ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — The Broncos' quarterback competition will soon reach its next stage.
Denver kicks off its preseason slate against the Colts on Sunday, and Jarrett Stidham, Zach Wilson and Bo Nix will continue to look to earn a role.
Head Coach Sean Payton said he would provide more details on the planned rotation on Thursday, but all three quarterbacks will have their own focus when the game arrives.
"For me, it's about competing and executing at the highest level and [scoring] points," Stidham said.
Stidham acknowledged it's a "competition every day" at the position, and he said he believes the back-and-forth is "bringing out the best in everybody."
In his second season in the system, Stidham said he feels "things are coming more naturally" in the system and that "training camp so far has been really good."
As he approaches another opportunity to compete on Sunday, Stidham said he's not focused on what it will take to win the job and instead will keep a narrow focus.
"I'm not getting too caught up in what's down the road, necessarily," Stidham said. "I kind of just focus on 'All right, what am I asked to do today during practice and this afternoon in the film room, in the meeting room?' That sort of thing. OK, tomorrow, what am I asked to do? Go out there and execute at the highest level and take it day by day. If you get caught up in the past or the future, you kind of get caught up in the blender. I don't do that, and I just focus on every single day."
Wilson, too, said he has tried to keep his focus on what he can control. While he has worked with the third team in several of the Broncos' recent practice, he said his mentality has been to "continue stacking good days" at practice.
"I think when you really sit down and think about it, I've got no control over that," Wilson said. "… I think the worst you can do is let it affect you, so the best you can do is just say, 'OK, I'm going to take what I get and go out there and do the best I can and put my best foot forward and try my best and try to help this team do the best it can getting down the field and complete some passes.' I think that's all you've got to worry about."
When Wilson takes the field for his first in-game reps with the Broncos, he said he'll aim to play with consistency and poise.
"Just go out there and get the ball out of my hands [and] let the playmakers that we have go make some plays," said Wilson of what he'll look to accomplish vs. the Colts.
Nix should also play his first game snaps for his new team, and he said his focus is to "just be consistent and be myself." The first-round pick said "the game has started to slow down a little bit" for him, and he said he's excited to try to execute against a different defense in Indianapolis.
The Oregon product, though, is not concerned with external chatter as he approaches game action. Nix said he "couldn't care less" about being third on the Broncos' first unofficial depth chart, and he also said he's trying to tune out the noise about expectations.
"One, it's not looking at it, not seeing what everybody says and not trying to go out there and find it," Nix said. "At the end of the day, nobody has a higher expectation than myself. Nobody has a higher standard for how I play than me. I think that's just kind of the most important thing. You're not falling back on those who are just seeing parts of it. You're truly internally challenging yourself and trying to be the best that you can be. Most of the time, they can see a throw and they may know about 25 percent of what actually was going [on] in that throw. I don't necessarily want to put too much into the outside noise and just continue to play my game.
"I think I learned along the way you're going to miss one — often. You've just got to move on, and I feel like I've been better at moving on and just not letting it bother me and affect the next play."
In just a matter of days, Stidham, Wilson and Nix will get the opportunity to transfer their varying mentalities from the practice field to game action.
