Broncos QB Jarrett Stidham Jokes About Bo Nix's Rookie Hazing

Jarrett Stidham is making sure that Bo Nix pays his rookie dues.

Jul 26, 2024; Englewood, CO, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham (8) and quarterback Bo Nix (10) during training camp practices. / Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

It's funny how 61 games started at the collegiate level don't give a quarterback a rookie pass in the NFL. So-called "hazing" of new recruits is largely frowned upon by the NFL these days.

After all, we are currently living in 2024. That's why it's a little surprising to find that in the midst of a battle for the Denver Broncos' starting quarterback job, veteran Jarrett Stidham is ragging a little on rookie Bo Nix.

“Whether or not if he is or if he isn’t, he doesn’t really have a choice," Stidham said of Nix carrying out some rookie chores. "Sometimes he’ll kind of bicker a little bit back at me and I’m like, ‘Bo, we’ve literally all done this before,’ so I make sure he gets his rookie duties. Especially being a first-round pick. I actually make fun of him and Zach [Wilson] all the time because in their rookie contracts, they’ve made more money than I have in my entire career at this point (Laughs). So I’m like, ‘You two are not off the hook.’ I let them have it for sure.”

Just how much Stidham's seemingly tongue-in-cheek comments reflect a degree of annoyance on Nix's part is unclear, but it's definitely an added element injected into this heated battle. Nix recently plunged the princely sum of $4 million into a plush new 6,551 square-foot mansion in the exclusive Castle Pines area of Denver, so picking up a tab at Stidham's bequest shouldn't be overly bothersome.

“He has to carry our pads, that’s mandatory. Pretty much anything that goes wrong, I just blame him," Stiham said with a smile on Wednesday. "I had a rookie haircut from [former Patriots QB] Tom [Brady] my rookie year. I think that’s against the rules nowadays. We’re not much of a snacking group, so we don’t make him get snacks or anything. Sometimes if I forget something in my locker, I’ll make him go get it. He has to do certain stuff for sure. At whatever point we decide to do his rookie dinner, I’ll be getting a nice bottle of wine or something that he’s going to be paying for. I’ll make sure that’s a really, really nice dinner and I’ll be very, very happy and not hungry, so it’ll be great.”

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It would be easy to dismiss Stidham's treatment of Nix because all rookies know what's coming to a large extent. If anything, it shows that Stidham is comfortable enough to exert some level of control over his counterpart while he can, but it will be short-lived.

Stidham is comfortable portraying himself as an alpha male of sorts in the Broncos locker room. But as Nix said on Wednesday, all quarterbacks are supposed to be leaders.

“That’s a great question. I think how you do anything is how you do everything," Nix said Wednesday about setting a positive tone. "It’s kind of an all-the-time thing. You have a lot of responsibility, and you have to act accordingly. In my position—the other quarterbacks, we all try to carry ourselves with that leadership role on a day-to-day basis no matter where we are.”

No matter what stance you might take over the thorny subject of rookie hazing, it's clear that Nix is doing things his way. As the first preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts looms into view, make no bones about it, Broncos head coach Sean Payton knows Nix is laser-focused and fully concentrating on the job at hand.

“Listen, he’s focused. These guys all—their personalities are all a little different and yet, it’s attentive right now," Payton said of Nix. "They’re focused on today’s defensive install, l which was a split-mug pressure look. They’re griding on the learning process and certainly Bo is one of them. Just the communication and getting the protections. I told him afterwards about our cadence, communication and defensive alignment assignment. All the details that matter when you get to third down.”

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