The Denver Broncos reportedly are down to a battle between two quarterbacks for the QB1 job this fall. The Broncos came into training camp with a three-way competition for the starting job, but their most talented quarterback is out of the race in early August.

The Broncos overhauled their quarterback room this offseason after they released Russell Wilson. They traded for former New York Jets first-round pick Zach Wilson and selected Bo Nix with the No. 12 pick in the draft. Those two started competing at OTAs with 2023 Broncos holdover Jarrett Stidham.

Jarrett Stidham knows the offense the best

Stidham knows the offense the best. Nix is the future long-term starter for the Broncos. Wilson came into Denver needed to resurrect his career under the tutelage of quarterback guru Sean Payton. Wilson was considered the most talented quarterback of the three this spring, but he’s quickly falling behind in training camp.

Zach Wilson is falling behind at training camp

According to Nick Kosmider with The Athletic, Wilson has had good moments in training camp. Still, he’s been too inconsistent with deep-ball accuracy and has issues adapting to pressure. He’s falling out of the race for the QB1 job, as Wilson isn’t getting enough reps with the first team to stay in contention with Nix and Stidham:

Broncos coach Sean Payton hasn’t announced it officially, but Zach Wilson has fallen out of the race for the starting job. Wilson, acquired in a trade with the Jets in April, has had only one turn with the first-team offense in 10 practices. That came more than one week ago. Rookie Bo Nix and veteran holdover Jarrett Stidham took turns running the top offense in the other nine practices.

Payton said nothing in the competition “is etched in stone” at this point, but the distribution of the reps tells us all we need to know about where the race stands. This is Nix vs. Stidham.

“It’s hard to rotate three (quarterbacks) through the first group,” Payton said.

The three-quarterback rotation wasn’t going to last long in training camp. Wilson needed to show major improvement in his knowledge and ability to run Payton’s offense after the summer break. He didn’t, and it’ll be a while before the former No. 2 overall pick plays in a regular season game again.

Bo Nix will be the Denver Broncos QB1 eventually

The Broncos like where Nix is at with his progression with the offense. He doesn’t know the ins and outs of the offense like Stidham, but if he can sponge that knowledge up in the next month, he has a good chance to overtake Stidham for the QB1 gig.

Wilson is the clear QB3 at this point. Frankly, he’ll have to advance quickly in preseason to earn even the QB2 job. In year four, Wilson should understand how to handle pressure. While Wilson has a talented arm, he’s struggling with concepts that rookies are expected to learn in year one.