Was Broncos QB Jarrett Stidham REALLY better than Russell Wilson? | Orange and Blue Today podcast

The Denver Broncos started QB Jarrett Stidham in Week 17 against the Los Angeles Chargers. They won, but the offense did not have the spark some thought it would now that QB Russell Wilson went to the bench. Why is that? Join Cecil Lammey and Andrew Mason on Orange and Blue Today!

00:00 – Intro
01:50 – What was the plan?
02:44 – Stidham’s timing seemed off.
05:15 – TV crew spills the tea.
08:34 – Keeping Payton’s offense on schedule.
13:32 – Payton seemed happy with Stidham.

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Topics: denver broncos, denver broncos podcast, denver broncos news, denver broncos insiders, sean payton, russell wilson, javonte williams, courtland sutton, jerry jeudy, garett bolles, justin simmons, baron browning, pj locke, josey jewell, nfl, nfl news, football, cecil lammey, andrew mason, playoffs, NFL, NFL draft, Jarrett Stidham,

Well we all saw it on Sunday New Year’s Eve happy New Year it’s orange and blue today Cil Lamy Andrew Mason we saw Jared stum and he ran what Shawn Payton wanted him to do mace he just didn’t run it very good yeah it was fine I mean he he stayed to

His marks he you know he got into a rhythm we saw the Broncos use parts of the field in the passing game that have been neglected or ignored over the last uh 15 games prior to Sunday but on balance it was just okay I

Mean I I I think ESPN’s qbr gave him a number of 31.3 for the game um I thought maybe that was a little bit low but it was if if it was golf it would be you know just a very unremarkable par right right right

Special where I think Ma a lot of fans are looking at the box score and saying he did what Russell Wilson did actually no uh if you go beyond the box score you can see how he did he was asked to do more he did more mainly in Breaking

Routes crossers and yes even some Slants so I know the Johnson exact Brandon Johnson right near the goal line when they were trying to get out of those two false starts like oh wow so that’s what BR Johnson looks like running a SL that slant that’s that’s not bad I’ll take it

Yeah right so I think fans are misguided when they say it’s just like Russell Wilson no it wasn’t statistically yes schematically no yeah he he he took a different path to the same end point like it was you know instead of uh the offense bogging down at various points of the field

Field a bunch of three and outs like yesterday there were no three and outs part of that was because you had the crossing routes the Slants the things that allow you in the Shawn pyton offense to keep yourself on schedule and in Rhythm and that’s why you look up at

The end of the game and the only possession the Broncos had without a first down was the kneel down at the end so what you had was an offense that didn’t have those EXT exe negatives in terms of Drive flow but they didn’t sustain anything and you

Know we can kind of parse through the reasons uh you know STM and Judy their timing was off you know Judy had a couple of passes him in the hands but STM needs to lead Jer Judy and he’s throwing behind Jer Judy so the you know that’s the timing wasn’t quite right

There um they just they kind of they basically took a different path to a very similar result and I think it reveals that there you know there are some fundamental things for the offense that need to be fixed going in the offseason although I will say this I

Thought Sean Payton said something uh one of the said some interesting things um last night or this morning both I mean I think I I think I I think both but uh he said uh at one point toward the end quote that was a long stretch of

15 weeks where we seen a very similar pattern unquote um I think to quote Sam white 30 years ago when he was miked up on the sideline and he said give me somebody fresh even if they’re bad I think Shawn pyton just wanted to see how it would look with

Someone different at the controls even if the scoreboard result and the overall yardage results were not that dissimilar I mean the yardage was a bit higher than the average over the last couple of months both passing yardage total yardage but on balance the end result was fairly familiar even if you took a

Different path to get there and oh by the way there were a couple of passes that could have been intercepted as well so when Shawn pyton talks about being he said we were safe with the football well in much the same way that you nearly had two interceptions last week off Russell

Wilson you nearly had two interceptions thrown by Jared SDM yesterday too yeah and it’s one thing M I don’t know if you’ll go back and watch the TV copy I only watch the TV copy once when it’s live you’re at the stadium I’m at home but even the announcers who you and I

Both know are told a lot of things during the week as they prepare to call the game when they doing meeting Saturday was wild I think when they were doing the crossers even the announcers I alerted listeners last night on the postgame show it’s like the announcers

Was like you didn’t see this with Russell Wilson when they were doing crossers and in-breaking routes like that says a lot I think what Shawn pyton is being as professional as he can be in making these comments yeah and the broadcast crew specifically was interesting on the sideline you had

Tiffany Blackman in the booth you had Tom McCarthy longtime voice of the Philadelphia Phillies joined by James Lofton and Jay fely so James Lofton of course when they talking about those crossers and the mechanics of the passing game that’s right up his alley he’s a hall of fame wide receiver he

Gets that and one of the reasons why he’s been a broadcast for so long as he knows how to explain those Concepts um Jay fely a former kicker he brought kind of an interesting role because he actually at one point went in on George pyton yes which was he and he actually

Was alluding a great deal to the nature of Shawn pton and Russell Wilson coming together and he called it an arranged marriage that you know basically didn’t work it was a it was actually a really fascinating crew to have call this particular game also because way back in

Week one they called that game against the Raiders so they had a very interesting kind of compare and contrast in what they saw then and prepared for versus what they saw on New Year’s Eve right right now uh Sean pton we got a couple of clips about his thoughts on

Jared Sten but you were around the fellas in the locker room Adam Troutman others uh really have a different opinion on stm’s performance than some fans out there you know who were outraged that it looked just like Russell Wilson well it didn’t and teammates and his coach didn’t think so

Either yeah and uh both Adam Troutman and L kushary I know we had the Troutman clip talked about how composed Garrett Stam was um and part of that may be relative to your expectation that he’s only started two games as his first start this year you know what’s what’s it going to be

Like with him in the Huddle um so when he has a Placid demeanor when he also appeared to have no trouble getting the calls out in the Huddle there there were only a couple of moments where there were there was timing issues and and they seemed rushed but it looked like

But watching that I know one of them in particular there was some confusion on the sideline as I was watching it from the Press Box that appeared to be a procedural delay forcing them to get the snap off right right there about one second that appeared to be a procedural

Delay coming from the the bench area not from jar SDM and the Huddle right so right that was interesting to know what I thought well here’s Adam Troutman talking about jar stam’s first start well I thought he had great control um of the Huddle and offense and um getting

Everything lined up getting everything going all the checks all the kills on the the plays um and yeah he’s just got like this confidence about him which is like when he comes in the Huddle it’s like it’s pretty awesome pretty awesome interesting wow and you know he does it in kind of a

Steady way mace and watching Jared stm’s mannerisms this isn’t a raw raw guy which is fine if you’re that guy this is a guy who’s just like expects to do it expects to play at a high level that’s where that comfort and that confidence comes from yeah and I think very much

Kind of staying on schedule and sticking to his marks and uh that’s that’s where it would be interesting to see what things look like when it’s off schedule off Rhythm um we didn’t see much of that we did see a couple of times when protection broke down where it looked

Awkward there was the one sack of course where KH Mack bull rush Ben Powers and effectively uh you know if you had the butt fumble that was a butt sack back right s runs into Ben pow’s butt as he’s being pushed back by CLE Mack and that leads to the sack

Um yeah there were we we’ll get more into this probably on Tuesday but it’ll be interesting to see like how they perceive this in terms of where they think Jared Stam can go because as I’m watching it and I started rewatching it late last night as well

Um what I see is a potential very good solid backup but um I I I I’m not sure how Broncos country is going to feel if Jerry stdm is the week one starter we’ll see what happens in Las Vegas on Sundays you know maybe you get courland Sutton back I

Don’t expect to get Marvin Ms Jr back because he’s doing with a hamstring although I imagine they’ll try to to keep that open and see but I would expect we’ll see Courtland Sutton back in the lineup this week and and does that change things a little bit because

You know you want to have I think you want to have some you know Grace and kind of view things in the proper perspective right um you went up against the Chargers team that uh just you know they’re planning for Cancun they don’t have joy Bosa but they still had CLE

Mack who caused some problems obviously which I eluded they still had dering James out there um so it didn’t have Kenneth Murray but it wasn’t a Chargers defense that was devoid of talent that was out there on Sunday by any means um and the Broncos did did not have uh

Courland Sutton so let’s I am curious to see how next week looks if the Broncos are a little bit closer to full strength on offense but what I saw on Sunday looks like Jarrett STM that’s a chance to be around here as a long-term backup because we know Shawn Peyton likes

Security is in his backup quarterback yeah and there’s nothing wrong with that you know so with people losing their mind because J at sidm wasn’t amazing I’m like well he’s not amazing and when people lose their mind because he doesn’t have chemistry with Jerry Judy I’m like how is he supposed to have

Chemistry just showed up basically he’s just starting now and you mentioned the return of courland Sutton for one week mace wouldn’t it be nice to see Sutton do his Michael Thomas impression because now you have a quarterback that can throw those Slants and I wonder if they try to do

That because with courland sutt it’s been mostly nineball right M let’s see what happens if you add a couple of branches to that route tree of his he’s shown in the past he can handle it just because things were um simplified out of necessity and playing to the strength that also meshed

With the strength of the quarterback which is another thing like people like oh you know Shawn pton didn’t do the things that would help Russell Wilson I mean no actually he did because that offense run over the course of the Year wasn’t a traditional Shawn Payne offense it was adapted to Russell Wilson

Um but I I I I do wonder and Payton’s kind of alluded to this but I think as long as they weren’t turning the ball over he could live with it but then you got three picks against Houston you had a pick against the Chargers you had a a

Fumble you know very nearly a scooping score uh if if a if a fleeter player had come up with the football might have been a scoop and score against the lions and two near picks against the uh against the Patriots I think it just sort of hit a point where he’s like okay

Now we’re getting turnovers and near turnovers from the quarterback position I got to see something else and again you had two you had a couple of near picks on Sunday with Jarett stum but he’s running the offense that Shawn pton wanted to run um so it’s a that’s where it’s a that’s

Where it’s a little bit different I think in terms of probably a little bit happier you know they they got a win and yeah the yardage whatever accuracy whatever but he’s happier because he can run what he wants to do now we have two Payton Clips one from last night at his

Press conference and then one from the conference call this morning that you were very graciously a part of uh ma do you want to play either one of those as we discussed stum let’s start with what he said last night at the podium at Empower Field at Mile High let’s start

With that okay here we go thought he was good I thought he uh man he was collected um calm I thought uh thought he was played with real good Poise um you know you felt you felt experience relative to a guy who hadn’t had as many you know

Minutes maybe as some others but you certainly didn’t feel that during the course of the game I I thought he was efficient in and out of the Huddle I thought he made some good throws for us overall until I see the tape but I thought it went um pretty good

All right so he said until I see the tape now let’s fast forward to what he said after seeing the tape when he met with Denver area media this morning I thought Jared did a good job after seeing the tape um with his decisions um the ball security all those things that

You you want to see from that position um you know the big play uh to LJ was a heck of a play by uh by LJ protection was good um so a lot of positives to build off of sounds like a guy that is pretty happy here on a Monday mace yeah happy

New Year Shawn Payton happy New Year Shawn Payton um you got a you got a glimpse of you know what uh what it might look like um although again you’re not H you’re not happy with the points and later on he alluded to Red Zone’s got to be

Better and I can hear people who are defending Russell Wilson say well hey you know Russell Wilson was doing well in the Red Zone yeah I don’t know if we were talking about what we like the best tactic maybe is it Jarrett stum between the 20s and Russell Wilson in The Red

Zone I mean he just Russ comes in like a relief picture at the end of the drive to finish things off um hey the Panthers are doing that with Andy Dalton you know with Bryce young we’ve seen other teams do that with their quarterback so we’ve

Seen Sean pton do it with Tamm Hill at the same time yes at the same time we’re having a different discussion about the Red Zone if you don’t have back-to-back false starts there in the fourth quarter right I mean that was really that that was very frustrating uh

For the for the Broncos to to have those um so you know how much of it is on Jarrett s him how much of it is is on others how much of it is on on the play calling because you remember the they they got back to

Third and goal right after this the aforementioned slant route to Brandon Johnson which you know you did you didn’t quite get in the end zone but you were back there at the one yard line you had repaired the damage and then javante Williams um who it was a weird day for javante

Because he had we’ve seen it now the last few weeks he’s starting to have those flashes again where you see this is the way it’s supposed to look like he had there when he got when he bounced to the right side broke a couple of tackles

There I believe it was in the uh the first quarter yes and you saw that play was like and you know your heart skips a beat a little bit because that’s old javante like that’s that’s the dude that we saw two years ago who was you know on

Kyle Brandt’s angry runs every week that Broncos country was falling in love with and how things changed pretty fast because you know Broncos country fell in love with him two years ago and then last week after that game the V troll out there was just was harsh right not a

Lot of Christmas spirit among some Broncos fans when it came to gavonte Williams well you see that run and it’s like okay yeah there’s the Glimpse there’s The Gleam as Marty Schottenheimer would have said and then at other runs you’re seeing uh he can’t escape he’s you know slow to see the

Slow to get to the hole he’s being met in the back he’s being met in the back field uh on on plays where most running backs are going to get away from that kind of that kind of contact because even if even if a run play is

Pro block properly you’re going to have some fre you’re going to have a free dude or two in there right right and uh it’s incumbent upon the running back to get away and and gante Williams didn’t get away um so that’s uh that’s part that’s part of it disappointing and and

Also probably part of the reason why we saw more of Jalil mcclaflin in terms of getting the ball than we had and by the way just to we’ll get into more of that later but J mcin had himself a good day we’ll we’ll talk more about that that’s

Coming up Jared sidm people wonder where’s the spark mace it might actually be a reverse of last year or where it was the 49ers game he look good and then the Chiefs game you look bad this year it might that spark might be coming so people ask where’s the spark you guys promised

Well we’re fixing to find out maybe just maybe against the Raiders in Vegas the light shine right for Jarrett St I thought there was a spark early yesterday and I think the spark could have been an outright flame if one of those early passes to Jerry Judy had connected right he had

The one that was a little bit behind him that was a drop and he had the other work he it was toward the sideline and Judy couldn’t quite get to it if you get one of those I think you’re talking about something really substantial early then the other thing and again it’s

Endemic of how there are greater things in play that need to be fixed for this Broncos offense um it was why it was the start of the third quarter got it first down and then it bogged down and punt it um if not for the defensive pass interference call that sets you up

In first and goal you’re not coming close to a touchdown on that series and then of course you had the false start so the there are still things that are clunky beyond the quarterback and I think this game served as a reminder of that that um you’re not

Going you’re maybe not going to fix everything here and and you got a ways to go with with avoiding some of the with some of the timing the the timing issues what I think we can probably also say for Jarett San it’s very similar to Russell Wilson you don’t have a

Quarterback who necessarily can Elevate everyone around them right right um but he’s not making 50 million a year right but that but honestly this is part of it you had a pretty comparable performance in the end sum from a quarterback who cost you a fraction of the other guy I

Actually think in some ways it reflects more poorly on Russell Wilson and more justifies the decision to make the change because okay you didn’t do appreciably better but you didn’t really do worse right it looked about the same which probably tells you all right you got to go shopping for a quarterback

Here in the offseason yep probably in the draft um yep probably gon have to move up yeah I know we’ve I’m sure we’ll talk more about the tackle class this year for example yes uh I don’t think we’re talking tackles at least not early uh it’s a good egg rusher class don’t

Think we’re talking about EDG rusher early in fact a genuine sense I got um coming out of this game in particular the way Cooper and and and Bonito played genuine sense I got is that uh next year you’re may be looking at uh Browning Cooper Bonito and kind of figuring out who your

Two are going to be long term I mean Jonathan Cooper knock on wood might hit double digit sacks in the end in the end sum he’s going to have a very Good Year and for somebody who’s more of a a set the edge Guy having that kind of sack total in

His pass rush numbers it’s a nice little B it’s a nice little bonus going forward and I I think I I think that’s a position where I where Broncos Country may have to accept okay probably status quo here if they’re going to have to go get a quarterback it’s a shame some good

Edges some good tackles um but this is looking more more more like the QB yep and we’ll be breaking it down for you all offseason right here Denver sports.com it is orange and blue today hey make sure to do the YouTube things because we might have secret shows for

You that are only on YouTube so like you want to help us out and grow the YouTube channel then like comment share subscribe hit the notification Bell so that you never miss a vid and we’re bringing you bonus episodes man like uh we’re supposed to be off today we’re like

No no sorry there’s too much to say h how can you really take the day after a game off especially a game that I that again we got more to come because yes there’s a lot of talking points here we kind of just we T we tip to them yeah

But there’s more to there’s more to break down from this game a lot more yep and we’ll have more for you right here he’s Andrew Mason follow him on socials at Ma Denver I’m mat C soamy saying thanks for watching stay tuned and would you please stay frosty