The Denver Broncos were one game away from Super Bowl 60. They went 14-3 in the regular season, earned the AFC’s No. 1 seed, and knocked off Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in a dramatic 33-30 overtime Divisional Round win. Then Bo Nix fractured his ankle late in that game, and everything unraveled.
Backup Jarrett Stidham started the AFC Championship Game and managed just 133 passing yards in a 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots. Denver’s season ended not because the roster wasn’t good enough, but because the quarterback behind Nix wasn’t equipped to win a conference title game. As a result, Dan Graziano recently suggested that the Broncos could be a team to watch for Spencer Rattler.
Dan Graziano Floats Spencer Rattler as a Trade Candidate for the Broncos
In a piece in which he identified early trade deadline candidates for the 2026 season, Graziano listed Rattler as a player who could be on the move.
“The Saints enter 2026 with Shough firmly entrenched as their starter and determined to build around him for the long term,” Graziano wrote. “The team signed former No. 2 pick Zach Wilson this offseason to add to its QB room. If Rattler’s the odd man out, he should generate interest.”
“His 14 NFL starts haven’t been great (the Saints lost 13 of them), but they do constitute the kind of experience teams prize when looking for backup/developmental QBs,” he added. “Rattler is also 25, so he could still have a career ahead of him as an NFL quarterback somewhere other than New Orleans. Broncos coach Sean Payton still has strong ties to the Saints, and that could be a team to watch if there’s any change to its backup QB plans.”
Rattler’s career numbers aren’t flashy: across two seasons in New Orleans, he has completed 62.7% of his passes for 2,903 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. However, his 2025 season showed real growth, as he completed 67.7% of his throws and started eight games before being benched in favor of Shough.
According to PFSN’s QB Impact Metric, he posted an impact score of 67.1 last season, a big improvement from the 57.3 mark he registered in 2024.
At 25, with 14 starts, Rattler profiles as exactly the type of young, cost-controlled backup a contender wants on its roster, and Payton can bring the best out of him.
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Payton’s 15-year tenure as Saints head coach gives him a direct line to the New Orleans front office that few other coaches around the league can match. If Rattler’s price is a late-round pick, which is the most likely compensation for a backup-caliber quarterback on his rookie deal, the Broncos’ head coach could help in getting a deal done.
Denver’s roster is built to win now, and wasting another year of this window because of a preventable backup quarterback problem would be the kind of mistake a franchise this close to a Super Bowl can’t afford.
