The Broncos are heading into training camp with a backup quarterback competition that actually matters this time.
Jarrett Stidham still sits No. 2 on the depth chart for now, but unlike when he arrived in Denver in 2023, the job is not being treated like his by default. Sam Ehlinger has been given a real shot to win it in camp and the preseason.
That change traces back to two things that fit together neatly. Bo Nix injured his ankle at the worst possible time, just as the Broncos were getting ready to host the AFC championship game.
It was the first time he had missed any action since arriving as a first-round pick in 2024. At the same time, the Broncos were so confident Stidham could keep things steady that Sean Payton’s comments during the week-long buildup to the AFC title game against the New England Patriots gave fans and local media a false sense of security.
Then the game started, and Stidham’s night fell apart. After a decent opening stretch, he unraveled quickly and played a direct role in the Broncos losing the AFC championship game at home. The Broncos’ shot at the Super Bowl was gone.
Maybe that performance changed how Payton and the team view Stidham. Whatever the reason, the result is the same: the backup job is wide open this summer.
Ehlinger made his case well during the four offseason practices open to the media. He looked more settled and more in command than he did during his first Broncos offseason in 2025, which tracks with a year in the system behind him.
On paper, the two quarterbacks are close in terms of experience. Stidham has five career starts, including playoffs, and is 1-4.
Ehlinger has three, all losses. Stidham has also been in the league longer, entering in 2019 compared with Ehlinger’s 2021.
The real difference comes when the play breaks down. Stidham is more athletic than he gets credit for, but that hasn’t consistently shown up in his game.
He’s a pocket quarterback, and when things go sideways, he can get rattled. That was on display in the AFC title game.
Ehlinger is built differently. Like Nix, he does his best work when he can move.
OTAs and minicamp don’t give him much chance to create outside the pocket, but training camp and especially the preseason should. That’s where he gets a chance to separate himself.
Stidham does have an edge in one important area: he knows Payton’s offense better, and he has more standing in the locker room. That matters a lot for a backup.
Coaches want confidence that if the next man up has to play, he can command the room and get teammates to follow him. Stidham, by all appearances, checks that box.
Ehlinger may need to prove he can do the same. That part of the competition could end up being a quiet but significant piece of the summer, because it’s not just about throwing the ball well. It’s about earning buy-in.
As quarterbacks, neither one is far above the other. The gap is small, and there’s a reason both are backups.
But Denver needs more certainty behind Nix this year than it has in the past, especially with Nix coming back from a broken ankle. Even with optimism around his return, there’s no clean way to know how a player will respond after an injury like that, and this is the third fracture of Nix’s right ankle in his playing career.
The veterans report to training camp on July 28, and that’s when this starts to get real. Nix’s return to full-speed practice will be the main storyline, but the Stidham-Ehlinger battle is the one worth watching closely.
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