Denver Broncos: Reminder of poor quarterback selections post-Elway

2010: Tim Tebow, 25th overall. Hey everybody, remember Tebow Time? Tebowmania? Tebow had a very difficult time throwing the football. In two seasons as the Broncos quarterback (23 games), Tebow completed 50% and 46.5% of his attempts.

He was traded to the New York Jets in 2012 after the acquisition of Peyton Manning.

2012: Brock Osweiler, 57th overall. Osweiler was not terrible, but he sure wasn’t the answer the Broncos were hoping for.

The second-round pick, who stands at 6’7”, had an awkward delivery, as the nose of the football often aimed down towards the turf. He did decently during the Broncos’ Super Bowl run in 2015 when Peyton Manning had to sit with a foot injury.

After that season, he signed a massive contract with the Houston Texans, but that essentially backfired for Houston.

Fast forward to 2017 and he was in a quarterback competition with Trevor Siemian, who arrived in Denver in the seventh round of the 2015 draft.

In 2017, Osweiler played just six games for Denver.

2013: Zac Dysert, 234th overall. Dysert was drafted by the Broncos in the seventh round of the 2013 draft but never saw any action, as he was the third-string quarterback.

2015: Trevor Siemian, 250th overall. Siemian had some success as the Broncos starting quarterback. He didn’t see the field as a rookie, but during his second season, He completed 59.5% of his passes and had an 18-10 Touchdown-Interception ratio.

He currently is the backup quarterback in Minnesota to Kirk Cousins. In reality, he is probably going to be a career backup. He was just good enough for the Broncos at the time.

2016: Paxton Lynch, 26th overall. Coming out of Memphis, Lynch seemed like a good pick. However, the Broncos traded up to draft him, ahead of the Dallas Cowboys, who selected Dak Prescott later on in the draft.

Lynch was sadly a bust. He was unable to beat out Siemian and Osweiler and remained as the third-string quarterback. The Broncos pulled the plug on the Lynch experiment after just two seasons.

2017: Chad Kelly, 253rd overall. Kelly looked to be a promising quarterback during the 2018 preseason. He looked sharp.

If it weren’t for bad off-field decisions, he would probably still be the team’s backup quarterback. Heck, there was probably even an opportunity waiting for him to start for the Broncos, but sadly he threw that away when he caught himself in trouble after a Halloween party.

Final Thoughts

The Broncos, who traded for Joe Flacco this offseason, very well could draft a quarterback in this year’s draft, or they can wait until next year.

Flacco is on the wrong side of 30, and Case Keenum didn’t work out.

The team may need to trade up in the first round from the tenth pick if they want to secure one of the top quarterbacks. The arrival of Flacco doesn’t mean they will hold off, but that is also a possibility.

All I know is that eventually the Broncos are going to get this right in the draft. They have to. It is important to take a young player and develop him into a starter so he can be your guy for 10-12, maybe 15 years.