After a less-than-stellar beginning to his NFL career, Zach Wilson finds himself in a new football home with new coaches and teammates. The former New York Jets' No. 2 overall selection in the 2021 NFL draft may have flamed out after three years, but Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos took a chance on him, acquiring him via trade in April for what amounts to a late-round pick swap.
The deal was made before the 2024 NFL draft, where the Broncos would go on to select Oregon quarterback Bo Nix at No. 12 overall. Nix instantly became Payton's priority, but the savvy veteran coach still has a plan for Wilson, and it starts with rebuilding his confidence, according to one league insider.
"They're trying to regain his confidence again," ESPN's Jeremy Fowler said recently. "I'm told he's in a positive state of mind."
Fowler also reported that Wilson is "in the mix" for the Broncos' starting quarterback job, which is not news for those in the know locally. As it stands, Payton has postured a three-way competition for Denver's coveted QB1 job, between Nix, Wilson, and the incumbent, Jarrett Stidham.
I would hope Wilson is in a "positive state of mind." After all, he's been given the opportunity to compete for the QB1 in Denver despite a lackluster NFL resume as a starter.
NFL pragmatists understand that it's not a question of if Nix will be Payton's guy, but when. With two young veterans on the roster, the Broncos have the option of going with one of them to open the season, but even though Payton has historically been a net positive for every quarterback he's coached, the team surely understands that going with Wilson or Stidham is a relative dead end.
If there's a quarterback on this roster with the wherewithal to lead the Broncos out of the NFL doldrums — after eight long years of missing the playoffs — his name is Bo Nix. Still, considering Payton's golden track record of significantly helping quarterbacks exceed expectations, there's reason to believe that a wounded fledgling like Wilson could see his stock rise in the Mile High City.
But entering a contract year, and knowing that Denver just invested heavily in a 24-year-old first-round quarterback, Wilson's relative shelf life is short. Payton knows that. The former BYU star isn't exactly Payton's hand-picked guy.
Wilson went through the Big Apple meat grinder. As a former top-2 pick, he couldn't handle the pressure, and he now carries the ignominious "bust" label.
So why did the Broncos acquire Wilson via trade if the beginning of the Nix era is only a matter of time? Call it a hedge, and a blind one at that.
Sitting on the No. 12 overall pick, the Broncos were committed to emerging from Day 1 of the draft with a quarterback, but weeks in advance, there was no way to guarantee it would happen. So, staring down the barrel of a quarterback room (at the time) headlined by Stidham and the now-unemployed Ben DiNucci, the Broncos worked on a deal with the Jets over a six-week span, still feeling confident they'd get their guy in the draft.
When Nix fell to Denver at No. 12, that reset Payton's priority list. But that doesn't mean the Wilson deal was a wasted trade. It's a nice hedge in the event of an unforeseen setback relative to Nix's development.
“We just felt like, ‘Man, we’d love to work with this guy,'" Payton said last week of the Wilson trade. "[We] felt the investment was worth it relative to his skill set and his talent. So it took a while. We spent the better part of a month and a half working on that trade.”
Wilson has been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed since arriving in Denver. Being back in the Rocky Mountains seems to be a breath of fresh air for the Utah native.
Payton has maintained his credibility within the locker room by giving his trio of quarterbacks equal bites at the first-team apple. So far, we've heard a lot about Nix. Payton has gushed about him at every opportunity, using superlatives to report on his rookie's progress.
Payton hasn't talked about Stidham much at all, but that could have more to do with the local press not taking an interest in him than it is a failure to perform with the first-team offense. Meanwhile, Wilson has received positivity and support from Payton when at the podium, but his one-and-only practice as the first-team quarterback (that was open to the media) generated yikes-type reactions on Twitter.
Nix has been as advertised. He owns the NCAA record for the most career starts (61), split between his three seasons at Auburn and two at Oregon. That experience, combined with his talent, has set him up well to open his NFL career.
The cherry on top is Nix's fit with Payton schematically and philosophically, which has seen the Heisman Trophy finalist hit the ground running. The arrow still points to Nix being the Broncos starter in 2024, but in the meantime, Payton will continue his therapeutic mission to rebuild Wilson's confidence.
The high-profile nature of Wilson's draft pedigree will continue to keep him in the national conversation. That is, until Payton dispenses with the "open competition" thing and does what everyone knows he's always planned to do, and names Nix the Broncos' starting quarterback.
