ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—A toasty, two-and-a-half hour session was waiting for me in my first camp back from the West Coast. Here’s what the Broncos showed me …
• The quarterback competition could last a while longer—I would guess at this point that Sean Payton will want to see the guys play in at least one, and maybe two preseason games before making a final call. That said, Payton did narrow things a bit over the last day or two, with the lion’s share of the first-team reps in at Wednesday’s practice going to Jarrett Stidham, the incumbent in this race, and first-rounder Bo Nix. It’s been communicated to Zach Wilson that he’s not out of it yet, and the team does have over a week left before going to Indy for the preseason opener. Nix, for his part, has picked up the offense fast. His football aptitude, work ethic and leadership, as a guy who started 60 college games, has been apparent to his coaches and the team’s veterans alike.
• There’s a good chance the team will lean on the run game early, and so the emerging depth at tailback has been a nice development for the Broncos. Javonte Williams, who shed 10 pounds this offseason, looks quicker and is another year removed from his ACL surgery. And fifth-round pick Audric Estime has been one of the stars of camp thus far. Estime’s 40 time killed his draft stock, but the Broncos’ dive into some of his analytics (he had the most 15-yard-plus runs, most yards after contact, and fewest negative runs of any back in the draft) buoyed their decision to take him, and he’s been even better than they figured he’d be. And with veteran Samaje Perine in the mix, too, what should be a rugged ground attack is built for a 17-game season.
• Of course, a big part of that will have to be the offensive line, and that group has a big question to answer in the coming weeks: Who will replace Lloyd Cushenberry at center? Luke Wattenberg (a 2022 fifth-rounder) and Alex Forsyth (a 2023 seventh-rounder and ex-Oregon teammate of Nix’s) are battling for the job, and how that one plays out will go a long way in determining how far the line can take the offense.
• Where the last couple years Denver has detached itself from the core of the Vic Fangio Era and gone into rebuild mode, there’s now a little more depth and competition across the roster, and that’s apparent both at receiver and at corner. Among the wideouts, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick and Marvin Mims are leading the way, but Josh Reynolds is having a real nice summer, and rookies Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele are pushing for real roles in the fall. At corner, the competition to play opposite all-world DB Patrick Surtain II has heated up between 2022 fourth-rounder Damarri Mathis and 2023 third-rounder Riley Moss.
• Finally, I’d just say that I got the sense that Payton really likes the team he’s got. There’s a build ahead, of course. But he’s got a group that’s young, hungry and bought into a program that’s very demanding both mentally and physically. On the day I was there, it was nearly 100 degrees, and the Broncos went two-and-a-half hours and wrapped practice with a set of gassers. There was a really unfortunate situation mid-practice with well-liked tackle Quinn Bailey breaking his ankle, a gruesome injury that had some teammates shaken. But even after that, the Broncos were able to finish the day’s work at a really good pace. And for what it’s worth, Payton loves his rookie class, comparing it to the bumper crops he had in New Orleans in 2006 and '17.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Broncos Training Camp Takeaways: QB Competition Remains Unsettled.
