The Denver Broncos’ quarterback room is full of orphaned dogs. At least, that’s how head coach Sean Payton described his three quarterbacks, Bo Nix, Zach Wilson, and Jarrett Stidham, a few days into organized team activities (OTAs).

Since Peyton Manning retired in 2015, the Denver Broncos have been unable to find a quarterback who lives up to their expectations. Manning was not only the last to lead the team to a Super Bowl victory but also the last to lead them to the postseason.

Since then, the team has had 14 starting quarterbacks, including their 2016 first-round pick Paxton Lynch and veteran star Russell Wilson. The latter raised great expectations for the team; however, administrative instability did not allow him to shine as expected, and he left after just two years in the organization.

Despite the poor performance in recent years, head coach Sean Payton, in his second year at the helm, is happy with the flexibility that the three options in the quarterback room allow him.

Nix, Wilson, and Stidham

In a conversation with the media, Payton noted that the three quarterbacks the team currently has come from very different systems. “One is coming from college. One is coming from two or three NFL systems, and the other is coming from one system. They’re all in a race to learn this system,” the coach explained.

It is worth remembering that Nix was the Broncos’ first selection in the 2024 Draft, number 12 overall, from the Oregon Ducks. Wilson spent the first three years of his career with the New York Jets before coming to the Broncos. Stidham, for his part, played two years with the New England Patriots and one with the Las Vegas Raiders, before landing in Denver as Wilson’s backup.

That’s why Payton jokingly described them as “the orphaned group,” clarifying, “They’re all orphaned dogs. They’ve come from somewhere, but they’re doing good. It’s a good room.”

With such a young group-at 27 years old, Stidham is the veteran of the trio-Payton couldn’t help but be optimistic about their performance. “I would say-you guys watched the practice-they’re doing well,” the head coach stated.

Who will be the starter?

Despite his words, Payton avoided saying who might be the starter for the 2024 season. With a couple of OTAs, minicamps, training camps, and the preseason still ahead, the head coach has plenty of time to choose the starter.

At the moment, everyone seems to have the same opportunity. The team worked hard to get Nix in the draft, struggled to bring in Wilson in free agency, and decided to keep Stidham after Russell Wilson’s departure.

The hope of the team and its fans is that one of them will finally manage to fill Manning’s shoes and definitively exorcize the ghost of Russell Wilson.

Sean Payton praises all three QBs competing for Broncos’ job

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — As the Denver Broncos closed out their first week of OTAs Thursday, coach Sean Payton was quick to praise all three of his quarterbacks in the competition for the team’s starting job, including rookie Bo Nix.

Asked about Nix’s progress since the team made him the sixth quarterback selected in the first round in last month’s draft (No. 12 overall), Payton said: “Good, he’s farther along than most would be. We’re talking about a player who’s played 61 games [in college]. He’s extremely smart. He’s picked it up very quickly.”

Payton has been clear Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson, who the Broncos acquired in a trade with the New York Jets in the days before the draft, are in a full-scale competition for the starting job. Payton was also quick to compliment the work of all three and just as quick to point out nothing should be read into Nix opening Thursday’s practice with the team’s offensive starters.

Payton said Stidham worked with the starters more in Tuesday’s practice and Wilson worked with the starters in Wednesday’s practice.

“We try to split up all the reps,” Payton said. “There’s going to be a time when you read into the reps, I don’t think it’s early in OTAs. It’s kind of the orphan group, they’re all orphan dogs. They’ve come from somewhere, but they’re doing good. It’s a good room.”

Payton also said: “We go by what we see. We try to get them as many reps as possible. We rotate. We’re rotating all of them right now. They’re all in a race to learn this system. Man, they’re doing well.”

It is Payton’s first, and only other, quarterback competition he has overseen as a head coach since 2021. That was Payton’s final season as the New Orleans Saints’ head coach and the first season after Drew Brees’ retirement when Payton said Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill competed for the starting job.

Asked about his general philosophy about playing, and starting, a rookie quarterback like Nix, Payton said much depended on how much the rookie showed he was prepared to play by the time the season started.

Payton and general manager George Paton said Nix’s experience and maturity — given his 61 games in five college seasons at Auburn and Oregon — were factors in his selection by the team. Nix was the first quarterback the Broncos selected in the first round since Paxton Lynch in 2016 and the Broncos’ highest selection of a quarterback in the first round since Jay Cutler, at No. 11 overall, in 2006.

“I think some of it is a byproduct of what you have in the building. If you have a starter in the building then that’s the path you go, and sometimes you don’t have that luxury, then that’s the path you go,” Payton said. “A lot of it is dependent on the quarterback, his mental makeup.”