No matter how legendary a defense the Broncos may have, there’s still nothing more important to the success of a football team than the quarterback position.
Yes, Denver brought home a Lombardi Trophy despite bottom-of-the-barrel quarterback play — still love ya, Peyton! — but that’s an anomaly, not a revelation.
If the Broncos want to repeat, they need to improve at quarterback, and that can be accomplished in several different fashions: improved quarterback play, first and foremost; an improved offensive line, which the Broncos have prioritized this offseason; and a more-reliable receiving corps — we’re looking at you, Demaryius.
The Broncos look to be on track to accomplish the latter two, but what about the first? Can they get improved quarterback play in 2016, and who’s going to do it?
The Broncos’ Brain Trust (John Elway, Joe Ellis and Gary Kubiak) spoke about Denver’s quarterback competition on Wednesday, and here’s what they had to say:
Elway on the quarterback competition:
“It’s wide open. We’re going to look at [QB] Trevor [Siemian], [QB] Mark [Sanchez] and see how they do—throwing [QB] Paxton [Lynch] in there, too. That’s what’s exciting about finally getting to start camp. We get to see how it’s going to really take shape. [Head Coach] Gary [Kubiak] is very seasoned at that position. I know he’ll handle it the right way and we’ll find the right guy.”
Elway on comparing the quarterback situation from last year:
“I’m not going to get into that because obviously we won the Super Bowl last year, so that’s pretty good. It’s hard to compare it to that, but I think we can be better offensively. If you look at it as a whole where we are and the injuries we had on the offensive line, we expect some of the guys that we drafted this year to come in and help us. I think it’s going to help having a year under our belt with the offensive and with what Gary likes to do and what [Offensive Coordinator] Rick [Dennison] likes to do on the offensive side. Being familiar with the offense is only going to help us. As much as we like to say that we did the right things offensively, we hung on offensively. That’s what excites me about this year. We have a chance now to shape in to an offense even at that position with Mark Sanchez, Trevor and Paxton battling for that job. We’ll be able to run the football and get good quality play for that position.”
Ellis on his take on the quarterback competition:
“I’d give you the same answer that John gave you because that’s the same one that he gave me when I asked him yesterday. Up until then I didn’t know. Then we had a good conversation yesterday. He’s brought in [QB] Mark [Sanchez] and [QB] Trevor [Siemian], [who] obviously has familiarity from last year and we’re very excited about our first round draft pick, [QB] Paxton Lynch. I think we’ll see what happens. We’ll open competition and I know everyone’s eyes will be on that. “
Kubiak on managing quarterback reps in training camp:
“That is a tricky situation. We’ll see. The bottom line is we’re going to give them equal reps. It’s an open competition. We’ve laid out our plan of how we’re going to rep them so that we’re getting an equal look at all of them. I think right now when we line up tomorrow, [QB] Mark [Sanchez] is going to go first, [QB] Trevor [Siemian] is going to go second and [QB] Paxton [Lynch] is going to go third. That will change on a day-to-day basis. We just want to give them all an equal opportunity. As far as making a decision, I don’t have a timeline on it right now. I want to get to work and have as good of days as we can possible have. We’ll go from there.”
Kubiak on the splitting of reps:
“It’ll probably work out more with Trevor and Mark splitting the first team reps more than Paxton. I will also say this, we came out of the offseason with Paxton probably getting twice the amount of reps as our two other quarterbacks got. When it’s all said and done, we believe in developing young players and it’ll probably play out the same way.”
Kubiak on Lynch’s development:
“I think I’ve already seen something. He went away for a month, basically all of us have, and we’ve had him for a couple of days. I think Paxton’s struggles in the offseason were verbiage, huddle and all of those type of things. I’ve seen him improve already. His talent is exceptional, we all know that. I think he’s more comfortable right now just watching him bounce around and call plays. We’ll see how far he’s come.”
Kubiak on Lynch’s footwork:
“I think that’s something that we continuously have to work on, but I think it is getting to be second nature for him. I think he’s made a lot of improvement. I do not think that’s going to be that big of a deal. It is something that we are going to have to continue to grind on.”
Kubiak on what factors go into evaluating quarterback:
“I think it’s who does the best job with the team. Obviously we have a system that you have to go run and get the ball in the right hands. We’ve got a lot of playmakers on this football team and we have to get the ball in their hands the right way. You also have to protect the football for this team. I think there are a lot of things involved. We’ll see. We have two good young quarterbacks on our roster and we have another quarterback who’s had success in this league. Let’s let them go to work. I’m interested in seeing how they come back. I’ve seen how Paxton’s come back. I’m interested to watch Mark and Trevor hit the field tomorrow. It’s how do they come back, how have they worked mentally and physically over the course of the last month. We should know a lot more in about a week, but I’m excited to see what happens.”
Kubiak on the nature of a quarterback competition:
“I think they are going to tell me by how they preform and how they handle the football team. I’m excited to watch all of them. I think they’ve all worked extremely hard. I know that they know that they are all on equal footing as far as reps and what is fixing to take place here. They left here knowing that. Let’s see how they come back.”
Kubiak on whether the quarterback competition can be a quick one:
“I’ve seen it happen that way. I’ve seen it take some time. We’ll see. The one thing I want to make sure is that every night, when we go up in that office, Mark had 75 throws that day, Trevor had 75 throws and Paxton (got his reps). I want to be able to look at it that way. I want to be fair from that standpoint, because I think they all deserve the opportunity.”
Kubiak’s timeline for naming a quarterback:
“I don’t really have one. We are just going to go to work every day. Camp is a long grind. We’ve got a lot to get done each day and a lot of practices to get under our belts. We’ll take it a day at a time.”
