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Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – Squarely in the eye of a three-man competition to be the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, rookie Bo Nix said Saturday he wants to make certain he gives Broncos coach Sean Payton every reason to pick him for the job.
Nix, who is competing with Jarrett Stidham and former New York Jets’ first-round pick Zach Wilson to open the season behind center, was asked after Saturday’s practice if he was prepared “to accept” a decision to be the team’s backup if Payton’s eventually chose Stidham or Wilson instead.
“Well, I don’t know if I have a choice on that one, if I want to stick around I better accept it,” Nix said. “But I also don’t necessarily want to become complacent and say ‘you know what, it’s my rookie year, I’m OK with sitting back and learning.’ … They’ll play me when I’m ready so I’m going to do my best to get ready.”
The Broncos open the regular season Sept. 9 against the Seattle Seahawks in Lumen Field and Nix said he did hope the game would be “where my NFL journey takes off and we’re going to be ready to roll.”
Nix, Stidham and Wilson split the work with the starters equally this week – the Broncos’ first week of training camp. Given that rotation, Nix is, after a player day off Sunday, expected to be with the starters for the majority of Monday’s practice.
Monday’s practice will be the first for the Broncos in this camp when the team is in full pads. Stidham got the majority of the work with the starters Saturday as Nix had his first interception of training camp in red zone work before he later bounced back with a touchdown throw to Courtland Sutton.
Payton said Saturday the rotation for the three will stay the same for the moment, but it will get adjusted as the Aug. 11 preseason opener against the Indianapolis Colts approaches.
“The rotation has been pretty consistent,” Payton said. “But I think that will begin to change a little bit as we get into the next week and a half, two weeks.”
The Broncos have missed the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons since their Super Bowl 50 win with a high-speed carousel at quarterback. Twelve different quarterbacks – 13 different players overall – have opened games behind center in those eight years.
Payton benched the last potential long-term solution at the position last season when he sat Russell Wilson down for the last two weeks of the season when Stidham got the two starts to close out 2023. The Broncos then released Wilson in March and general manager George Paton said Nix, who the Broncos selected with the No. 12 pick of the April draft, was one of six quarterbacks the Broncos had first-round grades on in this year’s draft.
The 24-year-old Nix, who played in 61 college games, is also the first quarterback Payton’s team has selected in the first round of a draft in his long tenure as a head coach. Nix said Saturday the three quarterbacks all understand only one of them will get the job they each want.
“You owe it to respect the other guys in the competition too, they also want to be the starter too and they also are going to have to accept (Payton’s decision),” Nix said. “Whatever they decide that’s what we’re going with.”
Stidham, who organized workouts in Dallas with the other quarterback as well as some of the running backs and pass catchers before camp opened, may have spoken for all three of the quarterbacks when asked about the day-to-day competition.
“It’s a healthy thing,” Stidham said. “It’s one of those things, every year, their job upstairs is to bring in people they think can help the football team and guys that are on the team their job is to keep their job.”