The Denver Broncos have an old-fashioned training camp battle at the quarterback position on their hands. Who will emerge from that battle and who will stick on the Broncos roster when all is said and done?
Someone should talk about the Denver Broncos‘ quarterback position for a change, shouldn’t they?
Lucky for you, that’s what we’re here for.
The Broncos had pretty great clarity at the quarterback entering the 2020 season even though they were changing offensive coordinators. Drew Lock was fresh off of a strong finish to the 2019 season, his rookie year in the NFL, and it was expected — even through the pandemic-impacted offseason — that Lock would make strides in year two and establish himself as the long-term fixture at QB for the Broncos.
Unfortunately for the Denver Broncos, that didn’t happen.
Denver Broncos roster: State of the QB position
Lock did not play well enough to enter the 2021 offseason as the undisputed starting quarterback on the team, and new general manager George Paton brought in veteran Teddy Bridgewater to compete with him.
The Broncos also still have Brett Rypien on the roster, but they are carrying just three quarterbacks into 2021 training camp, at least for the time being.
Let’s take a look through each of these three guys and what they all bring to the table for this Broncos roster.
Drew Lock
Drew Lock, the incumbent starting quarterback on the Denver Broncos roster.
There is no doubt that statistically speaking, Lock was not good enough in 2020 for the Denver Broncos.
Lock made far too many reckless decisions with the football and missed far too many open receivers downfield. He failed to consistently “throw” receivers open and generally struggled to do the simple things well for at least the first half of the season.
Lock once again suffered a significant injury (remember he was out for most of his rookie season on IR?) and all of these issues combined have a large number of fans in Broncos Country worried about his future with the team. Perhaps more accurately stated, a large number of fans in Broncos Country are worried about the Broncos’ future with Lock on the team.
There are valid concerns and issues with Drew Lock’s game at this point, and the question right now is simply how much more time should the Broncos give him?
Lock has played in 17 games and a fraction of an 18th. Whether or not you think the sample size is big enough at this point to determine that Lock simply is what he is at this point is debatable, and Broncos Country spends plenty of energy debating it.
Whether you see Lock as a lost cause or as someone who deserves more time, it doesn’t really matter. The fact of the matter is, the Denver Broncos haven’t traded for anybody who is clearly a better option, and they passed on Justin Fields (and Mac Jones) in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Barring an Aaron Rodgers trade, it appears as though George Paton, Vic Fangio, and the rest of the staff are in agreement that there is still potential for Lock to figure things out.
Teddy Bridgewater
Teddy Bridgewater has been a player of interest for Denver Broncos fans for quite some time. He was finally added to the Broncos roster the day before round one of the 2021 NFL Draft, but the Broncos made the Carolina Panthers pay (literally) in order to give them a draft pick.
Bridgewater’s re-worked salary is one of the top indicators that he’s not going to be handed anything upon arriving in Denver.
With that being said, Bridgewater has proven in his NFL career that he can play a true “point guard” kind of role at the quarterback position on a good roster and the team will have success. Look no further than his first couple of years starting for the Minnesota Vikings and his time with the New Orleans Saints as evidence.
After signing a big-money deal with the Carolina Panthers in 2020, the idea that Bridgewater is a “raise all boats” kind of guy at the quarterback position took a pretty hefty shot.
He had the same kind of weird offseason hurdles to jump as Drew Lock with a new coaching staff, new teammates, injuries all over the place, and more.
Even with pretty vastly different sample sizes so far, Drew Lock has been a 3.8 touchdown percentage player and Bridgewater is at 3.4 percent for his career. In terms of interception percentage, Bridgewater is at 2.3 percent while Lock is at 3.0 percent.
Bridgewater is known for completing a high percentage of passes (66.5 percent in 59 career games) while Lock is dinged for inaccuracy (59.1 percent in 18 games).
All of those factors add up to what the Denver Broncos likely believe they have done in adding Bridgewater — raising the floor of the QB position.
The dropoff from Drew Lock to Jeff Driskel and Brett Rypien in 2020 was pretty staggering, even considering Lock’s own struggles.
The dropoff from Lock to Bridgewater? Well, it might not even be a dropoff, all things considered.
If Bridgewater shows the coaching staff that he can simply make better decisions with the ball consistently and make accurate throws more consistently, he’s probably going to take Drew Lock’s job. The Denver Broncos can’t afford to lead the league in turnovers again and they can’t afford such drastic inconsistency on offense with three-and-outs and untimely mistakes.
Although Bridgwater may be unspectacular, he has a track record of playing really well with a good roster around him (go figure), so he’s in a pretty good spot here.
Brett Rypien
Brett Rypien, so far, is a great illustration of just how hard it is to play in the NFL.
As a four-year starter at Boise State, he completed 64 percent of his 1,617 pass attempts. He threw just 29 interceptions in four years, good for a 1.8 interception percentage.
That’s pretty good, even if you were just a one-year starter.
Rypien was given the opportunity to throw 40 passes in the 2020 season, and ended up throwing four interceptions.
That’s a 10 percent interception percentage.
It would be unfair to say that interception percentage would remain consistent if Rypien were given more work, but you get the idea.
It’s very hard to play quarterback in the NFL and Rypien did a pretty admirable job when he was called upon to start against the New York Jets on the road last season, in short order, with the Broncos desperately needing to get on the board in the win column.
He delivered, even if he was the reason it was close.
As great as Rypien was in college, he’s going to need to have a big training camp and preseason to stick on the Broncos’ roster. Maybe the Broncos see this completely differently than I do, but there are way too many guys who will contribute on a weekly basis to keep three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster.
It would be risky to try and sneak Rypien onto the practice squad and hope that he clears waivers, but it’s happened before and it’s not impossible.
Unless Rypien lights defenses up in preseason play, at this point, I expect the Denver Broncos to try and get him through to the practice squad and be the third QB behind Lock and Bridgewater.
Predictions
Based on the fact that the Denver Broncos passed on overpaying for Matthew Stafford and they passed on the 2021 NFL Draft class, it’s not a stretch to think that they are holding out hope for Drew Lock to be the starting quarterback in 2021.
But they are going to make him win it.
Teddy Bridgewater gives the team a solid fail-safe and I think they can win a decent amount of games with Bridgewater at QB, even if he is just at or hovering around league average play.
The Broncos will lean on the running game as heavily as they need to this year with Melvin Gordon, Javonte Williams, and Mike Boone in the backfield.
They should also plan on leaning heavily on the YAC monsters they have in the passing game, and Pat Shurmur will have to adjust his gameplan accordingly so the depth of every passing target is not 10 yards or deeper.
Whatever ultimately happens with Aaron Rodgers would obviously have a massive effect on this team as a whole, but if nothing changes at all, the best possible outcome for the Denver Broncos in 2021 is that Lock shows tremendous improvement and establishes himself as “the guy” while the team also makes the playoffs.
Is that really too much to ask?
If Lock doesn’t show improvement, the Broncos will have to transition to Bridgewater quickly and hope that his veteran presence can carry them into the postseason over a 17-game regular season.
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