Bo Nix

The Denver Broncos may not take a slow and steady approach with Bo Nix before making him their starting quarterback.

Per ESPN's Jeff Legwold, "many" personnel executives around the NFL believe Nix will be Denver's starter in Week 1 against the Seattle Seahawks.

Coming out of the draft in April, Nix was splitting first-team reps with Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson. Head coach Sean Payton said this week that would continue during training camp, but did note they would start to give one player more of the reps because they need to be ready for the start of the regular season.

"We'll mix it up again," Payton said. "Obviously it won't stay that way for the long term, but as we get started we'll keep you posted and eventually we'll settle into the routine we want."

Nix got most of the first-team reps during Thursday's practice after Stidham had that role on Wednesday.

ESPN's Adam Schefter said after the Oregon star was drafted with the No. 12 overall pick that the Broncos head coach felt "as strongly" about Nix as he did about Patrick Mahomes in 2017 when he tried to draft him.

If that's the expectation Payton has, the bar is set at the highest possible level for Nix before he's taken one snap.

Nix might be the most experienced college quarterback to ever enter the NFL. He was a five-year starter between Auburn and Oregon from 2019 to 2023. The 24-year-old set the NCAA record for most career starts by a quarterback and threw 1,936 passes in 61 games.

Stidham is entering his second season with the Broncos after signing a two-year, $10 million contract in March 2023. He threw for 496 yards and two touchdowns in two starts at the end of last season after Russell Wilson was benched.

The Broncos took a flier on Wilson by trading a sixth-round draft choice to the New York Jets for the former No. 2 overall pick.

If Nix does win the No. 1 job in Denver, it will mark the first time Payton has had a rookie starter at quarterback not due to an injury. Ian Book started one game for the New Orleans Saints in 2021 because Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian were unavailable.

It's safe to say that Sean Payton is impressed with his rookie quarterback.

During an appearance on SportsCenter, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that Nix is "everything" the Denver Broncos coach expected him to be after selecting him in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, and that he is making a case to be the team's Week 1 starter:

We have a real quarterback battle in Denver. Bo Nix will be battling it out with Zach Wilson, veteran Jarrett Stidham for that starting job. And here's where Nix can make a compelling case. In the spring, I was told that he was really everything Sean Payton thought he would be. At least, you know the early sentiments. He can operate in the pocket with a lot of traffic around him. He showed a hair-quick trigger release out of the pocket, and then he's been athletic and really mature. He's showed with 61 starts in college that came out in how he handles himself in team meetings and on the practice field inside and outside the huddle. So, made quite the impression so far.

Stidham is the veteran in the room, having been in the NFL since 2019 and having been with the Broncos since 2023. Ironically, Nix also took over for Stidham as Auburn's quarterback after the latter entered the NFL.

Wilson spent the first three seasons of his career with the New York Jets and was selected with the No. 2 pick in 2021. He was traded to Denver in the offseason and now hopes to get his career back on track in a new setting.

While Nix may not officially be the starter yet, Denver has identified him as the quarterback of the future. The Broncos selected Nix with the 12th pick in the Draft. He was the sixth quarterback taken, and the 24-year-old will hope to relay his collegiate success into his pro career.

Nix threw for 15,351 yards and 113 touchdowns during his five-year collegiate career, with his final season at Oregon being particularly excellent. He led the Ducks to a 12-2 record in 2023, throwing for 4,508 yards with 45 touchdowns and just three interceptions.

He now will look to help stabilize the quarterback room in Denver, as the franchise has struggled at the position since Peyton Manning led it to a Super Bowl 50 victory in the 2015 season.

Zach Wilson may have one advantage over the competition in the battle for the Denver Broncos' starting quarterback job.

"According to several pro personnel executives who have evaluated the Broncos' quarterbacks, Wilson—the No. 2 overall pick by the Jets in 2021—has liveliest arm and potentially the biggest portfolio of throws he can make," ESPN's Jeff Legwold reported Monday.

Getting traded to the Broncos represented a fresh start for the 24-year-old following three disappointing seasons with the New York Jets. His reputation almost assuredly precedes him nonetheless.

Whatever he does on the practice field will be balanced against Wilson averaging 185.1 passing yards per game with 23 touchdowns to 25 interceptions in his 34 regular-season appearances.

In addition, Wilson's arm talent wasn't really the issue in New York. He made plenty of throws that reminded fans why the Jets initially positioned him as their franchise QB.

Things can always change based on how training camp unfolds, but the Broncos sent a pretty clear message when they used a first-rounder on Oregon's Bo Nix only days after acquiring Wilson. If they had clear designs on utilizing Wilson as a starter, they wouldn't have been so aggressive in targeting Nix earlier than many thought his talent warranted.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the rookie "really has impressed, just beyond the normal talk about rookies coming along and playing well."

"I'm told that around traffic in the pocket with defensive linemen flying around him, he's delivered the ball calmly and accurately," Fowler reported Sunday on SportsCenter. "I'm told that has stood out to the Broncos and he's shown a lot of maturity; those 61 collegiate starts have shown up. So, this is a long quarterback battle—Stidham involved, Wilson, but Nix has made an early compelling case."

All things considered, you'd assume Nix has the inside track to be the Week 1 starter regardless of whether Wilson possesses more raw talent.

The Denver Broncos have an interesting quarterback battle on their hands after drafting Bo Nix in the first round and trading for Zach Wilson, both who will compete with Jarrett Stidham for the starting role.

But as ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported during Sunday's SportsCenter, Nix has turned some heads thus far:

I'm told that he really has impressed, just beyond the normal talk about rookies coming along and playing well. I'm told that around traffic in the pocket with defensive linemen flying around him, he's delivered the ball calmly and accurately. I'm told that has stood out to the Broncos and he's shown a lot of maturity; those 61 collegiate starts have shown up. So, this is a long quarterback battle—Stidham involved, Wilson, but Nix has made an early compelling case. We'll see if he can ride that momentum going into late July, early August. Good signs so far.

The Broncos used the No. 12 overall pick to select Nix, making him the sixth quarterback off the board in the first round behind Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy.

The 24-year-old truly thrived after transferring to Oregon ahead of the 2022 season, throwing for 8,101 yards, 74 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions in two seasons. He completed 71.9 percent of his passes in 2022 and 77.4 percent in 2023.

Neither Wilson or Stidham, meanwhile, has ever proven capable of effectively leading an NFL offense.

The 24-year-old Wilson has a 12-21 career record, throwing for 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions while completing just 57 percent of his passes. His three seasons with the New York Jets were a major disappointment, namely in 2023, when he was called into relief duty for the injured Aaron Rodgers and was one of the main reasons the talented team messed the postseason.

Stidham, 27, has only made four starts in his NFL career (1-3), throwing for 1,422 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions in total while completing only 59.4 percent of his passes. The fact that he hasn't been able to ever consistently hold down a starting job during his five NFL seasons doesn't bode well for his chances to win Denver's quarterback battle.

In reality, if Nix is even decent during training camp and the preseason, he should win the starting job without much fuss. Stidham was never going to be anything more than a placeholder and Wilson was added as a flier, but Nix is truly the future of the franchise if he lives up to the potential that made the Broncos select him with a first-round pick.

Sean Payton underwent cataracts surgery on his left eye last week, and will undergo the same surgery on his right eye on Wednesday, according to Mike Klis of 9News.

The reason? His eye sight got bad enough that it caused him to read his call sheet wrong at one point last season.

"I want to get my eyes fixed, so I call the right play and I don't mess up and call the wrong play on a play that happened one time this year," Payton told reporters back on Jan 9. "That was embarrassing."

Ask just about any sports fan, and they'll tell you that every official and umpire on the planet should get the same surgery. But we digress.

Payton, 60, will be looking to have a bounce-back season after the Denver Broncos went just 8-9 in his first season with the team. He'll have a new quarterback in rookie Bo Nix, who replaces the released Russell Wilson and his NFL-record dead cap hit.

Call it a rosy new outlook for the Broncos. And a clearer outlook in general for Payton.

Don't expect to know the Denver Broncos' No. 1 quarterback anytime soon.

Head coach Sean Payton provided an update on the competition between Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson on Tuesday, and he doesn't seem in a rush to name the starter.

"I would say I have an end date—that would be the week before the first game—but I don't have a set date [to name the starter]," he said in a video from the team (h/t Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk).

Williams noted the three signal-callers are splitting first-team reps at this point, further indicating there is no clear leader.

While he might not start the Week 1 game against the Seattle Seahawks, the Broncos surely see Nix as their quarterback of the future after selecting him with the No. 12 overall pick. That means he will likely get some game action during his rookie season, especially since he's not exactly competing against vets with robust resumes.

Wilson has failed to live up to expectations after he was the No. 2 overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft and went 12-21 as a starter with the New York Jets.

Stidham is just 1-3 as a starter during his career, although he is the one with the advantage of familiarity since he was with the Broncos last year.

As for Nix, he is coming off being named the 2023 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year at Oregon after he completed 77.4 percent of his passes for 4,508 yards, 45 touchdowns and three interceptions.

He won't be putting up those numbers in the NFL, but he likely has the highest ceiling of the three as they all battle for the starting job.