Wilson has a shot despite Bo Nix’s arrival as a first-round pick

The Denver Broncos spent a top-15 draft pick on Bo Nix this spring, and they also have a quarterback in Jarrett Stidham who drew high praise from coach Sean Payton upon arrival.

But former New York Jets castoff Zach Wilson is squarely in contention for the team’s top job entering the summer, according to ESPN.

Wilson is in a “positive state of mind” after a tumultuous three-year stint with the Jets to start his NFL career, Jeremy Fowler reported recently, per Bleacher Report, and the former No. 2 overall pick approaches this week’s mandatory minicamp “in the mix” for the Week 1 gig.

This comes days after Broncos coach Sean Payton was especially complimentary of Wilson, who joined Denver in a swap of draft picks just ahead of the 2024 draft.

“We just felt like, man, we’d love to work with this guy,” Payton told reporters. “It wasn’t too long ago we remember grading him (well), and we felt the investment was worth it relative to his skill set and his talent. … We spent the better part of a month and a half working on that trade.”

Payton, for what it’s worth, has also been effusive in his praise of Nix, the rookie Oregon product. Plenty of experts still anticipate the first-year signal-caller seizing the No. 1 job before the start of the 2024 season, with Payton himself arguing Nix’s college experience makes him more pro-ready than typical rookies.