Boomer Esaias

I mean, I loved the Broncos last week, in part because of the season that he was having and how much I like them.

But this is not like Patrick Mahomes going down or Josh Allen going down.

We don't know what Jared Stim's going to give the Broncos, but...

But the expectation is that the drop-off isn't going to be as significant from star quarterback to backup.

And all these things that you talk about where Sean Payton, who is an offensive guy, wants this guy on the team so much that he pays him as the third highest backup in the NFL.

The fact that a team, you know, the Patriots had drafted him, and the Patriots are pretty good at drafting quarterbacks, that a team was trying to trade him.

for Jared Stidham this year.

All of these things show that he is highly regarded in the NFL, and the Broncos know how to win.

So you're talking about a great defense, a defense with a ton of pressure, an amazing head coach who has won before, a team that does run the football, and a quarterback that maybe doesn't have to do much but not make mistakes at home.

He doesn't have to deal with the noise and everything else.

When you're talking about making your first start in an AFC championship game, I don't know if you have a better situation to thrive in than what Jared Stidham has here with the Broncos, and maybe this becomes that story.

I mean, crazier things have happened in the NFL with backups, and maybe he's the next one in a line of surprises.

Well, the two guys that are paid more than he, Davis Mills, of course, of the Houston Texans, who they won games with this year when C.J.

Stroud was out, and the other one is Jacoby Brissett out in Arizona who ended up taking over for an injured Kyler Murray.

He had his moments, especially early on when he played, but the more you see, the less you like, and that's basically the life of a backup quarterback.

But the great thing about Jared Stidham is that, according to Josh McDaniels, who was his first coach in New England, though he won the backup job out of training camp,

And I'm sure that that offense up there with Tom Brady when they were running it was about as complicated as an offense in the NFL.

And you think of Josh McDaniels and I think Tom Brady were together 12 or 13 years.

And then Jared Stidham is thrust into this coming out of college.

And somehow he was able to fight all the way to the backup.