ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When it comes to finding the Denver Broncos‘ Week 1 starting quarterback, Sean Payton isn’t interested in the journey.
The experienced head coach simply just cares about the destination, when it comes to the team’s all-important quarterback competition.
“We are looking to find the [quarterback] to beat Seattle,” Payton stated firmly on Tuesday, as the head coach kicked off training camp with the team’s annual media barbecue and press conference. “And we are going to find that player.”
The process to how the Broncos are going to find that player between Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson, however, is far less concerning for Payton entering camp. At least what he’ll reveal to the public.
“We will keep you posted,” Payton said, when pressed on his plan for the quarterback competition in training camp. “I’m not going to sit here and lay out, ‘Here’s how it goes,’ because I think the mistake made is deciding how it goes. Organically in my experience, we will see a rotation initially and then we will move on from there.”
During OTAs and mandatory minicamp, Stidham, Wilson and Nix, in that order, rotated working with the first-team offense. On Tuesday, Payton seemed to indicate that’s how the competition could start entering training camp.
“We’ll mix it up again,” Payton said. “Obviously, it won’t stay that way for the long term. As we get started, we will keep you posted. Eventually, we will settle into the routine we want.”
As veteran players reported for camp on Tuesday, Payton wasn’t in a mood to dish out specifics and details of the competition that will go down at the most important position in sports.
When asked how he’ll balance going through the competition, while also preparing the eventual starter to beat the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1 on Sept. 8, Payton quipped back at the reporter.
“I don’t think you balance finding the guy to win against Seattle. I don’t think that makes sense,” the head coach said. “How do I balance the day, how do I balance the schedule, and how do I balance the reps? That is all part of what we do relative to teaching and the teaching progression. I think the same thing exists though—the goal is to find the right 53 players here for our team. Certainly, there is a lot of focus on the quarterback position because there is open competition there, but I don’t look at it as finding the balance. I look at it as finding the player.”
After using the 12th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on Nix, a large portion of Broncos Country, if not all of it, hopes the rookie will eventually be “the player” Payton referenced.
And while the head coach was far from naming him the starter on Tuesday, he did dish out praise to the rookie.
“He is a quick study,” Payton said, when asked how Nix progressed over the five-week summer break. “So the progress in the playbook will be just like it will be for Zach. They both have been here for the same amount of time. All of these young players are studying pretty hard.”
As the first practice of training camp gets underway on Wednesday, all eyes will be on the quarterback competition between Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson.
But Sean Payton doesn’t want to talk about the journey. He just wants to reach the winning destination in Seattle.
