Zach Wilson proving Broncos were right to trade for him this offseason

One quarterback who has earned his spot on the Broncos roster honestly never had anything to worry about.

There is no longer a search for a Denver Broncos starting quarterback as Bo Nix is him and was named the week one starter for the Broncos. That left the backup quarterback spot to be fought for between Zach Wilson and Jarrett Stidham. As roster cutdowns were looming after the 38-12 preseason beatdown of the Cardinals was complete at the hands of Wilson, head coach Sean Payton assured everyone that Wilson would make the 53-man roster, but it never was really in question.

Wilson was always going to make the 53-man roster since the Broncos traded for him before the 2024 draft. Payton himself said one of the reasons they orchestrated the trade was Wilson's talent. (It could be said that Wilson is the most talented quarterback on the roster). Scour every NFL roster, and tell me if you could find a quarterback in the backup spot with more sheer talent than Wilson, outside of maybe Sam Howell.

Payton has made a career out of taking quarterbacks that no one wants, like Drew Brees, Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston, etc., and squeezing the absolute best out of them. I know for a fact any fan of football has seen the below throw from Wilson from his BYU pro day as seen on X via SportsCenter.  This is the guy that Payton sees, like the guy who almost outdueled Patrick Mahomes last season.

That throw looks a heck of a lot like this throw from the preseason game from this year when the Broncos took on the Cardinals, as seen from the official NFL account on X. That is the guy that Payton traded for, and if you have a guy like that as your backup quarterback who can come in and make throws like that, you are going to keep him. Payton has one of the best offensive minds in the entire NFL and squeezed the best out of Russell Wilson last season, with 26 touchdowns and 8 picks when it was like shoving a square peg into a round hole.

Like the Broncos drafting Nix, Wilson was the one Payton wanted on the team, even if it was in a backup role. According to reports from Payton himself, the Broncos spent a month and a half working on a trade to get Wilson to Denver. No one will put in that much work to dump them just a few months later. Not only that, there were plenty of other quarterback options on the marker to fill a backup slot other than Wilson, but he was always going to be available.

Throughout the preseason, Wilson, time and time again, did not look like the QB who looked lost in New York. He was making reads, and if his first option wasn't there, he went to the next, and so on. Sure, there were still some "yep, that's Zach Wilson" nuances, but as a whole, Payton showed that he could get something out of Wilson if the need arises, and trust me, I would rather have Wilson than some of the other options that we could have got, plus he is still just 25-years-old.