Could Broncos backup QB Jarrett Stidham be pushed by Sam Ehlinger in contract year?

The chance for which Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham waited arrived in January. The circumstances setting up his start in the AFC Championship Game were unfortunate, but Stidham had the ultimate opportunity that could effectively give him the equivalent of professorial tenure as far as backup quarterbacks in the NFL go.

Win a conference championship and earn a Super Bowl start, and he could expect to easily take his NFL career to a decade — whether he ever became a full-time starter again or not. Nick Foles stepped in and guided the Philadelphia Eagles to a conference title and a Super Bowl win in 2017, and he played five more seasons, even though his touchdown-to-interception ratio following Super Bowl LII was a modest 21-to-18.

It didn’t work out as he’d hoped. The second-half snowstorm that blanketed Empower Field at Mile High and dropped both offenses into neutral didn’t help and squelched any chance at a rally. But a comeback from a 10-7 deficit might have been unnecessary if Stidham had simply held onto the football when pressured late in the second quarter instead of desperately trying to offload it for an incompletion.

Instead, the Patriots got the ball and scored their only touchdown off the resulting short field. Two plays, 12 yards. And given the deteriorating conditions in the second half, it seemed unlikely that New England would have found the end zone in any other way against a Denver defense that played exactly as every member of Broncos Country would have hoped.

“Really hard for me to swallow that one, cause I just put them in a terrible spot,” Stidham lamented after the defeat.

Still, when the Broncos reconvened for OTAs, Stidham got the No. 1 snaps with Bo Nix sidelined. At that moment, there remained a clear delineation between the reserve quarterbacks in terms of how they were used.

“We see competition,” Payton said in March when asked about the backup quarterback situation. “And it wasn’t different last year. There’s nothing that is etched in stone. There just isn’t, and that’s a good thing.”

Still, at the moment, Stidham seems ahead. But what that means for his future is cloudy, as he’s in a contract year for the second time as a member of the Broncos.

COULD EHLINGER PUSH STIDHAM FOR THE BRONCOS’ NO. 2 ROLE?

There are two questions regarding the quarterback position as the Broncos count down to training camp. One is the obvious and pressing matter of Bo Nix’s ankle as he completes his recovery from a follow-up procedure in April to remedy bone spurs. But the other is whether Ehlinger, who returns for his second Broncos season, has a chance to nudge past Stidham for the primary backup’s role.

And given Nix’s litany of ankle troubles over the years, this is a more relevant matter than perhaps the team would like to admit. If it’s of clear eyes and mind regarding the situation, it’ll be realistic about the importance and necessity of getting No. 2 right.

The fact that 20 of 32 teams — including the Broncos — had to turn to their understudy quarterback for meaningful, non mop-up snaps at some point during the campaign due to injury is another point of evidence.

It’s more likely than not that the Broncos will require meaningful snaps from their No. 2 quarterback. The question now is this: Is Stidham up for the task after his up-and-down performance when given his first shot in over two years? Or can Ehlinger make a leap from Year 1 to Year 2 in Payton’s scheme to push him down?

On a day like the first OTA observed by media in June, Ehlinger had the better work output. But other practices that were open for viewing didn’t see a similar pattern.

The competition will materialize, but at the moment, Stidham appears ahead — and in position to stick around as the long-term backup, given his relationship with Nix and how well he has handled being the understudy, while also being a popular figure within the locker room. Stidham delivered everything the Broncos could have asked from their No. 2 last year — except the ability to avoid the big mistake at the most damaging possible juncture, which is a circumstance he’ll have to overcome.

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