Broncos Minicamp Takeaways: Bo Nix turns the ball over while Jarrett Stidham thrives

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Offseason workouts are over!

While the Denver Broncos were supposed to hold their final minicamp practice on Thursday, head coach Sean Payton decided to call it off because he’s happy with what he’s seen.

That means Wednesday’s practice was the final practice before training camp kicks off in late July.

Outside of a couple of major exceptions, Wednesday’s practice was fairly uneventful. While it was competitive between the offense and defense, no single player stood out head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Since the offseason program is over, we’re going to take a big-picture look at the Broncos’ quarterbacks after seeing five practices. And we’re starting with the rookie…

Bo Nix

Bo Nix’s worst moment of the spring (at least in the practices media attended) came on the very last day. 

Nix tried to hit wide receiver Michael Bandy on a deep curl in seven-on-seven drills. Veteran cornerback Levi Wallace was in coverage. Wallace broke on the route and reached in front of Bandy to knock the ball away. Somehow, the ball bounced straight up in the air, and Wallace came down with it. 

This was the first interception Nix has thrown in five practices open to the media. 

I’m not concerned. A quarterback doesn’t have time to wait and see if a curl will be open. The ball needs to be out of his hand before the receiver breaks. It’s the receiver’s duty to gain separation on the break. The worst-case scenario on the play should have been an incompletion since Bandy had an inside position. Nix caught a bad break when the ball bounced up in the air. 

Obviously, an interception counts the same regardless of its origin, but nothing about the decision or the placement concerns me. 

However, I’d say Nix’s placement, in general, wasn’t as sharp as we’re used to seeing. (To be fair, he’s set a high bar for himself.) And even when he threw a well-placed ball to Brandon Johnson at the boundary of the end zone, Ja’Quan McMillian swooped in to knock the pass away. 

For the most part, Nix attacked the short areas of the field. My personal favorite throw of the day was a back-shoulder ball to tight end Nate Adkins up the seam. Safety Brandon Jones was late rotating to cover him. Other media members thought Nix could have hit Adkins in stride with room to run. From my angle, the back-shoulder ball made sense. 

With spring ball in the books, I’m ready to say that Nix has impressed me. His well-roundedness stands out. Nix is sharp pre-snap, calling out coverages and tweaking plays. His feel in the pocket to escape rushers is stellar. He finds escape routes easily while keeping his eyes downfield. His placement is generally spot on. He’s shown the ability to dart a ball into a tight window, especially in the red zone. 

While Nix didn’t attack the deep portions of the field often—and he had a tendency to underthrow balls when he did—his efficiency was everything you could have hoped. When he hit his running backs in the flat, he got the ball to them quickly so they had room to run. He didn’t linger on his reads.

Nix looked as polished as you’d expect to be a 61-game starter to be. He looked about as gifted as you’d expect the No. 1 dual-threat recruit in the country to be. 

The largest cause for concern, at least in my opinion, is that he wasn’t facing live bullets. It’s easy to stand poised in the pocket with patience or to keep your eyes downfield while dodging pressure when there’s no risk of being hit. The game changes when Maxx Crosby is trying to take your head off. 

The game also changes when something is on the line. Will Nix be as collected on a fourth-quarter third down at Arrowhead as he was this spring?

These are the questions you hope to have about a rookie quarterback at the end of the offseason program. They’re questions that can’t be answered at practice. In other words, he checked every box he had the opportunity to.

Personally, I think Nix has the makeup to thrive in more realistic situations, but only time will tell. 

Jarrett Stidham

Jarrett Stidham earned himself a relaxing five-week break. For the fourth time in five open practices, the Broncos’ most-veteran quarterback was the best quarterback on the field. 

Stidham’s best throw was a touchdown to Troy Franklin on a quick-hitting slant in tight goal-line drills, with Kris Abrams-Draine in coverage. Stidham had dumped a ball off to rookie running back Blake Watson for a walk-in touchdown on the previous play. Stidham’s only miss on Wednesday was a slot dig to Lil’Jordan Humphrey in seven-on-sevens, when he led his receiver a step too far out of his break.

Stidham was remarkably consistent throughout the spring. He found open receivers in the quick game and let them make plays. He never put the ball in harm’s way.

But Stidham also made the two best throws of the spring, at least in my opinion. My favorite was a 55-yard bomb to Marvin Mims Jr. that needed to be perfectly placed between two defenders. 

Unfortunately, Stidham’s fate may not lie in his own hands.

If Nix provides the same caliber of play as Stidham in training camp, I’d imagine the Broncos will push their rookie onto the field early. If Stidham edges Nix out in a tight competition, I still wouldn’t be surprised if the Broncos go with Nix, expecting him to grow into the better quarterback by the end of the year.

That’s the simple nature of the NFL; Nix is the exciting new toy, and Stidham hasn’t proven during his five NFL seasons that he can be a franchise player.

And if you want to close the door on Stidham being a quality NFL starter at some point during his career, I can’t tell you you’re wrong. And you’d probably have plenty of people on your side.

But as Sean Payton often says, “You go by what you see.” This spring, we’ve seen that Stidham has been the Broncos’ best quarterback, albeit by a slim margin.

Here’s a hypothetical question…

Let’s say that training camp plays out just like spring practices did: Stidham is the better quarterback than Nix more often than not. He’s the better quarterback in camp overall. The margin is narrow but decisive.

Could you make the argument that Nix is still the better option on Sundays against actual opponents because of his ability to create something out of nothing when plays break down?

Nix has better physical tools. He’s fast. He’s got a big arm. He’s proven his ability to make off-script plays at Oregon, especially in the red zone.

In practice, everything is clean. About a quarter of the competitive throws we see in practice are seven-on-seven passes with no pass rush.

While Payton tries to make Sundays as sterile of an environment as possible, chaos is inevitable in the NFL. And despite strong performances from Stidham this spring, I’m confident Nix is the better option when chaos arises.

How will the Broncos weigh the on-script vs. the off-script?

Here’s where I stand entering training camp: Bo Nix can hand himself the starting quarterback job by playing well in July and August. All Stidham can do is force Payton to make a tough decision.

Stidham did everything he could during offseason practices to set up a tough decision.

Zach Wilson

Zach Wilson did not have the spring he had hoped for. One throw on Wednesday summed up the five practices we saw.

Rookie tight end Thomas Yassmin created separation on a crossing route. But Wilson was late to find him on the slow-developing route, which meant the defender was able to close the window on the sideline. Wilson had no choice but to lob the ball over the tight end’s head for an incompletion.

I won’t write too much here because I’ve already written most of these thoughts in past notes from this spring, but here’s the big one:

I feel dumb for thinking Payton could reinvent Wilson in the month between joining the Broncos and starting the offseason program. I didn’t expect him to look like a superstar, but I thought he had a chance to keep up with Nix and Stidham.

To Wilson’s credit, I’ve seen improvement. His worst plays were early in the spring program, and he’s avoided catastrophic mistakes recently.

But Wilson is a project, and projects take time to complete. I don’t expect Wilson to become a functional quarterback before the start of the season, and that leaves the Broncos in a tough choice.

Assuming Nix takes the Week 1 starting job, which isn’t a guarantee, Stidham and Wilson will compete to be the No. 2 quarterback. While Stidham has placed himself in pole position, Wilson has two factors working in his favor.

1. The Broncos will save $5 million if they keep Wilson instead of Stidham.
2. The Broncos aren’t a contender. While postseason teams want the backup quarterback who gives them the best chance to win the couple of games they typically play, teams on the outside looking in can justify gambling on a project with more longterm upside instead.

Instead of asking whether Wilson can win the backup job, the better question might be whether Denver can slip him to the practice squad. I think the answer is yes.

It’s irresponsible to make big decisions based on offseason practices, but Wilson will need to show something early in camp and build off of it if he wants a 53-man roster spot.

Absences

Wide receiver Courtland Sutton was on the practice field once again on Wednesday after missing the first three weeks of the offseason program. He ran more routes than he did in his first practice back on Tuesday, although he didn’t take a full workload.

Safeties Delarrin Turner-Yell and Caden Sterns sat practice out again while Brandon Jones returned to action.

Tight ends Greg Dulcich and Dylan Leonard did not participate.

Wide receiver Josh Reynolds had a minor tweak, and the Broncos chose the conservative route and held him out.

Other Notes

— Wide receiver Tim Patrick cooked Pat Surtain II on an out route in team drills but couldn’t bring in the catch on the sideline. The ball was high, but I thought it was catchable.

— The checkdowns continued. Once again, the running backs made the most of them. (Especially Jaleel McLaughlin.) You gotta take what the defense gives you, I guess.

— Wide receiver David Sills V made a great catch on the boundary once again. This time, he created separation against cornerback Riley Moss but had to high point a ball from Zach Wilson, which he did masterfully.

— Defensive lineman Malcolm Roach batted a Zach Wilson pass for the second consecutive day.

— Tight end Lucas Krull had his best practice since the first one open to media, catching a couple of balls. One of them was a big-gainer on the sideline thanks to a busted coverage.

— Art Green made a great pass breakup against Michael Bandy in red-zone drills. The second-year undrafted cornerback is a threat to make the roster.