Broncos' next big quarterback move could be a surprise trade

It's officially Bo Nix time for the Denver Broncos as head coach Sean Payton named his first-round quarterback his starting quarterback for the 2024 season. Nix was the 12th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and will be the first first-round pick by the team to start Week 1 in franchise history, and the first rookie quarterback to start Week 1 for the Denver Broncos since John Elway in 1983.

How's that for a little history already being made?

With Nix being named QB1 of the Denver Broncos officially, what can we expect next for the team at the quarterback position?

Jarrett Stidham, who replaced Russell Wilson as the team's starter at the end of last season, was signed by the Broncos in 2023 to a two-year contract worth $10 million and has been in "competition" with Bo Nix all offseason for the 2024 starting job in Denver. Even though the writing was seemingly on the wall from the moment the Broncos drafted Nix, Stidham was a necessary fail-safe and fallback plan in case Nix didn't look the way the Broncos anticipated he would.

Now that Nix is in the starting lineup, the immediate future of Stidham could potentially be up in the air.

Could the Denver Broncos trade Jarrett Stidham soon?

The Broncos could save $6 million in salary cap space -- nearly doubling their current cap space figure -- if they traded Stidham to another team. The good news for the Broncos, if they want to go that route, is that there should be no shortage of teams that would want to trade for Stidham.

Stidham would probably be the best quarterback on the New York Giants' roster right now. He also might be the best quarterback on the Minnesota Vikings' roster right now with JJ McCarthy injured. He'd be a massive upgrade in the QB2 slot for the Green Bay Packers, who currently have Sean Clifford in that position. The Los Angeles Rams are yet another team who could make some sense for Stidham.

Needless to say, there are a lot of teams out there who would probably love to have Stidham and could easily afford him on their salary cap. Not only that, but there are a lot of teams in the league who would now offer Stidham a better long-term situation in terms of earning a starting gig beyond this season.

It's not hard for the Broncos to justify trading Stidham, especially with how impressed Sean Payton has been with Zach Wilson recently. The Broncos could very well keep three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, and getting Stidham to a better situation doesn't necessarily need to be their priority right now.

Zach Wilson could easily be this team's QB2 for 2024, and it's sort of odd that more people aren't talking about it. Wilson has more starting experience than anyone in the quarterback room from his time with the New York Jets, and Payton is clearly enamored by his talent.

The Broncos could send Stidham off to a situation where he might be able to start for someone in 2024, add salary cap space, and possibly add a decent draft pick or two in the process. We'll see what happens in the next week or so, but keep this scenario on your radar.