Denver Broncos general manager John Elway admitted the pick of Paxton Lynch was a miss, but questioned whether the Broncos were fair to him.
Denver Broncos general manager John Elway hasn’t drafted a guy like Patrick Mahomes. He hasn’t made a move to go get a guy like DeShaun Watson.
Heck, Elway’s best draft pick at the quarterback position since becoming general manager of the Denver Broncos is Trevor Siemian, who was probably more of a Gary Kubiak guy.
But Elway is not unlike every other general manager in the NFL when it comes to finding quarterbacks. Unless you get lucky and/or have the number one pick in the draft, finding your quarterback of the future is hard.
I spent an entire day researching the struggle of every NFL team. The bottom line is, every NFL team makes bad quarterback investments. Even if NFL teams invest in good quarterbacks, most have been spinning their wheels for the last eight years and investing in guys who have proven incapable of delivering a championship.
Peyton Manning was part of the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 run and led the Broncos to Super Bowl 48 in that timeframe.
Once Manning retired, the Broncos tried to bring in Colin Kaepernick, who had (at the time) somewhat recently been to a Super Bowl. That should have been a great fit, but it didn’t work out because of Kaepernick’s contract.
Once Kaepernick fell through, Elway spent an extra third-round pick to move up and get Paxton Lynch with the Cowboys and Chiefs also in pursuit of the former Memphis quarterback.
Elway, looking at the move in hindsight, admits the selection of Lynch was a ‘miss’.
There are some great nuggets in Klis’ article there, but for now, we’re going to focus on the Paxton Lynch selection.
Yes, Lynch was a major NFL Draft whiff. Yes, he turned out to be terrible. Yes, he got worse in all of his three years with the Broncos.
Were the Broncos ‘unfair’ to Lynch? That depends on what you believe. There have been many sources close to the situation through the years that have said Lynch did not dedicate the kind of time he should have to football.
Was it unfair of the Broncos that Gary Kubiak — who undoubtedly had a hand in selecting Lynch — had to step down as the team’s head coach after the 2016 season?
Lynch was supposed to be the Broncos’ QB of the future under Kubiak, and instead, he had three different offensive coordinators in three years. Is that ideal for a young quarterback? Not in the least. Every young quarterback needs a coach who understands how to mold an offense to their skill set, and Lynch had to deal with three different offensive coordinators who were more interested in implementing their offensive program than putting together an offense that suited him.
In that regard, yes, the Broncos were unfair to Lynch.
They never had an offensive coordinator or coach who was able to fully buy into Lynch the way the front office and Gary Kubiak did.
It’s really a shame things didn’t work out with Paxton Lynch, and it’s likely a major source of fuel for John Elway. He wants to prove he can pick the right guy but his preference has always been to go for veterans first.
There’s no guarantee the Broncos will draft a quarterback early in 2019 with Joe Flacco in the house. They shouldn’t force the issue as they did in 2016 and that’s what Flacco prevents them from. What the Broncos need to do is find the guy they believe can change the narrative at the position and do whatever it takes to get him when that time comes.