While Wilson expectedly generated minimal trade interest this offseason, needs arise based on injuries. Stidham is more experienced and would conceivably appeal as a backup option elsewhere — especially in the event a starter goes down. The Texans took calls on both their C.J. Stroud backups — Davis Mills, Case Keenum — before last year’s deadline.

Stidham, 28, preceded Nix as Auburn’s starter and would make more sense as an immediate backup. He spent last season as Russell Wilson‘s QB2, before once again being inserted into a starting lineup largely due to a starter’s contract issue, and is going into his sixth year. Stidham started the Broncos’ first preseason game and entered camp in the QB1 role. Wilson certainly has more starting experience, but his Jets starter arc does not exactly work in his favor. Bringing more upside as a passer, Wilson was still benched three times as a Jet. He also has been Denver’s third-stringer for weeks, never making a serious challenge — despite some recent Payton praise — for the starting job.

It would cost nearly the same amount of dead money to jettison either vet. The Broncos would incur $2M in dead money by releasing Stidham; they would take on $2.76M in dead cap by waiving Wilson. The 25-year-old arm not being a vested vet stands to play into Denver’s decision, as there is a chance Wilson is claimed if waived. Although, that is far from a certainty. With only $1M of Stidham’s base salary guaranteed, the team could also save $5M by cutting him. No cap savings would come from a Wilson cut.

The Broncos will hope this does not matter much, preparing to give the keys to their first-round pick ahead of what the team hopes is a lengthy starter tenure. The team has seen its recent starters — from Russell Wilson to Teddy Bridgewater to Drew Lock to Joe Flacco — suffer injuries requiring relief work, making the Stidham-and/or-Wilson call rather important.