In anticipation of their offseason contract decision on Russell Wilson, the Denver Broncos started Jarrett Stidham at quarterback in the final two games of the 2023 season.

The Broncos ended up releasing Wilson, and they haven’t signed a quarterback during the NFL’s free-agency period.

Does that mean Stidham will be Denver’s No. 1 QB in 2024?

Not necessarily, Broncos coach Sean Payton said on Monday. But after five NFL seasons, the former Auburn quarterback will have the opportunity to compete for the starting-quarterback job for the first time in his career.

“He’s definitely competing to be the starter,” Payton said. “I don’t think we have a term ‘driver’s seat’ really, but he is going to compete for that position. I know he’s anxious and excited to do that, and I’m sure there’ll be other candidates that will be competing with him.”

Denver general manager George Paton said the Broncos would be developing their QB depth chart, which currently consists of Stidham and former XFL starter Ben DiNucci.

“We’re still in the quarterback market,” Paton said on Monday. “We like Stiddy, but we’re going to add. But we’re not panicked. We don’t play a game for a while, and we feel like we’ll add a vet and we’ll see about the draft.”

The Broncos obtained Wilson in a blockbuster trade with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022 and signed the nine-time Pro Bowler to a five-year, $245 million contract. Denver had a 13-21 record in Wilson’s two seasons, and the Broncos released the quarterback this offseason even though they still must pay him $39 million in 2024. But the release prevented Denver from also owing Wilson $37 million for 2025.

“I think all of the above relative to what we’re studying,” Payton said about the Broncos’ offseason quarterback search. “When the offseason hit and we began to map out our plans, those plans included the current professional ranks, which are players in that market, and also the rookie class. We’re kind of in the midst of draft preparation, if you will, and been traveling a lot on these pro days and these private workouts, so we’ll continue to monitor the pro market but also get ready for the April draft.”

Denver won Stidham’s first start for the team 16-9 over the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 31. In their season finale, the Broncos fell 27-14 to the Las Vegas Raiders, who sacked Stidham five times. In the two games, Stidham completed 40-of-66 passes for 496 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

“We felt like this is a player who can compete,” Payton said. “We felt like he’s got upside. A young player that’s really played a limited amount of snaps relative to the years he’s been in the league.

“Did anything change in those last two games leading to this season? I can’t say, in fairness to him or the process, definitively that anything did, other than we still feel real positive about this player and we’re anxious to see him when he’s getting a lot more snaps and work with the ones.”

After Stidham closed his career at Auburn by throwing for 373 yards and five touchdowns in a 63-14 victory over Purdue in the Music City Bowl on Dec 28, 2018, he joined the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

In his first NFL preseason, Stidham completed 61-of-90 passes for 731 yards with four touchdowns and one interception as he led the AFC in passing yards and beat out veteran Brian Hoyer to serve as Tom Brady’s backup during the three-time NFL MVP’s final season with New England.

Stidham played in three NFL regular-season games in 2019 and five in 2020, when he backed up another former Auburn quarterback, Cam Newton.

In 2021, Stidham never got in a game after sustaining an offseason injury, and New England went with rookie Mac Jones as its starting quarterback and Hoyer as the backup. Stidham had surgery on July 28, 2021, because of a back injury and spent the first nine weeks of the season on the reserve/physically-unable-to-perform list.

Stidham joined the Raiders in May 2022, when Las Vegas sent a sixth-round choice in the 2023 NFL Draft to New England for the quarterback and a seventh-round pick. The trade reunited Stidham with Las Vegas coach Josh McDaniels, his offensive coordinator for three seasons with the Patriots.

In a similar situation as 2023, Stidham made his first two NFL starts in the Raiders’ final two games of 2022 as Las Vegas prepared to part ways in the offseason with No. 1 QB Derek Carr.

In 16 NFL games, with four starts, Stidham has completed 117-of-197 passes for 1,422 yards with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions and run for 97 yards on 32 carries.

At the NFL’s annual meeting on Monday in Orlando, Florida, Payton was asked when upside and potential become who the player is in Stidham’s case.

“I just don’t think we’re there,” Payton said, “and so generally speaking, I do think that’s something the fans, the media and the coaches probably arrive there within a week or two of each other.

“But in fairness to him, I’m anxious to see where that spot is that we say, ‘All right, that’s it.’ I don’t think we’ve seen it yet.”

While at the league meeting, Paton outlined what he was looking for from the Broncos’ starting quarterback in 2024.

“You can evaluate the talent, you can evaluate the arm strength, the feet, the athletic ability, the mobility, buy second chances, off-schedule, all that stuff you see on tape,” Paton said. “It’s the ability to process – process a lot of information in a short time to make the best decisions. That’s the thing we’re all searching for. I think we’re also searching for the ‘it’ factor. Who can raise the level of his teammates? And that’s really hard to find. Sometimes you don’t know it until you have it, so that’s what we’re all searching for.”

The Broncos hold the No. 12 pick in the first round of the NFL Draft on April 25 and eight selections in this year’s draft.

“I’ve talked to most of the team’s ahead of us,” Paton said. “I’ve talked to a lot of teams behind us. It is a little early, but I know who’s willing to move. You kind of know the teams that are typically willing to move. And so you always want to know how much it is to move up and how much you get if you move back, so we’ll have a good lay of the land by the time we get two weeks ahead of the draft.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.