Paxton Lynch played just one series in Saturday night’s 20-17 preseason victory over the Green Bay Packers. That wasn’t the plan, however.
Having lost the starting job to Trevor Siemian last Monday, Lynch was expected to play the entire third quarter against the Packers in relief of Siemian. However, a pair of sacks at the end of the opening drive of the second half injured Lynch’s shoulder and chased him from the game.
Undrafted rookie Kyle Sloter stepped in and shined once again, tossing for a cool 49 yards on 4-for-7 passing, highlighted by a 21-yard touchdown strike to Hunter Sharp. In three preseason games, Sloter has compiled a 140.2 passer rating with a pair of touchdowns against no interceptions. His numbers Saturday might have been even greater, but he was playing mostly ball control offense with a 10-point lead after his touchdown drive.
Despite the injury to Lynch and another strong showing from Sloter, head coach Vance Joseph held fast to his position that Lynch is entrenched as the No. 2 quarterback.
“Right now, nothing’s changed. Trevor’s one and Paxton’s two,” Joseph said postgame.
“He stands where he’s standing, he’s our third right now,” Joseph said of Sloter. “Now he played well again and I’ve been impressed with Kyle, he’s been really solid through camp and through the games we’ve played, but he stands where he stands.”
Lynch will have very little time to heal up, with the Broncos’ final preseason game coming on Thursday. That puts Joseph in an odd position where he could be forced to call on Sloter for the entirety of the game.
“Will he [play the whole game]? We’ll decide that,” Joseph said. “If Paxton can’t go, he’ll probably play the whole game on Thursday. If Paxton can go, he’ll play a half and Kyle will probably play a half.”
The early prognosis on Lynch was good, postgame. X-rays were negative and he’ll undergo an MRI on Sunday to confirm, Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post reported Sunday.
“No. It’s a minor injury as we know now,” Joseph said. “Moving forward if it’s something different we can discuss that.”
Until then, there’s no sense discussing the QB depth chart.
