Broncos OTA Takeaways: Zach Wilson struggles while working with starters

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For the final time in 2024, media saw the Denver Broncos hold an OTA practice on Tuesday.

The Broncos are holding their thrid and final week of OTAs. Media attends one practice per week. The Broncos will hold a three-day mandatory mini-camp next week, which will be open to the media in its entirety.

Here’s what we saw on Tuesday…

Zach Wilson

Tuesday was Zach Wilson Day at Broncos Park, but it didn’t go the way he had hoped.

The Broncos continued rotating their starting quarterbacks. Jarrett Stidham‘s turn was Monday, and Bo Nix will get another shot on Thursday. Wednesday’s practice was the first open to the media with Wilson at the helm of the starting offense.

Wilson’s first throw of the day was a swing route to Javonte Williams in the flat in seven-on-seven drills. He spiked the throw. Inaccuracy on balls to the flat plagued Wilson’s time as a New York Jet, but he appeared to take a step forward in that regard in 2023. Obviously, there’s still some work to do.

Wilson’s worst throw of the day came in team drills. The defense produced pressure up the middle, and Wilson attempted a step-back jump throw straight over the middle of the line of scrimmage to a target about five yards upfield. The ball floated into double coverage, and safety PJ Locke picked it off easily. Wilson made an awful decision.

In the three practices open to the media, Broncos quarterbacks threw two total interceptions. Both came from Wilson.

Last week, I wrote that I don’t want to make sweeping judgments on Wilson until we see him with a group other than the third-stringers. Now, we’ve seen Wilson with the starters, and he didn’t fare any better.

Wilson is lagging behind the Broncos’ other quarterbacks, but maybe that should be expected. While he has three years of NFL experience under his belt, I wouldn’t call him a veteran. The Jets didn’t help Wilson grow. I’d say they broke him.

After three practices, I see Wilson as a rookie. He’s making rookie mistakes. He’s only six months older than Bo Nix. Nix isn’t making rookie mistakes, though.

Expecting Sean Payton to fix Wilson within five weeks of trading for him was unreasonable. Wilson needs plenty of work. I believe Payton when he says that this portion of the year is geared more toward learning than competing. The real competition begins in training camp.

However, the deck is stacked against Wilson in two ways.

1. He’s clearly behind Stidham and Nix in the process of learning and executing the offense.
   
2. Even if the Broncos treat him similarly to a rookie, there’s a big difference: he only has one year of cost control. Even if he blossoms, his value to the team is significantly diminished. In other words, justifying the Wilson project over Stidham’s stability will be challenging.

Wilson’s future with the Broncos isn’t dead. The Broncos have held eight practices. They’ll have another 25-30 practices before their Week 1 game. Plus, media has only seen three of the eight practices. For all we know, he’s been great in the other five.

Payton could wait another three months before he announces his starting quarterback. If the competition was a football game, we’d still be in the first quarter.

One thing is abundantly clear in the first three weeks of practice: Two quarterbacks can run the offense effectively. One can’t.

The other quarterbacks

Tuesday was a down day for the Broncos’ quarterbacks, but it wasn’t catastrophic.

Nix was flawless in seven-on-seven drills. The ball came out of his hand quickly. He placed it perfectly. The throws were all on the shorter side, but he anticipated them well and took what the defense gave him.

My favorite throw was a quick out route to wide receiver Troy Franklin. Cornerback Tremon Smith played near-perfect press coverage, but Nix was able to pound a ball to the boundary and Franklin stretched out to snag the ball. Nix put plenty of gas on the ball, and he needed all of it. From an arm-strength perspective, it was his most impressive throw in open practices.

Nix’s work in full-team drills was defined by pressure. Elijah Garcia fought into the backfield and forced a throwaway on his first attempt. The defense blitzed on the next pass, and Nix unloaded a deep ball up the sideline to wide receiver David Sills V. Cornerback Damarri Mathis was on his hip. The ball sailed just over Sills’ fingertips. On his next dropback, Nix was pressured and scrambled for a short gain.

The rest of the day was similar. Nix had some positive plays like hitting Lil’Jordan Humprey on a drag route with some room to run and Brandon Johnson sitting in a gap in underneath coverage. He found Adam Trautman near the sideline for a short gain in red-zone drills, too.

Stidham’s day was similar, although he wasn’t quite as clinical in seven-on-sevens. He faced pressure often. He hit his checkdowns. He didn’t find any big gains.

If you wanted to grade Stidham and Nix, Nix would come out ahead, thanks to his seven-on-seven session. Through the three practices we’ve seen, I’d probably give Stidham the slight edge, thanks to the downfield throws he made in previous practices, but it’s close.

One more thing: both Nix and Stidham threw touchdowns on Tuesday…

Michael Bandy

If you don’t know who Michael Bandy is, it might be time to learn. The Broncos threw two touchdowns on Tuesday and Bandy caught both of them.

The first came in red-zone seven-on-sevens. The offense lined up at the 5-yard line and Bandy ran a crossing route from the slot. The defense lost track of him and Jarrett Stidham layered a touch pass to him at the back pylon for an easy score.

The second was a dart in seven-on-sevens from Bo Nix. Bandy sat down at the goal line in a gap in a zone and Nix ripped a well-placed low ball to him before Tremon Smith could break it up.

Bandy, 26, spent last season on the Broncos’ practice squad. He appeared in one game. But in 2022, he played 10 games for the Los Angeles Chargers, including two starts. He caught 10 balls for 89 yards.

Not only is Bandy, who stands 5-foot-10, a true slot receiver, he’s the Broncos’ only true slot receiver. Tim Patrick is a big slot. Marvin Mims Jr. can be a speed slot. Tight end Greg Dulcich will spend nearly all of his playing time flexed into the slot.

But Bandy is the only traditional slot receiver on the Broncos’ roster, and Sean Payton likes to use a variety of players.

That doesn’t mean Bandy will make the team, though. Even if all goes well, it’s tough to imagine he’ll get a 53-man roster spot. Bandy’s best-case scenario is landing on the practice squad but earning early-season activations. Then, he could be promoted.

Sometimes slot receivers take time to develop. So far in offseason practices, Bandy looks like a different player. He’s finding space consistently, and he’s making my notes multiple times per day. He capped off a great OTA streak with a massive day on Tuesday.

PJ Locke

The Broncos’ 2024 opening-day starters at safety: Brandon Jones and PJ Locke.

This isn’t official, of course, but I’m ready to call the competition over… if there even was one. In hindsight, calling it a competition might be disrespectful to what Locke did last season.

But first, practice: Once again, Locke was one of the best defenders on the field. On Tuesday, I’d rank him number one. Two big plays stand out.

First, Locke caught the lollipop interception that Zach Wilson haphazardly lobbed over the middle of the field. It was an easy play, but Locke capitalized… as always.

The other play was a sack on Wilson on a blitz around the edge, Locke’s specialty.

Locke has come up clutch for the Broncos over and over and over again. He forced the fumble that sealed an 11-10 Sunday Night Football win over the San Francisco 49ers in 2022. He picked off the pass that sealed the Broncos’ 2023 win over the Green Bay Packers. He made the fourth-down strip sack that sealed the win over the Cleveland Browns.

Plus, he made the strip sack that gave the Broncos the ball in Texans territory with five minutes to go as they faced a five-point deficit in Houston in December. The Broncos didn’t convert, but it’s another massive play. So was the strip-sack of Justin Herbert in Los Angeles after the Broncos already had an insurmountable lead.

After watching Locke for three practices, I regret believing his starting job is up for grabs. He took full advantage of his opportunities last year. The Broncos would be crazy to take him off the field.

And he’s only helped his case this spring.

Absences

A handful of Broncos didn’t participate in Tuesday’s practice.

Wide receiver Courtland Sutton missed practice because of a contract dispute. He is yet to attend a practice.

Cornerback Levi Wallace was not in attendance.

Cornerback Pat Surtain II didn’t participate in team drills. He is yet to participate in a practice open to media, but there’s no concern from the team. Sean Payton said after practice that he’s healthy and they’re “being smart with the rotation.”

Safeties Brandon Jones and Caden Sterns did not participate with apparent injuries. Neither did tight end Greg Dulcich, who should be back soon from a foot injury.

Other Notes

— Some sort of dispute broke out after Bo Nix completed a short pass to Brandon Johnson in team drills. I didn’t see the details, but it ended with guard Quinn Meinerz holding tight end Lucas Krull back from some defensive players. Meinerz had a clean solo block on John Franklin-Myers in space on a run earlier in practice.

— One thought I had while watching practice: How much of Samaje Perine‘s production could the Broncos replace with Michael Burton? With Jaleel McLaughlin and Blake Watson on the team, the Broncos should have solid receiving options out of the backfield. Neither is proven in pass protection, though, and that’s part of the reason moving on from Perine is a dangerous move.

But Burton could certainly handle pass protection. He might be more of a weapon out of the backfield than we give him credit for, too. There’s a reason Pro Football Focus named him an All-Pro last year.

Nobody on the Broncos’ roster can replicate Perine—he finished top three among NFL running backs in both receiving yards and receiving efficiency last year—but including Burton in the mix could help the Broncos piece together a third-down plan.

— Cornerback Damarri Mathis made a great play to break up a pass against Brandon Johnson in seven-on-sevens. Mathis was playing a flat zone and broke inside to dive and swat away a quick pass from Jarrett Stidham.

— Last season, against the Chicago Bears, linebacker Nik Bonitto played the game of his life. He posted 2-1/2 sacks. Two of those sacks came when the Bears tried to pull a guard across the formation to meet Bonitto on the edge. But Bonitto was too fast. Coaches told Bonitto that he wouldn’t be seeing that protection scheme anymore. For the most part, they were right.

On Tuesday, the Broncos tried to pull Quinn Bailey to pick up Bonitto. It did not work. Bonitto blew the play up for a sack.

— Wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. beat cornerback Riley Moss on a slant in seven-on-sevens, but linebacker Alex Singleton was waiting in the middle of the field. In a real game, Singleton would have knocked Mims’ cleats off. Zach Wilson threw the pass.

— The defensive line probably beat the offensive line on Tuesday. Zach Allen made a nice move past Mike McGlinchey at one point to stuff a run. Jordan Jackson got into the backfield to help blow up an end-around to Marvin Mims Jr.

Check out last week’s report.