Jarrett Stidham, the AFC Championship Game, and the Most Unlikely Spotlight

What in the name of Jake Delhomme is going on out in Denver?

An all-out hallelujah chorus escorts Jarrett Stidham into the flinching spotlight of the AFC Championship Game on Sunday with the New England Patriots standing between the career backup and a Super Bowl.

From Broncos coach Sean Payton to No. 1 receiver Courtland Sutton and many more teammates in Denver, the public-facing sentiment around Stidham starting for injured QB1 Bo Nix hits like a PR wheel in hyperdrive. Anyone and everyone in front of a microphone in Denver this week sang the praises of Stidham, his ability, readiness and expectations for a player who frankly needs a name tag before making his first playoff start.

Sure, Stidham is already a household name in some parts.

A polarizing prospect at Auburn turned fourth-round pick of the Patriots, his welcome to the NFL landed with the timing of an armpit fart interrupting wedding vows. It was 2019, New England's rift with Tom Brady had become very public knowledge and the franchise already knew he was as good as gone at the end of the season.

Bill Belichick was still calling the shots in all areas of the organization and COVID hadn't hit yet. Belichick, never one to lay bouquets at Brady's feet, layered on the love for Stidham. He won the backup job over Brian Hoyer to be QB2 behind Brady and was “as good as we’ve seen” in the mind of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels his rookie preseason with 731 yards and four touchdown passes.

Brady put pen to paper on his farewell to the Patriots and signed with the Bucs — going on to win the COVID-year Super Bowl — to shuffle the depth chart in New England.

“It’s going to be really cool one day when I can sit there and tell my children, or my grandkids, that I got to be in the same quarterback room and talking about coverages and different passing concepts with Tom,” Stidham said in an ESPN interview in 2020.

Stidham was first and Cody Kessler was the only other name on the roster.

Until July, when the Patriots decided to take a flier on Cam Newton with a one-year deal for $7 million.

Newton won the starting job. Stidham wound up throwing 44 passes and completing 22 with three interceptions. He didn’t get the start in October when Newton was an urgent scratch because he tested positive for coronavirus.

It was Hoyer who was elevated to the No. 1 spot. He was brutal in the loss. Stidham did play and wasn’t much better after leading a touchdown drive on his first series in the fourth quarter. His next two? Pick-six courtesy of Tyrann Mathieu and another interception.

While Patriots fans certainly came out of that game feeling some type of way about the future of Stidham and New England’s passing game, McDaniels would head to Las Vegas to become a head coach for the second time and trade for Stidham. He praised his focus, preparation and ability to throw on the move.

“Going into Saturday morning when we found out about the (Newton COVID) situation, it was really trying to figure out not only football, but health and safety of everybody in the building,” Stidham said in 2020. “It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment kind thing where we had to switch things around and do virtual meetings. I thought we did a good job of adapting to the situation and making the most of it.”

Payton was paying close attention in 2020. He had already scouted Stidham at Auburn and said this week New Orleans had high grades on the quarterback. When he had the chance to bring Stidham on board, that’s what he did.

Stidham again expected to start in 2024 when he competed with rookie first-round pick Nix to be the QB1 for Payton’s Broncos. Denver went with the rookie, named him team captain — the first in the franchise since that Elway guy to earn both — and have 25 wins the past two seasons to show for it.

The handoff from Nix came after his first playoff win, a 33–30 thriller in overtime against the Bills, and pushes Stidham into a familiar spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.

Sunday, the 29-year-old needs to beat the Patriots (16–3) in his fifth career start and first ever in the playoffs to make his point and prove himself prophetic. When Nix took the QB1 title two years ago, Stidham vowed he would be a “starting quarterback in this league.”

Payton’s endorsement is more than nothing.

He has won with Teddy Bridgewater (5–0 in 2019 with Drew Brees out), convinced Bill Parcells to elevate undrafted project Tony Romo to the starting job in Dallas, worked wonders with Quincy Carter (also with the Cowboys) and is a direct derivative of the Parcells model that brought the New York Giants a Super Bowl in 1990.

The winning quarterback wasn’t Phil Simms. The Giants finished the season 13–3 after a 10–0 start, but Simms was injured and Jeff Hostetler had to win three playoff games and the Super Bowl.

Kurt Warner was a 28-year-old backup not far removed from bagging groceries and slinging the rock in the Arena Football League when picked up the starting role for the Rams. St. Louis (now Los Angeles) was in dire straits because of a knee injury to Trent Green. Warner won the Super Bowl (XXXIV) to cap the 1999 season. He played in another nine years later (XLIII) as quarterback of the Cardinals and built a Hall of Fame career in between.

Only hours after finding out he would be starting this week’s game, Stidham wasn’t bagging groceries, but he did run some errands in Denver with his kids and hit a well-trafficked Target.

The next Tom Brady or perhaps Kurt Warner or Jeff Hostetler roamed freely, not a single shopper identified the Broncos’ starting quarterback.

“Incognito,” he said. “Nobody noticed.”

By bedtime Sunday night, Stidham will have quite a story to tell. For the first time in a long time, he can decide how it ends.