It shouldn’t come as much of a shock, but Mike Klis of 9NEWS has it absolutely right. Bo Nix is either going to be the Denver Broncos‘ starting quarterback or the immediate backup, not the emergency guy. Klis wrote that, in the three-man race for the Broncos starting job between the rookie Nix, the incumbent Jarrett Stidham and the veteran newcomer Zach Wilson, Nix will finish first or second.

Klis’ intel suggests that the Broncos are rotating all three quarterbacks through the ones, twos and threes evenly, meaning Nix is not getting as many reps with the ones and twos as he should. In time, he believes that the No. 3 option will emerge, and that will be settled. The goal is for Nix to either beat out Stidham or not for the starting job in camp. All signs point to Wilson being the third-stringer here.

Because head coach Sean Payton will have final say in who gets to be the starting quarterback for his team, that leads me to believe that it will end up being Nix sooner rather than later. Again, Stidham is the best option at quarterback for the Broncos right now, but a lot can change between now and the end of the season. Nix was drafted No. 12 overall because he was so pro-ready. Well, is he really that?

With Nix either going to be the No. 1 or No. 2 option, him being the latter signifies a massive problem.

Admittedly, I am still trying to figure out what the Broncos are trying to do more often than not. They entered the 2024 NFL Draft with Stidham as their best quarterback, drafted Nix, and left the draft with Stidham as their best quarterback. He may be the most experienced of the three quarterbacks Denver has on its roster, but he is what he is, in that Stidham has already hit his relatively finite ceiling.

Nix needs to be given every opportunity to prove that he can be the Week 1 starter for the Broncos. His upside is greater than Stidham’s, but not by much. He was drafted 12th overall out of Oregon because he was apparently so pro-ready. The Pittsburgh Steelers got them into the same type of nonsense when they reached on local product Kenny Pickett out of Pitt only two offseasons ago.

The biggest difference is that Nix was not a one-year wonder in college. He was great during his two-year run at Oregon. While he was exceptionally mid while at Auburn, Nix did show a few flashes of brilliance playing for his father’s school, albeit very few. While Nix is not going to reinvent the wheel in Denver, he should be able to bring competence to the quarterback position the team has long lacked.

It will only be a problem Nix is unable to take the starting job from Stidham deep into the NFL season.