The emperor has no clothes in Denver

As a Broncos fan I berated, but accepted the decision  to go with Teddy Bridgewater over Drew Lock. I told myself that Pat Shurmur would be better in his second year, and let Vic Fangio’s defensive acumen convince me he could be a leader of men.

I now flashback to the eye test and gut feeling I had all along. Teddy Bridgewater is an average and limited quarterback that despite locker room and media support has been awful over the last four weeks.

If short flashes of high level play were good enough Drew Lock wouldn’t have ever been challenged as starter. Shurmur’s offense is boring and predictable and Fangio does not have a grasp on being a head coach and leader of neither the locker room nor the sideline.

I’ll take one for the team “The Emperor has no Clothes” as the old story goes and Denver can’t turn a blind eye any longer.

This team even while struggling with injury is ripe with talent. The answer this year at quarterback was always to see if Drew Lock could be the guy or if the Broncos were in desperate need of a new quarterback to put them back in contention.

Shurmur’s play-calling and lack of an ability to adapt in game have proven he may be outdated, and Vic Fangio has proven to be both a defensive guru and inept at managing a football game for 60 minutes in his time. The Broncos have have shown more and more weaknesses each of the last four weeks and now appear to be outmatched and outwitted in every phase of the game.

I don’t want to be all gloom and doom though the Denver Broncos were a .500 ball club with 11 games remaining prior to the recent embarrassment against the Browns.

As a fan I’d like to see if there is any reason to watch the games or maybe get my hopes up. I’m not ready for the “We’ll get em next year” closing statement that’s grown very stale. Three things need to happen.

Coaching wise I’ll go with a story By Erick Trickel of Sports Illustrated in which Denver hands over play calling to Mike Shula and Ed Donatell, but perhaps more importantly I’m in loud agreement with Sayre Bedinger insert Drew Lock ASAP.

The Bridgewater story was fun and I wish him nothing but the best. He won’t however be the quarterback to elevate this Broncos team back to contention and respectability. Maybe Lock will, and maybe he wont but it’s time to find out and we already wasted six weeks.

We’ll never know where the team may be had Drew Lock been given the reins and the offense he and Shurmur were working on last season would have been given an offseason and three early warmups to grow and mature, but most of us can see where the current trajectory will leave the Broncos so better late then never on correcting mistakes.

Go Broncos