Denver Broncos training camp battle: Backup quarterback

Paxton Lynch (Third season, age 24)

The Broncos will undoubtedly give former first-round pick Paxton Lynch the first crack at the backup position.

After all, Lynch started the team’s final game of 2017 and was heavily invested in not only with a first-round pick, but a third-round pick as the Broncos moved up from the 31st overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft to get him.

Lynch showed signs of regression from year one to year two, but that could be for a number of reasons.

First of all, Lynch is still a very young player. It’s not easy to play quarterback in the NFL even though some guys transition more quickly than others. Lynch is hopefully just experiencing the type of growing pains that are to be expected of a player with his level of talent but inexperience in a professional offense coming out of college.

Second, Lynch’s regression could easily be attributed to a change in offense in consecutive years as a professional. Mike McCoy’s offense limited even the great Peyton Manning before Manning was truly unleashed by Adam Gase.

Lynch’s mental processing didn’t seem to be on par with that of a second-year quarterback, but there was a ton of pressure on him to perform and then he got hurt after being named Trevor Siemian’s backup.

All things considered, after seeing Lynch in the season finale against Kansas City, I’m willing to give him a second chance. He showed he can work well within an offense that requires the quarterback to stay on schedule, and he also made some very impressive throws deep downfield to Jordan Taylor.

It was against backups and it also wasn’t perfect, but Lynch didn’t make any mistakes you wouldn’t expect from a young player starting his fourth NFL game.

We’re trusting the process here and obviously, John Elway and company are as well.