Reports: Broncos won't pick up QB Zach Wilson's option

Zach Wilson might have just a one-year stay in Denver, as multiple media outlets reported Tuesday that the Broncos won't pick up his fifth-year option for 2025.

The Broncos acquired Wilson and a seventh-round draft pick last week from the New York Jets in exchange for a sixth-round choice. Each team will pay a portion of his 2024 salary, which has a base of just over $1 million.

Denver then selected Bo Nix 12th overall in the draft on Friday.

Wilson's option for 2025 would have been worth $22.4 million.

Broncos coach Sean Payton said that Wilson and Nix would compete for the starting role along with Jarrett Stidham, who went 1-1 as a starter for Denver last year, and Ben DiNucci.

The Broncos announced in March that they would release their regular starting quarterback from the past two years, Russell Wilson, with a post-June 1 designation. Russell Wilson went 11-19 as a starter over his two years in Denver, proving to be a big disappointment after he arrived in a March 2022 trade with the Seattle Seahawks.

Zach Wilson, 24, was chosen second overall by the Jets in the 2021 draft out of BYU. He produced a 12-21 record as New York's starter, completing 57 percent of his passes for 6,293 yards with 23 touchdown tosses and 25 interceptions.

Last season, he went 4-7 with a career-high 60.1 percent completion rate, 2,271 yards, eight TDs and seven interceptions.

Nix, 24, threw for 4,508 yards and 45 touchdowns while getting picked off just three times for Oregon last season.