Paxton Lynch contract looms large for Broncos future

Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch has officially signed his contract, one of the most important contracts on the entire payroll…

The Denver Broncos finally signed their prized draft pick — quarterback Paxton Lynch — to a four-year contract on Thursday afternoon. Lynch reportedly had agreed to the deal at some point on Thursday morning, and his agent flew to Denver to seal the deal later in the day.

Lynch’s deal is absolutely enormous for the Broncos, though the signing comes as really no shock or surprise whatsoever.

Each draft pick is basically slotted in terms of annual salary, but the Broncos threw a little something extra into Lynch’s signing bonus down the road…

As a side note, Lynch was able to get the first three years of the contract guaranteed in addition to the unprecedented $600K guaranteed in year four. He’s also not averse to giving some of the money away…

So why is this contract so critical for the Broncos if it’s so routine with the collective bargaining agreement? Well, the Broncos toyed with the idea this offseason of bringing in a veteran quarterback. They explored the idea of Colin Kaepernick to the point that he spent multiple occasions in Denver with team brass, including some time at John Elway’s home.

I guess you could say it got pretty serious…

The reason this contract is so important is its friendliness to the team’s payroll. The Broncos have essentially secured their franchise quarterback at a fraction of the price they were looking at for Colin Kaepernick, and they have him at said cost-effective price for the next four seasons.

After that?

The Broncos have a fifth-year team option that is going to be substantially lower than fellow first round quarterbacks Jared Goff (Rams) and Carson Wentz (Eagles), who were the first and second picks in the draft respectively.

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The fifth-year option price reduces dramatically for quarterbacks after the 11th overall pick.

This is important because having a quarterback at such a cost-effective price allows the Broncos to keep the greatest strength of this team in-tact: The defense. With the cap space the Broncos will have freed up at the QB position the next five years, they can invest primary assets in other areas of the team.

We’ve seen how well that has worked out for teams like Seattle and even to a degree New England. The Broncos are going to need a swift development for Lynch, whose cost effectiveness is only valuable if the Broncos are still winning games.

I have an inkling that’s going to be the case…