The Denver Broncos are hoping to make the Super Bowl with their backup quarterback, but the coaching staff has seen a lot more behind the scenes to feel confident.
The Denver Broncos are hoping to knock off the New England Patriots in Sunday’s AFC Championship game and make the Super Bowl, despite losing starting quarterback Bo Nix for the season. It was situation that Broncos fans, and the team itself, barely had any time to process, with Nix breaking his ankle on the second-to-last play of overtime in the Divisional Round. In his place, the relatively unknown backup Jarrett Stidham will take his place and look to lead Denver to their first ring under head coach Sean Payton. Stidham hasn’t thrown a single pass this season and has one game appearance.
His teammates have faith in him, but it doesn’t erase the fact that he has little to no experience this season, with his last pass attempt outside the preseason coming in 2023 when he replaced Russell Wilson. However, Payton signed three players shortly after free agency began in his first season as the Broncos head coach. The third was Stidham. Payton is certainly one of the coaches in the league who pays attention to the backup role. He influenced the need to have a credible QB2 on the roster when Drew Brees went down in 2019 and Teddy Bridgewater went 5-0 in his place. If Payton wasn’t confident in Stidham, he would’ve sought out a veteran before they were locked into this reality. Ultimately, the only ones who know what he can do and what he has in him are the coaching staff, his teammates, and those involved in his journey to the NFL.
Here is the full story from Broncos Roundtable writer Zach Carver on the “NFL’s mystery man” and what those from Stidham’s past had to say about his potential on Sunday.
Stidham, despite being out of game-action for a while, doesn’t play to alert his preparation or routine outside of increased starter reps, and that gives him the best chance of being himself Sunday. The relative mystery will now be one of the most important players on the field on Sunday in the AFC Championship and will take the spotlight for better or worse. One player won’t decide a game. But the signal caller matters a lot. It’s clear that he has the buy-in from the locker room to have the confidence to compete for a ring.