NFL free agency is almost upon us, and that means it’s time to do a quick overview of the entire Denver Broncos roster.
In this series, we will be going position-by-position (except for special teams) through every player on the roster to analyze how everyone performed in 2024, what problems need to be tackled this offseason, and what solutions Denver should look to.
The aim is to have this done by March 11, which will require a lot of writing, but it’s time to get things rolling for the offseason.
Without further ado, here’s your in-depth offseason preview of the Denver Broncos’ quarterback room.
Bo Nix
How did 2024 go for Nix?
This past season was a rousing success for Bo Nix. He turned in one of the most productive rookie seasons in NFL history and would have won Offensive Rookie of the Year if not for going up against arguably the best rookie seasons we’ve ever seen from a quarterback and a tight end.
That’s obviously a great campaign for any first-year player, but it’s especially impressive in this case, considering the football cognoscenti’s remarkably low expectations for Nix and his ugly first month of the season.
Nix’s capacity for growth and continued improvement is an underrated skill in the NFL. Nix demonstrated it with the tremendous development he achieved during his lengthy college career, and he continued to showcase it during his first pro season, taking a larger leap from Week 1 to now than any of his rookie signal-caller peers.
Combining that trait with his better-than-advertised mobility and arm strength gives Nix a much higher ceiling than was projected pre-draft, and we’ve already seen that his floor is pretty damn high.
2+ minutes of Bo Nix's arm beating defenders to windows, working closing MOF windows, working far hash concepts and launching throws downfield. pic.twitter.com/Hgu5BgEATw
— Robby (@Robby_NFL) January 10, 2025
Now, there’s a lot more he needs to prove and improve, but the first 18 games couldn’t have gone a whole lot better
Grade: B+
What needs to be addressed this offseason?
To make the 2025 campaign the best it can be, there are three things for the Denver Broncos and Bo Nix need to address.
First is the area on every fan’s mind — upgrading Nix’s supporting cast. The Broncos have an elite pass-protecting line and adequate receiver talent, but they lack a true No. 1 pass-catching threat, they’re devoid of a difference-making running back, and the tight end group might be the worst in football. Adding some legitimately threatening weapons would make Denver’s attack dramatically more potent.
The next two are areas Nix has to either prove or improve in his own game, the mere idea of which is sacrilegious to some in Broncos Country. Nonetheless, it’s necessary to confront the reality that this rookie quarterback actually isn’t some flawless deity immune to criticism.
We didn’t see Nix operate a whole lot of true dropback passing scenarios. The Broncos leaned on a lot of play action, RPOs and schemed-up looks, which is far from unusual for inexperienced NFL quarterbacks, but removing those training wheels from the bike is the next step in mastery. Like a child learning to ride a bike, this isn’t to say that Nix can’t operate without the training wheels, but, before we proclaim him capable of doing so, we need to see it.
Finally, an area in need of legitimate improvement — Nix’s extremely poor play under pressure.
This was covered up some by how great Denver’s line was at preventing pressure, as the rookie experienced a clean pocket at the fourth-highest rate out of 36 qualifying quarterbacks in 2024 (72.0%). Unfortunately, when things got muddy, Nix’s play quickly got messy.
| Adj. Comp. % | TD:INT | BTT% | TWP% | Passer Rating | EPA/DB | |
| Bo Nix Kept Clean | 81.2% (11th of 36) | 3.4:1 (14th) | 3.8% (21st) | 1.4% (24th) | 103.1 (17th) | +0.18 (22nd) |
| Bo Nix Under Pressure | 59.6% (29th) | 1:1 (27th) | 2.7% (28th) | 3.0% (28th) | 62.1 (28th) | -0.55 (29th) |
Adj. Comp. % is Adjusted Completion Percentage (completion percentage that doesn’t count drops or throwaways); TD:INT is Touchdown to Interception ratio; BTT% is the rate at which the QB is making an exceptional throw; TWP% is the rate at which the QB is making a turnover-worthy play; EPA/DB is EPA per dropback
When kept clean, Nix was a fine starting quarterback relative to the rest of the league — middling, but about what you expect from a strong rookie year. That said, he was much worse than the NFL’s other starters when the heat came.
His drop-off was also more dramatic than most. Every quarterback in the NFL is worse under pressure, but only seven had a steeper cliff between their EPA per dropback when kept clean and their EPA per dropback when under pressure.
Also, those seven quarterbacks were all much worse at mitigating sacks than Nix, which is worth noting. In EPA, the negative value of taking three sacks is about the same as the negative value created by an interception. Nix had the eighth-lowest sack rate when under pressure, while the quarterbacks with a more dramatic drop-off ranked 10th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st, and 32nd in that metric, with Matthew Stafford being the only player in Nix’s ballpark.
For Nix to find himself in the same EPA neighborhood as the other six, without the sacks, the passing plays have to be much less positive than what his peers are producing.
This is further illustrated by Stafford, Nix’s lone compatriot in the culdesac with a similar sack rate. Making up for Stafford’s lack of sacks is the fact that he has the worst touchdown-to-interception ratio under pressure (two touchdowns and six interceptions) of these 36 quarterbacks.
To his credit, Nix doesn’t have many explosively negative plays on his resume, but, to wind up in the same region as these quarterbacks with so many of those extremely damaging plays, he has to be lacking the extremely positive plays those players are creating. Now, avoiding disaster is half the equation, and it’s great to see Nix has that part down, but he still needs to add the other half, especially because it’s unlikely the Broncos boast the league’s best pass-blocking line every year of the young QB’s career.
Narrowing that gap and creating more positive plays when pressured is critical to Nix taking the next step in his development this upcoming season.
What should the Broncos do?
Thankfully, all these problems could potentially share a solution.
If the Broncos are able to add a difference-making weapon, everything will get much easier for Nix, and the supporting cast will, of course, be improved in the process.
First, having a dynamic force to target in the passing game can simplify a lot of those pure dropback situations. If a quarterback gets a confusing look or is unsure about the right answer on a given play, it’s a massive help to have a Ja’Marr Chase, Travis Kelce, or Alvin Kamara that can bail you out and make them right when their processing doesn’t.
The same exact thing can be said about having an unblocked rusher charging right at the quarterback. Having a stone-cold killer, who the quarterback can target at the drop of a hat, without hesitation, is incredibly valuable. Plus, creating positive explosives isn’t solely on the quarterback, and the Broncos don’t have many weapons who can create those moments on their own. Adding even one would seriously shrink the variance between the pressured and unpressured versions of Nix.
Jarrett Stidham
How did 2024 go for Stidham?
Jarrett Stidham made it apparent this past summer that he wasn’t necessarily looking to just be a backup for the rest of his career and wanted to seize the chance to become a starter in Denver.
Stidham wound up empty-handed, and Nix cemented himself as the Denver Broncos starting quarterback for at least 2025, and likely through the end of his five-year rookie deal.
As the team’s backup quarterback, Stidham barely saw the field this season. He only had one dropback all season, which came in the closing moments of the Broncos’ Week 18 blowout victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, and it resulted in a scramble instead of an attempted pass.
Before this season, Stidham had a real chance to establish himself as one of the league’s high-end backups with starter potential, and now he seems doomed to exist as a backup quarterback with little perceived upside.
Grade: D
What needs to be addressed this offseason?
With his contract expiring this offseason, Stidham is set to leave the Denver Broncos in free agency. That said, it’s hard to imagine his availability spurring a bidding war.
If the Broncos want him back as a fairly inexpensive backup who’s familiar with the offensive scheme and pieces, Stidham is a very sensible option. The big knock here is that it’s hard to see Denver getting anything more than a middling No. 2 out of this investment, while other options have more upside.
What should the Broncos do?
Stidham is an intriguing option that Denver should keep in its back pocket, but a backup quarterback like Zach Wilson — who should also be relatively inexpensive, has familiarity with the offensive infrastructure, and offers upside potential — would be more appealing, so long as the move isn’t too expensive.
Zach Wilson
How did 2024 go for Wilson?
As the old saying goes, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
There’s now a very real chance the Broncos are out-bid for Zach Wilson, as some poor NFL team looks to recreate the Sam Darnold or Baker Mayfield reclamation projects. That’s remarkable to think about when considering the Jets practically had to beg the rest of the league to take him off their hands just 11 months ago, and that Wilson didn’t play a single regular-season snap this season.
His stock price has gone up simply because of his public image rehabilitation and the aforementioned successes of Darnold and Mayfield. He was a good soldier throughout his Denver tenure, and head coach Sean Payton gushed about him on multiple occasions, dispelling some of the reputation he got during his first stint with the Jets.
It’s hard to imagine Wilson’s 2024 having gone much better honestly.
Beating out Stidham for the No. 2 job would have been nice, but finances made that an uphill climb from the jump. It would have been nice if he could have put out some good regular-season tape, but he at least tore up the preseason (28-for-44 for 397 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions), and seems to have established a quality relationship with Nix.
This is gold.
— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) November 8, 2024
Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Zach Wilson getting asked by their wives/fiance “questions only girls should know”
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/LdHdJO1Ptx
Grade: C+
What needs to be addressed this offseason?
Zach Wilson is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and his future is currently up in the air.
Based on the quality relationship he seems to have with both Nix and Payton, a reunion where Wilson assumes the backup job is easy to picture. Wilson also might be more appealing to the Broncos because, even if Wilson doesn’t get any bites during this free-agent cycle, he could quickly garner attention, if given regular-season snaps.
As Darnold has proven, NFL general managers hold onto their pre-draft perceptions of a player deep into that player’s career, even after they’ve failed elsewhere. Numerous GMs had Wilson ranked ahead of ‘generational’ prospect Trevor Lawrence, so he likely still has his supporters scattered across the league’s front offices.
While that could make him an appealing investment for Denver, it could also easily make him an overly expensive asset for a team with an established young starter.
What should the Broncos do?
This past offseason, Darnold, Gardner Minshew, and Jacoby Brissett signed deals worth annual averages of $10 million, $12.5 million, and $8 million, respectively. Adjusted for this season’s 9.32% inflation of the salary cap, that would give you a range of roughly $8.75 million to $13.65 million.
That’s what the veteran market for ‘low-end starter, high-end backup’ looks like in the NFL, and if Wilson’s value escalates to that range, the Broncos would be smart to bow out. The Minnesota Vikings, Las Vegas Raiders and New England Patriots all signed those aforementioned deals when they had murky futures at quarterback. Denver doesn’t have that problem.
Instead, Denver should shop in the Carson Wentz and Tyrod Taylor aisle, ranging between $2.5 million and $6 million in average annual value ($2.75 million to $6.55 million when adjusted for cap inflation)
If Wilson’s price tag stays in that latter range, the Broncos should bring him back in hopes they can further rehabilitate his image to eventually flip him for some form of draft capital down the line.
