Why does Sean Payton have to be such a pain in the ash?

Jarrett Stidham is ballast. Zach Wilson is insurance. Any meaningful Broncos snap in 2024 that isn’t devoted to Bo Nix is a snap wasted, a dollar burned. A pile of cinders, right next to the smoldering $53 million you just gave Russell Wilson to hurt himself in Pittsburgh.

Can we just get on with it? Please? Declaring Steady Stiddy as your starter, as Payton more or less did for Sunday’s preseason opener at Indianapolis, is just delaying the inevitable. It’s cute for cute’s sake. It’s either an epic troll job or a backdoor message to Nix, picked 12th in this past spring’s draft to be your franchise quarterback, that his present isn’t promised.

“I’m not ready for a depth chart, but I have to get (the league) a depth chart,” Payton said after Tuesday’s practice. “So it’s easy to push the (younger) players to the back of the line and then make sure it’s kind of where we sit right now.

“And that’s really it. No, it’s a good question, but I’m not trying to send messages at all.”

Whatever. No. 10 turns 25 in February. Start the meter or get a different cab.

This isn’t 2021. This isn’t about Drew vs. Teddy, about dividing the family and picking a side. This isn’t about an unproven coach who desperately needs to win now, the way Uncle Vic Fangio had to and didn’t.

Broncos Country should be united around Nix, until he gives them ample cause, gives them enough evidence, to cut bait and turn the page. Which might be never.

But dang it, there’s only one way to find out.

It’s about 2025. And 2026. And 2027. Until then, you’re thumb-wrestling with the Raiduhs for third in the AFC West.

It’s about the long game. The Chiefs are the new Patriots; Patrick Mahomes is the new Tom Brady. The Chargers are casting their mercurial lots with Jim Harbaugh — which history says will burn very hot, burn very fast, and, fairly quickly, burn itself out.

Ask yourself this: If Nix is more Josh Rosen than Kyler Murray, wouldn’t you prefer to figure that out sooner as opposed to later?

Sure, Stidham probably gives you the best chance to win now. If your idea of “winning now” is 6-11. If it’s a tie on all angles, go young. If it’s a tie on half the angles, go young.

First-round QBs are like a sports car. In the wrong hands, such as those belonging to Nathaniel Hackett, it’s a sexy wreck waiting to happen.

But there’s a fine line between careful and constipated. You spent the dough to make a show. What’s the point of letting that bad boy sit in the garage all weekend, gathering dust in the darkness?

“I didn’t realize how fast he was,” linebacker Jonas Griffith said Tuesday, eyes widening, when asked about the Broncos’ rookie signal-caller. “It’s kind of crazy because he had (an opening), he was running, I think it was a few days ago, and I was like, ‘Whoa, he’s kind of fast.’ And I consider myself a fast guy.”

Let’s see how fast this kid does 0 to 60. What’s the worst that can happen?

Say Nix gives into his inner Lock, becomes a turnover machine, and stinks up the joint. Congratulations! You’ve backpedaled your way into another top-12 pick, something the Broncos haven’t had in consecutive springs since 2008 and 2009.

The former turned into tackle Ryan Clady. The latter turned into Knowshon Moreno.

“Rookies are at the back of the line,” Payton said.

With most NFL coaches, it’s best to weigh podium proclamations with several grains of salt. With Payton, you take half a shaker. Sunshine Sean is begrudgingly honest in front of a microphone, selectively honest when circled by tape recorders. We are the jackals and hyenas he feeds the way a parent feeds an irresponsible child’s pet hamster. Not because he wants to. Because he has to.

When it comes to any depth chart on Aug. 6, Payton’s right, in theory. It’s too early, it’s too soon, and who cares?

But here’s the difference: When you’ve declared an open QB competition, every rep, every sound bite, is a potential lean, a potential tell.

Although with Payton, who knows? In his six preseason openers since 2016, only two of the coach’s eventual or presumed starters actually took the first snaps of the preseason. Those honors usually went to backups such as Chase Daniel (2017), Tom Savage (2018), Teddy Bridgewater (2019) and Taysom Hill (2021).

Daniel never threw a regular-season pass in ’17. Savage wound up getting cut on Sept. 1 of ’18 after losing the backup battle to our old pal Teddy B.

“Like I said, there wasn’t a lot of thought,” Payton continued. “I mean, we just got the depth chart out (Tuesday) and that’s it. And that’s where we’re at now.”

Some seasons are about winning at all costs. Some are about development. You can split the difference, of course. But six years of always trying to thread that particular needle has left the Broncos a little cross-eyed.

Payton would sooner share a booth at Subway with Russell Wilson than punt 20-24 months of a precious, ticking clock. But in this league, sometimes the surest path forward is by taking two steps back first.

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Originally Published: August 6, 2024 at 7:29 p.m.