The goal of the Denver Broncos 2016 season has changed.
Or, at least it should have changed.
Yes, the goal is and always will be to win the Super Bowl – that’s a given. But for anyone who stayed awake long enough to watch the Broncos slip out of Jacksonville with a 20-10 win, that goal looks more like a dream. It’s not that Denver got lucky in Jacksonville – there’s no question the Broncos are better than the Jaguars – but the harsh reality is that Denver’s offense isn’t good enough to win a Super Bowl.
Of course, we said that last season. The Broncos offense sputtered along then, too. But in retrospect, we can now see the importance of a savvy signal caller. Peyton Manning wasn’t able to throw much harder than an average high school quarterback, but he still knew how to read a defense, call a proper audible, and make sure his suspect offensive line somehow kept him upright. That offense wasn’t “good,” but it was “adequate.”
The offense in Jacksonville yesterday wasn’t even that.
Consider that every one of Denver’s 20 points came from defensive gifts or Jacksonville blunders: Devonte Booker’s six-yard touchdown run came on the heels of a 15-yard Jaguars penalty, as did the Broncos first field goal; Blake Bortles fumbled in Jacksonville territory to give Denver the game’s final field goal; and of course, Bradley Roby’s 51-yard interception return for a touchdown.
In other words, Denver’s offense did very, very little. To be exact, 208 total yards and 13 points (charitably). There were three scoring drives and 11 drives that ended with a punt.
There are plenty of reasons the Broncos offense is so paltry – beginning with football’s worst offensive line (a unit that wasn’t as bad yesterday as it had been of late) and Gary Kubiak’s ultra conservative (and probably wise) play calling, and ending with the quarterback position.
At present, Denver does not have a starting NFL quarterback on the roster.
Without drudging up every point of a season long debate – for the sake of brevity – let’s concede that Trevor Siemian is a backup quarterback (he just is; end of discussion).
And Paxton Lynch is currently worse.
This brings us back to the goal that must be met by the end of the season: Find out if anyone donning the orange and blue now is capable of being a bona fide, starting NFL quarterback in 2017.
To say that Lynch is “0-for-2” in chances to show he’s an NFL quarterback is fair. Against Atlanta, he was dreadful. Against Jacksonville, he got a win, but realistically didn’t show he’s ready assume the position of starter. He missed open receivers. His decision making appears slow. He did a few good things – namely he didn’t turn the ball over – but ultimately, nothing worthy of cumulative high praise.
To be fair, however, Lynch has had all of about six practices to prepare as the starter this season. From the outset, Kubiak has been high on Siemian, and only when absolutely forced to do so, he’s gone with Lynch.
Still, and regardless of his somewhat limited preparation, Lynch has yet to seize the opportunity. So, nobody knows – or least nobody has seen – that Lynch is fully capable of the job.
If Siemian returns healthy at any point in the season, the challenge should not be deciding who should start that week. The challenge – from here on out – is who should be starting on opening day 2017.
Know this: Barring the miracle of all miracles, the Broncos aren’t winning Super Bowl 51.
If John Elway and Gary Kubiak can silently and honestly agree with that, then their task is figuring out – with a limited amount of time and games – if Lynch can be the starter next season.
Now, the rookie doesn’t have to go out and win. He’s still playing behind that oh-so-terrible offensive line (fixing that must be the goal of the offseason), and he’s got some fairly tough opponents in front of him (2-2 is probably a fair request). But Lynch does have to prove competent, or at the very least, show signs of being the player that Elway envisioned when he moved up to take him at No. 26 in the NFL Draft.
Denver’s Super Bowl caliber defense will not be in tact forever. Unfortunately, it appears that a repeat is not in store – not with this offense, not with either quarterback.
But that defense will be back in 2017, and that might be Elway’s last chance to ride this particular unit to another Lombardi Trophy. That can only be done, however, if there’s a true starting quarterback on the roster. There’s more than one way to make sure that player is here next year, but he must be here.
Does Elway currently possess a quarterback who’s worthy of the nod on Opening Day 2017?
He’s got four games to find out.