‘A deeper bond’: Broncos’ close-knit QB room playing key role in Bo Nix’s growth

arrett Stidham wasn’t guaranteed the starting quarterback job with the Denver Broncos when the offseason began. He knew he’d have nothing more than a chance to compete with the other players the team added to its quarterback room — trade acquisition Zach Wilson and first-round pick Bo Nix — once OTAs and training camp began.

What Stidham did have, though, for the first time in his career, was a chance to set the tone and tenor of the quarterback room. Stidham was now the elder statesman after playing behind established quarterbacks such as Tom Brady, Cam Newton, Derek Carr and Russell Wilson. And he knew the kind of environment he wanted to help cultivate, one that incorporated a lightness into a high-pressure job.

“I sort of made it mandatory, suggesting a Thursday night dinner, and we went with it,” Stidham said. “It’s the first year that I’ve done this. So it rotates. It started out at our house. Then, it went to Bo’s and Zach’s and then back to ours. The wives come and everything and we’re able to watch ‘Thursday Night Football,’ cook dinner, hang out, and it is so much fun. It’s not so much football-related. It’s just us hanging out and getting to know each other better.”

Sometimes the hosts will cook. Other times, food is ordered in. When Nix and his wife, Izzy, hosted one of the recent dinners, they catered a full hibachi experience at their house. The group tries to mix it up, but the idea is to create a space to decompress, if only for a few hours, amid the intense game week preparation.

One of the Thursday night hangouts went quasi-viral last month when Izzy posted a video on TikTok of the quarterbacks being quizzed by their significant others with “questions only girls know” about everything from dry shampoo to French-tip manicures.

“Obviously, we’ve been able to have relationships off the field with (our) wives and things like that, so we’re just a close group,” Nix said. “I think that plays an important role as this season goes on and gets longer and longer. It’s good to get away from football and joke around and not make it so serious all the time. They do a good job of balancing the football life with the off-the-field life.”

It has become such a valued part of the week for the quarterbacks and their significant others that anyone who forces the event to be canceled during a given week risks catching flack in the locker room.

“(Stidham and Wilson) were fussing at Bo … because he’s got family in town, so they’re not doing it tonight,” offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said Thursday as the Broncos prepared for Sunday’s critical showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. “So they were mad at him about that. I just think there’s a camaraderie with those guys. They get along and they’re unselfish. They’re rooting for each other. You spend so much time here that it helps to like each other. It can be miserable when you don’t get along.”

Stidham, in his sixth NFL season with his third team, understands the uniqueness of Denver’s quarterback situation this season. When Stidham entered the league as a fourth-round pick of the Patriots in 2019, Brady, then entering his final season in New England, was already 42. It wasn’t that Brady didn’t interact with and provide guidance to the team’s other quarterbacks, but he was at a different point in his life and his career. The same was true of Peyton Manning when he was the Broncos’ quarterback from 2012 to 2016. His routines were already well-established. Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow? Not exactly attached at the hip.

Then there was Joe Flacco, who in 2019, just months after signing a deal with the Broncos in free agency, made it clear he wasn’t going to be buddy-buddy with Denver’s rookie quarterback, Drew Lock.

“Listen, I have so many things to worry about,” Flacco said at the start of OTAs when asked how he would help mentor Lock. “I’m trying to go out there and play the best football of my life. As far as a time constraint and all of that stuff, I’m not worried about developing guys or any of that. That is what it is. I hope he does it well. I don’t look at that as my job. My job is to go win football games for this football team.”

Nix knows he walked into a different kind of situation — and he is grateful for it.

“I understand that I’m in a really good room,” he said. “First, it starts with our (coaches), coach (Sean) Payton down, all the coordinators and then Davis (Webb), our direct quarterbacks coach. He’s really good. He prepares us really well. It’s not common to have two (backups) that have had this much experience and can provide this much knowledge and learning to a rookie. I’ve been able to learn. So it’s definitely not common, and I appreciate it. Those two definitely know how big of a role they’ve played for me this year.”

Nix (24), Wilson (25) and Stidham (28) are all close in age. So, too, is Webb (29), the former NFL backup whose relationship with Stidham dates to their time as college quarterback prospects in Texas. When Webb gathered his group together shortly after the draft, knowing a quarterback battle was on the horizon, he established one of his few non-negotiables immediately. The competition aspect of their work couldn’t change how the quarterbacks supported one another. It set the stage for a collaborative environment that has been critical to Nix’s first-year success.

“We’re all kind of right there together (in age),” Stidham said. “It’s not like we have a 36-year-old or someone that’s been around super long with (older) kids. Because we’re so close in age, we’re able to give each other crap about certain things. But the thing with Davis is he can also relate really, really well. I think sometimes it’s hard to find that. The cool thing for us is if we see something on the field, and he’s saying, ‘Oh, why’d you do this,’ he’s able to say, ‘OK, that makes sense,’ if we explain ourselves, just because he’s been there and done that, and he did it two years ago. He brings a lot of fun to the room, for sure.”

Stidham and Wilson will be unrestricted free agents after the season. There’s no guarantee either will be back with the Broncos in 2025. With Nix established as Denver’s starting quarterback, both players could potentially eye opportunities to battle for starting jobs elsewhere. But those are considerations for the future. For now, the group is intent on enjoying as many more Thursday night hangouts as this season will allow.

“When you have that deeper connection and deeper bond, whenever you’re in the meeting room or the field and we’re helping each other or saying something to each other, we know that it’s coming out of a place of love,” Stidham said. “You just want to see them do their best and help them in every way possible. I think that’s gone a long way.”