Broncos Notebook: QB Jarrett Stidham ‘excited to be back’ in Las Vegas, eager to help Broncos earn win vs. former team – DenverBroncos.com

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. For the second consecutive season, quarterback Jarrett Stidham will finish his year starting a Week 18 game on the grass of Allegiant Stadium.

But after starting for the Raiders in last season's finale, he'll face them on Sunday in a Broncos uniform with plenty on the line. A victory in Las Vegas would give Denver its first winning season since 2016 and Stidham his first road win as an NFL starter.

After Wednesday's practice, Stidham said he's excited for the matchup and noted that he spent plenty of time battling against the Raiders in practice last season.

"Obviously, [I'm] excited," Stidham said. "I spent a year there and made a lot of relationships with a lot of people. But I'm here now, so I'm looking forward to playing against those guys. I did it in practice, obviously, all last year. I'm just excited to get back in there on the opposing sideline and try and score some points and hopefully win."

Head Coach Sean Payton said part of this week's preparation has included working with Stidham on silent snap-counts, though Stidham's experience at Allegiant Stadium provides some familiarity.

"Obviously, he's familiar with this stadium we're going to," Payton said. "You go through the crowd noise. I would say today's the first day where we're in shotgun with him on a silent snap count. There are little nuances that obviously are more cadence-driven, and we'll work through that."

In his two starts with the Raiders, Stidham completed 64.3 percent of his passes for 584 yards and four touchdowns against the 49ers and Chiefs. Payton said the All-22 tape of Stidham's performance against San Francisco "opened a lot of people's eyes," and months after his Las Vegas finale, Stidham signed with the Raiders' AFC West rival.

Even with the impact that his starts as a Raider made on the arc of his career, Stidham said he doesn't view the upcoming Week 18 game as an audition for a future starting role.

"I'm not looking at it as an audition or anything like that," Stidham said. "I have a certain job to do, certain thing to do on each and every play, and ultimately, we've got to go out and win. That's what I'm focused on doing my job [is] to help those other 10 guys on offense move the ball and score points. That's how I'm looking at it."

See original here:

Broncos Notebook: QB Jarrett Stidham 'excited to be back' in Las Vegas, eager to help Broncos earn win vs. former team - DenverBroncos.com