Updated Jan. 25, 2026, 11:23 a.m. MT<\/p>\n
The Denver Broncos<\/a> have history on their side going into the AFC Championship against the New England Patriots<\/a> on multiple fronts. But they have never quite experienced the circumstances they face on Sunday, coming into the game with a backup quarterback in Jarrett Stidham.<\/p>\n However, coach Sean Payton has an extremely reputable track record with backup quarterbacks. Earlier this week, multiple backup quarterbacks who have played under Payton spoke out in support of Stidham and the work Payton has done with the “next man up.”<\/p>\n Former New Orleans Saints<\/a> quarterbacks Luke McCown and Chase Daniel said that this position couldn’t be better for Stidham.<\/p>\n “I’m just coming at it from the standpoint of a backup quarterback in Jarrett Stidham \u2014 who I think is one of the best backup quarterbacks in the NFL,” said Daniel. “Here’s the thing about Sean Payton that you got to know. The entire gameplan? Nothing changes.”<\/p>\n McCown agreed. “There’s no other coach you’d rather have with his backup in this situation,” tweeted McCown. “He’s gonna call a beauty of a game.”<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The Broncos<\/a> are one win away from reaching the Super Bowl. And these former backups believe that Denver has a chance.<\/p>\n Social: Follow\u00a0Broncos Wire<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter\/X<\/a>!\u00a0Did you know:\u00a0These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Jan. 25, 2026, 11:23 a.m. MT The Denver Broncos have history on their side going into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[95878,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,95879,95880,95882,95886,95893,98651,95896,96129,95888,95895,95906,96071,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":["post-704659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-saints","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanssaints","tag-nfl","tag-saints","tag-sstssportsnflbroncos","tag-sstsnbroncos","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagdenver-broncos","tag-tagfacebook","tag-tagjarrett-stidham","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsmg-timely","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtwitter","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115957530884145283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}