The Denver Broncos are having a weird Monday.
First, they unveiled a set of new uniforms that make a three-time Super Bowl champion look like a lesser Mountain West program. Then, they went out and traded for Zach Wilson, a quarterback whose three seasons with the New York Jets portray him as the kind of player solely capable of making teams worse.
Granted, Wilson wasn’t an expensive addition. Acquiring him only cost a swap of late round draft picks and included the caveat New York pay a meaningful chunk of his $5.5 million salary. But barring a massive and unexpected turnaround, it won’t solve any of the Broncos problems.
Denver heads into 2024 staring down a potential disaster behind center. 2023 starter Russell Wilson was released despite a historic salary cap penalty for embodying too many weird Russell Wilson qualities and not enough of the good ones.
Returning to the fold is Jarrett Stidham, who has more seasons in the NFL (five) than starts (four) and a career passer rating of 78.3 (Brock Osweiler’s, for comparison, is 78.0). Next up is Wilson, who played three years in New York and ranked among the Jets’ top three quarterbacks in just one of those years (his competition was Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian). The obvious solution here is adding a promising rookie at the draft.
That’s going to be a rough sled. The Broncos could trade their way into the top tier of quarterback prospects but, whoops, maybe they can’t.
Their second round pick belongs to the New Orleans Saints as compensation for hiring Sean Payton. The cost to rise from 12th to the top three was already going to be prohibitive. It’ll take even more of an overpay without an immediate top 50 pick to throw in as a sweetener. Even then, they’d likely be bidding against the Minnesota Vikings (two first round picks in 2024, including the 11th overall) and other needy teams.
The most likely situation is either Denver stands pat at No. 12 and adds a passer there, or trades back to address other needs (there are several) and slides to a place where it’s a little more logical to take a non-top-four QB. Either way, the best rookie for which the Broncos can hope is probably either Bo Nix or Michael Penix Jr..
Which means their training camp quarterback room would look like this:
- Jarrett Stidham (incumbent starter, somehow)
- Zach Wilson
- Ben Dinucci
- Bo Nix/Michael Penix Jr./Rookie QB X
- the smoking crater Russell Wilson’s $35.4 million in dead salary cap space left behind
Gross! There are other iffy situations across the league. The New England Patriots currently have Bailey Zappe, Jacoby Brissett and Nathan Rourke under contract. The Washington Commanders have Marcus Mariota, Jake Fromm and Jeff Driskel. The Vikings are desperate enough for competence that they staked a $10 million bet on Sam by-god Darnold.
But each of those teams has the draft assets to at least instill some legitimate hope for 2024 and beyond. The Broncos are in worse shape. Adding Zach Wilson is a sensible move from an operational standpoint. But in terms of vibes, it’s just another punchline for a team that’s been laughed at since Peyton Manning retired.