Broncos will focus on Zach Wilson at QB in final preseason game

Jarrett Stidham will start another preseason game for the Denver Broncos but just like the last time he got the first snap, it’s a younger quarterback who will play the primary parts of the game and that’s Zach Wilson.

Neither Stidham nor Wilson will be Denver’s starter come Week 1 of the regular season as the Broncos announced Bo Nix will have the reigns. The rookie will not play in the final week of the preseason on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals as he rests and prepares for the Seattle Seahawks in his NFL debut.

Nix played a big part of the Broncos first preseason game after Stidham started and came out quickly. Nix won the job in his appearance and in the following week when he started and thrived against the Green Bay Packers. Wilson has been third-string this whole time but Payton wants to take a look at the former first-rounder out of BYU with Denver’s second team on Sunday.

So it will be Stidham for eight to 12 plays then Payton will turn the keys over to Wilson.

“We’ll get a lot of work with Zach,” Payton said on Friday. “… it will give him the opportunity with the second group. It’s hard to evaluate that position when the other elements aren’t working. Watching him follow up the week he’s had in practice and seeing him play.”

So far in the preseason Wilson is 12-of-19 passing for 146 yards with one touchdown.

The team added Wilson this offseason for some movement late in the 2024 Draft. In doing so the Broncos got the former No. 3 pick for almost nothing just ahead of the event itself where the Broncos would land Nix. The new Wilson, like the Wilson that just left Dove Valley, is sack-prone. Zach lost the most yards in the league to sacks during his rookie year and was tagged for 113 in just 34 career games. Sure he led five game-winning drives and is a former AFC Player of the Week but the former Cougar has also thrown 25 interceptions to 23 touchdowns on just 57% passing in his career.

This is far from Payton’s first reclamation projection he’s thrived with that in the NFL. Reclaiming a banged-up Drew Brees and making him a Hall of Famer, and molding players like Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston and Tony Romo into suitable starters.

Payton said the Broncos will consider keeping all three quarterbacks when roster cuts go down in the coming days. The second-year head coach said the team has a good idea of the direction they’re going already before the third preseason game.