3 Broncos players who need to bounce back after brutal preseason debut

2. Jarrett Stidham, QB

The Denver Broncos gave Jarrett Stidham a two-year deal in free agency worth $10 million in total money. As of the team's first preseason game, that looks like an irresponsible way to spend the Walton-Penner Ownership Group's money. Stidham was awful in the Denver Broncos' preseason opener, completing just five of his 15 passes with an interception.

He threw for just 50 yards in the game total and while we did see some interesting things from Stidham using his legs and running the ball, we expected far more from him as a passer. The Broncos' top two quarterbacks were pressured an absurd amount in the game against Arizona, so perhaps Stidham was struggling from that vantage point. But the fact remains, we all expected this guy to be much better after all of the offseason hype.

Sean Payton said that Stidham had the tools and trajectory of a possible starter in the league. Chris Simms of NBC Sports went on record saying that Stidham is one of the top 32 QBs in the NFL right now.

Not to disrespect the Arizona Cardinals, but their roster is so bad that I would have expected even Stidham and the Broncos backups to carve them up a little bit. That obviously didn't happen.

Stidham desperately needs to bounce back against the 49ers this coming week and it just so happens he played probably the best game of his pro career against this team last season. Albeit, that was significantly different with Stidham throwing to the likes of Davante Adams, but it was also much higher stakes.

And that was the game that likely sold Sean Payton and the Broncos that Stidham could perhaps do that on a consistent basis. I think we're fixing to see Stidham have a big bounce-back game against the 49ers this week, and he needs it.