QB Options: Fitzpatrick in the mix?

With Brock Osweiler’s recent and sudden departure from Denver, the Broncos suddenly find themselves playing the high stakes game of “musical chairs” in the QB department.  You don’t want to overpay and hurt your team to secure a player’s services (the Brock situation), but you don’t want to wait too long either and leave yourself thin at the position.  Various names have been connected to the Broncos in the last 24 hours in regards to the QB position, and rightfully so.

The leader in the “next Broncos QB” sweepstakes appears to be 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick. There have been various reports throughout the day that the Broncos are trying to trade for Kaepernicks’s services.  Like many things in the NFL, a situation involving acquiring a player can be fluid and until the player inks the new contract or is in officially acquired, you can never count on them joining your team. In this scenario for the Broncos, it appears that they have one other veteran QB in mind (in case the Broncos don’t land Kaepernick).

Yup, the Broncos have indeed been “in touch” with Ryan “Amish Rifle” Fitzpatrick about possibly signing with the team.  What do I think of this move? Honestly… Meh….

By no means am I saying he’s a slouch. He led the NY Jets to a respectable 10-6 record last year and set a career high in TD passes in the process(31).  In his 11+ years in the NFL, he’s thrown for over 23,000 yards and 154 TD’s. Not too shabby.  Judging by those stats, he’s clearly a guy that could come in and handle this Kubiak led offense.  But why am I only lukewarm on the prospects of Fitzpatrick coming together? There’s a few reasons.

Despite being in the league for 11 years, he’s never been on a team that’s made it to the playoffs. Think about that for a second. How often do you find players that have been in the league that long and have never made it to the postseason? Regardless if they were a starter or backup? For as much experience as he has in the regular season, he has squat beyond that. Can we really trust someone

with no playoff experience to lead the defending Super Bowl Champions next season?

2.  To follow up the first point, if we are willing to do that with someone that has no playoff experience, then why not just do it with a rookie? For a fraction of the cost that you’d be paying Fitzpatrick, you could take on the same task with a rookie QB and use that leftover money on other parts of the team to keep the team strong.

3.  Speaking of contract, what kind of money is he looking for with a new contract? The argument made for Brock signing with the Texans is that the current marketplace for starting NFL QB’s is 15+ million a year.  If Brock got 18 million a year with only 7 career starts, how much could an experienced starter like Fitzpatrick get?

4.  Finally.. Despite the long NFL career, the Broncos would be Fitzpatrick’s 7th NFL team in his career. SEVENTH! That’s a new team less than every two years.  I’m not saying the consistent change is all on Fitzpatrick, but you have to wonder why he’s bounced around the league so much in his career?

We’ll see how this situation shakes out in the coming days  with the Broncos. If they can’t land Kaepernick and could get Fitzpatrick at a very reasonable price, then he may be worth a shot. I don’t know if he should be counted on to be the starter next season and beyond, but he would definitely give you the veteran experience in the QB room that’s sorely lacking right now.

Either way, I expect the Broncos to draft a QB early and have them compete with whatever veteran the Broncos bring in along with Trevor Siemian. Stay tuned to Predominantly Orange for all things Broncos, especially the QB situation.