Jarrett Stidham has started four games in his NFL career and all of them came at the end of losing seasons, so he has no experience with what he’s going to experience this weekend.
Bo Nix’s fractured ankle has thrust Stidham into the starting quarterback spot for the Broncos in this Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Patriots. The implications of the game for both the Broncos and Stidham are clear.
A win would send the Broncos to the Super Bowl and it would take Stidham from unheralded backup to a household name overnight. On Wednesday, Stidham said he knows this is “not about myself” but how he can “help my teammates succeed on Sunday.” He said the approach to doing that is by keeping things as routine as possible despite the unusual circumstances.
“I think what I always go back to — in any game, regular season, preseason, the AFC Championship — it’s still the same game,” Stidham said, via the team’s website. “Obviously, there are implications and winner advances, all that kind of stuff, but at the end of the day, it’s still football. That’s how I view it. I’m not treating it any differently. I’m not treating my preparation any differently. I’m just going to go out there and play and be myself. I think that’s the biggest thing. I’m not going to try to be somebody that I’m not. I know how I can play, and I know the kind of guys I have around me and the kind of team that we have. So, we all just have to play within ourselves.”
Broncos teammates and head coach Sean Payton have expressed confidence in Stidham’s ability to handle being thrown into the fire in a do-or-die situation, but one look at the odds shows how much doubt exists outside of the organization. Stidham won’t be able to quiet that before Sunday, so it is something else to ignore as he prepares for the biggest moment of his professional career.
