ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Highlighted by Bo Nix, the first week of the Denver Broncos‘ quarterback competition in training camp is officially in the books.
As Sean Payton designed, it’s been routine and fair, with Jarrett Stidham working with the starters on the first day, Nix the second day and Zach Wilson the third day. On the fourth practice, on Saturday, the rotation started all over again with Stidham.
But that could change.
Soon.
“The rotation has been pretty consistent. I think that will begin to change a little bit as we get into the next week and a half to two weeks,” Payton revealed following Saturday’s practice.
However, that was all the head coach wanted to reveal about a potential change.
“We’ll let you know,” he said, when asked about the specifics of a change.
So early in camp, it’s unlikely a starter will be named early next week. But one option for a change could be the competition narrowing down to two quarterbacks. Payton was asked if that was a possibility.
“We’ll see,” he said, before doubling down on a likely change coming. “But it’s been—right now, 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. That’s all.”
A main reason a change could come as early as Monday is because while the players have Sunday off, the coaches will hold a personnel meeting, which could include shaking up the depth chart.
“We’ll meet on personnel,” Payton said, when asked what the coached will do on the players off day on Sunday. “We’ll spend two hours discussing our players. Now we’re—this first meeting tomorrow is coming after an on-ramp week.”
Payton’s initial evaluation of the quarterback room is they are “doing well,” but declined to report a standings for Stidham, Wilson and Nix after four practices.
“Those guys are working hard and they’re competing,” he added. “I’m not going to give updates, daily updates or weekly updates. There will be a time when you’ll see the rotation begin to change in a certain way. At some point, it’ll clear itself up, but nothing to report right now.”
All of this comes on the heels of Nix’s best day of training camp. After a disappointing start to Saturday’s practice, including a disastrous interception where Nix threw the ball directly to Levi Wallace, the rookie completely flipped his day around.
Nix had not one, not two, but three touchdowns to finish practice. Two of them — one to Greg Dulcich and the other to Javonte Williams — were excellent throws to the end zone.
“You’re going to [make] a mistake and you’re going to have a minus play. The key is learning from it,” Payton said after practice. “We’ll look at the film and then bouncing back.”
As the Broncos’ quarterback rotation and competition settles into a rhythm, a change could be on the horizon as the second week of training camp kicks off on Monday.
