ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Saturday was red zone day at Denver Broncos Training Camp.
“When you enter the red zone, you’re in a position where you’re going to score points, so no minus plays, no turnovers, no exotic snap counts, and nothing that can move you out of scoring position,” head coach Sean Payton said after practice. “We had three good—we had a 7-on-7 period, and we had two team periods that were all in the red zone today.”
Saturday’s practice, the fourth of camp, was the first time the Broncos have held red zone work. Their first situational work came on Friday when the team emphasized third downs. If I were to guess, I’d say Monday—the next practice after Sunday’s off day—will have a two-minute drill emphasis.
“Red zone is tough,” rookie quarterback Bo Nix said after practice. “Once you get down there, the field shrinks and it’s all about just converting red-zone third downs, and knowing you have points and trying to get touchdowns.”
Bo Nix scored plenty of touchdowns.
Quarterback Scoreboard
The big news on Saturday is that the quarterback competition is nearing a turning point.
“The rotation has been pretty consistent,” Payton said. “I think that will begin to change a little bit as we get into the next week and a half to two weeks.”
The Broncos have rotated each of their three quarterbacks—Jarrett Stidham, Zach Wilson and Bo Nix—through the starting lineup. Saturday was Stidham’s day with the starters, and Nix is next up on Monday… assuming nothing changes.
“We’ve kind of been in this pretty consistent pattern and I think it’s hard for that to stay the same throughout all of camp,” Payton said. “That’s all.”
While no hard details exist, Payton’s comments were ominous and initially unprompted.
For more on Payton’s comments regarding the quarterback competition, click here.
With the stakes appearing to grow, here’s how the quarterbacks graded out on Saturday:
Bo Nix: A-
Bo Nix’s day got off to a rough start. He followed up a lackluster seven-on-seven period with the first interception we’ve seen from any Broncos quarterback during training camp on the first play of team drills.
Tight end Greg Dulcich was running up the sideline on a double-move, and Nix tried to get him the ball about 25 yards upfield. Cornerback Levi Wallace lurked underneath and jogged into position for an easy pick.
The interception didn’t bother the rookie.
“I treat it like a touchdown and just go to the next play,” he said.
Nix bounced back.
He hit Marvin Mims in the middle of the field. He hit David Sills on the boundary. Then came his first touchdown of camp.
Javonte Williams ran a wheel route from the 11-yard line, and Nix dropped a perfect ball over his shoulder in the end zone.
In deep red zone drills, Nix stayed hot. He converted a 3rd & 5 to Brandon Johnson, exacting revenge on Levi Wallace in the process.
Then he hit Dulcich in the back corner of the end zone for a 10-yard score with JL Skinner trailing.
Then he found Samaje Perine in the flat for a walk-in touchdown.
That’s a three-score day for the first-round pick.
Nix’s success in the red zone should come as no surprise. In college, the red zone is where Nix’s creativity, quick thinking, and accuracy were most valuable. The ability to buy time and hit tight windows helped Nix to 45 touchdown passes in his final year. (Don’t forget that Nix was the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback in his high school recruiting class.)
“The windows get tighter, but (the defense) can only do a few things,” Nix said. “The field gets tighter for them, too. They don’t have as much field space to work with.”
Zach Wilson: B-
I struggled to pick a grade for Wilson.
Wilson’s deep red zone period wasn’t his best. He found Mims for a first down, but he lobbed a ball off his back foot to Phillip Dorsett in the end zone, which led to a Reese Taylor pass breakup.
For the most part, Wilson kept the ball off the ground with short passes.
But two plays got me excited. Really excited. Probably too excited.
On his first play of seven-on-sevens, Wilson wound up for a deep ball to Troy Franklin up the sideline. Franklin gained a step on Tremon Smith and caught a 28-yard touchdown. While it’s worth remembering that seven-on-sevens are a controlled environment with no pass rush, it was probably the best throw we’ve seen so far in training camp.
Then, during team drills, Wilson was sacked. But plays continue after sacks in practice, and Wilson rolled out and ripped another deep touchdown to Franklin.
In the stat book, that play goes down as a sack. But I’m giving Wilson a slight bump for the throw.
(And two deep touchdowns for Franklin might be the spark the rookie needs after a slow start to camp.)
Jarrett Stidham: B-
The Broncos’ most veteran settled into his usual Steady Stidham ways, but not until after an up-and-down start.
Stidham fired a 12-yard touchdown ball to the back of the end zone to Courtland Sutton in seven-on-sevens. He also had a pass to Mims broken up by linebacker Jonas Griffith and sailed a ball a little too high for tight end Nate Adkins on the sideline.
Stidham’s first throw of team drills picked up 15 yards after Tim Patrick tapped his toes on the sideline.
From there, Stidham did his thing. He found receivers underneath and kept the ball off the ground.
His red zone session underwhelmed. He didn’t score a touchdown, thanks in part to a ball that was too high for Lucas Krull, but he found a couple of short completions.
GPAs
Average of daily grades.
Jarrett Stidham: 2.25 (C+)
Bo Nix: 1.925 (C)
Zach Wilson: 1.925 (C)
Luke Wattenberg is getting his chance
Through four practices, Luke Wattenberg has gotten the starting reps at center.
Meanwhile, Alex Forsyth—Wattenberg’s expected top competition for the starting job—has worked at both guard and center.
But Payton says the competition isn’t over.
“There’s no etched in stone right now at that position,” he said. “There’s competition, and we like it. We like the way that both of those guys are playing.
Forsyth was seen as the favorite by some, because he was Bo Nix’s center at Oregon in 2022. He was also drafted by the current coach staff in the seventh round of the 2023 draft, while the previous regime selected Luke Wattenberg in the sixth round in 2022.
“That flexibility that Alex is showing a little bit at guard has been encouraging,” Payton said.
Wattenberg hasn’t gotten the headlines this offseason, since he didn’t play with the Broncos’ first-round pick. But Payton is excited by what he’s seen.
“He’s smart,” Payton said. “I think he’s got good versatility. There are traits that you look forward to in a center. You look for guys that obviously are strong inside handling the pash rush. Then it’s, how are they at the second level? Oftentimes, that player is able to combo and get up to a linebacker—can they finish? So he’s someone that’s pretty athletic and has a really good ability to get to his second-level blocks.”
The longer Wattenberg practices with the starters, the better his chances of opening the season in the starting lineup.
Stacking Days
With four days down in training camp, we can start to see trends. A handful of depth players are consistently making their presence felt.
- OLB Durell Nchami makes a play every day. On Saturday, he blew up an Audric Estime run for a tackle for loss.
- CB Reese Taylor backed up his near-interception on Friday by breaking up a pass at the goal line and blowing up a toss in the backfield on Saturday.
- WRs Michael Bandy and David Sills V aren’t the sexiest names, but they each catch a few passes per day. Bandy, in particular, seems to always be open in the short areas of the field.
- WR Lil’Jordan Humphrey is another high-volume target so far in camp. He’s setting a high bar for the less experienced receivers on the roster to clear.
- TE Greg Dulcich probably belongs in a different category, but he’s been a productive receiver throughout camp.
- OLB Ronnie Perkins had a solid tackle for loss the day after having a sack.
Notes
- Safety Brandon Jones has a hamstring injury and will be out for a week or two, according to Sean Payton.
- Safety Caden Sterns passed his physical and returned to practice on Saturday. However, the Broncos are slowly working him back, and that means he did conditioning during the competitive periods of practice.
- CB Levi Wallace got the interception of Bo Nix. That’s what you expect from the 29-year-old veteran, who has a dozen interceptions in his 70 NFL starts. His 54 pass breakups are also notable. While he doesn’t have the top-end speed to be a true eraser in man coverage, he’s built a reputation for his ability to make plays on the ball, especially in underneath zone coverage.
- The Broncos will hold a personnel meeting on Sunday. The coaching staff will spend multiple hours combing the roster to determine who should play with the starters, backups, and reserves in the next few practices.
- The Broncos’ first padded practice of camp will be Monday.
Check out our Day 3 notes here.
