Entering what is sure to be a wild 2024 offseason, the Denver Broncos are poised to have a gaping hole at quarterback. Although the team technically has three quarterbacks under contract for next season, Russell Wilson is expected to be released at some point in the offseason.
That leaves Jarrett Stidham and Ben DiNucci on the roster, the former of whom signed a two-year, $10 million deal last spring, and the Broncos just re-signed the latter to a futures deal. Head coach Sean Payton viewed Stidham as a starting-caliber sleeper of sorts, but that evaluation was put to the test when Wilson was benched entering Week 17.
Stidham started two games, winning the first and losing the second. Along the way, he failed to "spark" the Broncos' offense as Payton had hoped, leaving many fans to wonder where that leaves the quarterback position for 2024.
For Stidham's part, while he was slightly reticent to lay claim to the Broncos' starting job following the team's loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, by the next morning, he was expressing confidence that he "can the guy" as he cleaned out his locker back in Denver.
"I'm very confident that I can be the guy for us next year; I have no doubts about that,'' Stidham said via ESPN's Jeff Legwold. "I'm going to continue to work as hard as possible ... I'm excited for the opportunity for sure.''
In his two-game audition to close out this season, Stidham completed 60.6% of his passes for 496 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. He was sacked seven times, out-pacing Wilson's average of being sacked thrice per game, which is concerning.
The sample size with Stidham was exceedingly small, however. Whether he'd set the NFL on fire to close out the season like Matt Flynn did back in 2011, who earned a massive free-agent contract the following spring, or turned in a rather pedestrian body of work, as was the case, two games might not be enough to get a full bead on Stidham.
Combined with his previous NFL stops, including New England and Las Vegas, nothing I saw from Stidham as a Bronco implied to me that he's deserving of being tapped as the team's QB1 entering the 2024 offseason. However, Payton could view the situation differently, and the veteran offensive coach does have a successful track record of making hay with journeymen quarterbacks.
Meanwhile, the salary-cap-strapped Broncos are sitting on six selections in the 2024 NFL draft, including the No. 12 overall pick. It might be time for Payton to draft and develop a quarterback for the first time in his NFL head-coaching career.
Payton saw something in Drew Brees that no other team did back in the 2006 free-agency cycle. That led to Brees experiencing a career renaissance in the Big Easy under Payton, and the New Orleans Saints going on to win a Super Bowl and establish one of the winningest programs in the NFL.
As Brees aged, injuries became a bigger part of the picture, which necessitated that Payton turn his considerable coaching expertise to other quarterbacks while his starter recuperated. Payton had short-term success with quarterbacks like Teddy Bridgewater, Trevor Siemian, Taysom Hill, and Jameis Winston in New Orleans.
While Payton's resume with the quarterbacks listed above is admirable, the criticism is that none panned out as the future in New Orleans. But it's extremely unlikely that Brees would have gone on to build a Hall-of-Fame resume without Payton. Those two needed each other to thrive in that situation.
However, the fact of the matter is Payton has never drafted and developed a quarterback. Hill is the closest thing Payton has to a developmental success story at quarterback, but a.) he went undrafted back in 2017, b.) he initially signed with Green Bay, and c.) he was utilized more as a gadget offensive weapon than a bonafide starting quarterback.
Hill has started games, including 26 under Payton back in New Orleans, but it was clear that Payton never viewed him as a true answer at quarterback, as evidenced by the Saints ultimately throwing in with Winston in 2021 — the first season after Brees' retirement.
Meanwhile, the Broncos haven't successfully developed a first-round quarterback, arguably, since Jay Cutler, who was drafted back in 2006, only to be traded in 2009 on the heels of his first Pro Bowl nod by Josh McDaniels. There have been other highly-drafted Broncos quarterbacks, including Tim Tebow in 2010, Brock Osweiler (2012), Paxton Lynch (2016), and Drew Lock (2019), but none have developed into a sure-fire franchise guy.
Tebow perhaps came the closest, as imperfect as he was. But even after that wild, miraculous 2011 campaign, then-GM John Elway couldn't wait to throw in on the Peyton Manning free-agent sweepstakes the following spring, which the Broncos won.
With the team unofficially waiving the white flag on the Wilson experiment, the onus is on Payton to solve what has been the big lingering personnel hole that has plagued the Broncos since Manning hung up his cleats. Sitting on a relatively high first-round pick and the first Day 1 selection the Broncos have had since before the Wilson trade, Payton will at least get the opportunity to draft and develop a quarterback.
Where Stidham would fit in with a rookie QB is hard to say. At best, he could be asked to start the first few games of the 2024 season while the rookie learns the ropes. At worst, he could be relegated back to his career-long station holding a clipboard on the sideline.
Time will tell. Perhaps we'll get an inkling of how Payton really feels about Stidham when he holds his end-of-season press conference on Tuesday afternoon. I doubt it, though.
More must-reads: