Denver Broncos 3 worst quarterbacks in the post-John Elway era

1. Paxton Lynch (2016-17)

There can be no debate.

Paxton Lynch is the worst quarterback the Denver Broncos have had in the post-John Elway era, and Elway was the guy who drafted him.

To be fair, let's lay out all of the facts.

The Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50 in the 2015 NFL season. After the 2015 season, Peyton Manning retired, the Broncos held the last pick in the first round of the NFL Draft, and the team was obviously exploring alternate options before they ultimately selected Paxton Lynch in the 2016 NFL Draft.

The primary alternate option, at the time, was Colin Kaepernick. As a matter of fact, the Broncos and 49ers had agreed upon trade compensation for a trade to acquire Kaepernick, and the deal hinged on either the 49ers paying $4.9 million of Kaepernick's 2016 salary with the Broncos paying $7 million, or Kaepernick simply taking a $4.9 million pay cut. That did not happen, and neither did the trade.

The Broncos were forced to pivot off of what would have been a fascinating option -- Gary Kubiak coaching Colin Kaepernick in Denver.

After being forced to pivot, the Broncos obviously weren't getting Jared Goff or Carson Wentz in the 2016 NFL Draft, so they took the only other guy who was being projected to go in the first round: Paxton Lynch. They could have kicked the can down the road to 2017 and possibly jumped into that quarterback market, which included some guy named Mahomes, but oh well.

Paxton Lynch, a first-round NFL Draft pick at the quarterback position, only lasted five games total in the NFL. That's got to be some kind of record for a player who didn't have to retire due to injury. The five games Lynch played for the Broncos were mostly brutal as well.

Lynch simply looked lost out there most of the time as an NFL quarterback, unable to execute simple concepts to the point that the Broncos simply refused to put him out there. In hindsight, it's kind of amazing they signed off on the selection in the first place.

Lynch ad intriguing physical gifts, but he didn't have the intangibles to cut it at the NFL level. He's been infamously accused of playing more Madden than studying his playbook upon arriving in the NFL.

The Broncos should have just taken Chris Jones in round one and Dak Prescott in round two of the 2016 NFL Draft, but hindsight is always 20/20. Lynch bounced around to the Seahawks and Steelers but hasn't been in the NFL for quite some time now and has signed with teams in the CFL, USFL, and XFL.