Grading the Week: QB Jarrett Stidham is Broncos’ bridge to nowhere. And maybe that’s the point.

Jimmy Garappolo? Meh. Carson Wentz? Nah. Ryan Tannehill? Why?

I mean, hear the Grading The Week crew out here, Broncos Country, but … what if Jarrett Stidham is your “bridge” quarterback? What if he always was?

The guy’s a bridge to nowhere, granted — unless there’s a rookie with upside on the other side of that gorge.

With the biggest names in NFL free agency off the board, the tea leaves are kind of lining up, aren’t they? Sure, the Broncos could still theoretically trade for a young QB1 — Zach Wilson with the Jets, Justin Fields with the Bears pop immediately to mind — who didn’t turn the engine over often enough for their original franchise.

But that doesn’t feel as likely, now. And here’s why: What it doesn’t cost the law firm of Sean Payton & George Paton in cap dollars, it costs them in draft picks. And given how few of them they have on hand already, it smells as if the only way the Broncos part with those picks is to use them to make a bonkers push for the QB1 they really, really, really, really want.

And if that quarterback is still there at pick No. 12, so be it. Start trading back to pick up more cost-controlled talent to fill out a roster with more holes than the back nine at Spyglass Hill.

Sam Howell stans — C

This much feels clear: Stidham is either the stopgap of choice to buffer things until a young, star QB1 enters the picture this spring, or, and bear with us as we adjust our GTW tinfoil hat, he’s a walking Tankathon. He’s the Curtis Painter and Dan Orlovsky of the 2020s, a false hope who makes a lost season truly smelly while also securing the best crack at the top one or two QB1s available in the 2025 NFL Draft. Sink for Shedeur is on, baby!

Now as fun as that would be for Buffs fans, there’s one problem with that last scenario: It doesn’t fit Payton’s M.O. At all.

For one thing, his record drafting and developing QBs was notoriously spotty in New Orleans. Granted, when you have Drew Brees holding down the fort, the cavalry is blissfully irrelevant.

A little veteran insurance couldn’t hurt, though, even if the Broncos’ next stab at a franchise QB has been targeted as coming from this draft class or the next. Sam Darnold could have worked, but zoomed out of their price range when Minnesota swooped in with a $10 million contract. Sam Howell in Washington was a more intriguing twist on the Fields-Zach Wilson approach, but the Broncos presumably didn’t feel he was worth the draft capital — he cost Seattle a third- and fifth-rounder in a trade that saw the Commanders send back picks in rounds four and six — to close the deal.

Or they’ve already got “their guy” pegged, and the Darnold/Howell stuff was just a smokescreen, a zig while the real action zags.

Team GTW will take a little naked speculation over six months of Jimmy G any dang day of the week.

Val’s return — A-minus

Three games back. Five points. Three goals. Two power-play goals. Two game-winners. The Avs’ postseason train was always going as far and as fast as winger Valeri Nichushkin can power it. So far, so good. Just save some of that mojo for April and May, big guy. This lil’ engine’s gonna need it.