ENGLEWOOD, Colorado — As the Denver Broncos wrapped up their first week of organized team activities Thursday, coach Sean Payton was quick to praise his three quarterbacks in the running for the team’s starting job, including rookie Bo Nix.
When asked about Nix’s progress since the team made him the sixth quarterback selected in the first round of last month’s Draft (No. 12 overall), Payton said: “Well, he’s further along than most.” “We are talking about a player who played 61 games (in college). He is extremely intelligent. He has learned it very quickly.”
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Payton has been clear that Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson, whom the Broncos acquired in a trade with the New York Jets in the days leading up to the draft, are in full-scale competition for the starting job. Payton was also quick to praise the work of all three and just as quick to point out that nothing should be read into Nix’s opening of Thursday’s practice with the team’s offensive starters.
Payton said Stidham worked more with the starters in Tuesday’s practice and Wilson worked with the starters in Wednesday’s practice.
“We try to split up all the reps,” Payton said. “There will be a time when you will read the replays, I don’t think it will be early in the OTAs. It’s kind of an orphan group, they’re all orphan dogs. They’ve come from somewhere, but they’re doing well. It’s a good room.”
Payton also said: “We go by what we see. We try to get them as many reps as possible. We rotate. We’re rotating everyone right now. They’re all in a race to learn this system. Man, they’re doing well.”
It is Payton’s first, and only other, quarterback competition he has overseen as head coach since 2021. That was Payton’s final season as head coach of the New Orleans Saints and the first season after Drew’s retirement Brees when Payton told Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom. Hill competed for the starting job.
When asked about his overall philosophy on playing and starting with a rookie quarterback like Nix, Payton said a lot depended on how much the rookie showed he was ready to play when the season began.
Payton and general manager George Paton said Nix’s experience and maturity (given his 61 games in five college seasons at Auburn and Oregon) were factors in his selection by the team. Nix was the first quarterback the Broncos selected in the first round since Paxton Lynch in 2016 and the highest selection of a Broncos quarterback in the first round since Jay Cutler, 11th overall, in 2006.
“I think part of this is a byproduct of what you have in the building. If you have a starter in the building, then that’s the way to go, and sometimes you don’t have that luxury, then that’s the way to go” . ‘Payton said. “A lot of it depends on the quarterback, his mental makeup.”
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