2021 marks the first time since 2010 that John Elway isn’t the Broncos’ main man from a personnel perspective — either as the team’s Director of Player Personnel (2011) or Executive VP of Football Operations/General Manager (2012-2020). In handing the baton over to George Paton as the GM, Elway also took with him a long and weird history of betting on quarterbacks with prodigious physical upsides and not always as much in the pure quarterbacking department. Elway’s post-Peyton Manning ride with quarterbacks hinged on two types — the tall, strong-armed project with fluky GPS (Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch, Joe Flacco, Drew Lock), and the journeyman backup types with less impressive traits, but hopefully some measure of game management skills to keep the team on the right track (Case Keenum, Trevor Siemian, Jeff Driskel, Brett Rypien).
Ultimately, nothing worked. As much as Elway looked like a genius for betting on Manning’s recovery skills, he’s looked far more flawed in his quarterback evaluations since Manning’s retirement. It’s worth mentioning that, in the year that Manning passed his five-year retirement requirement for his slam-dunk placement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Broncos haven’t made the playoffs since they won Super Bowl 50 at the end of the 2015 season — Manning’s last NFL game.
Now, with just about every other position locked up, the Broncos have shoved Lock, his precocious upside, and his hit-and-miss on-field acumen aside in favor of Teddy Bridgewater, the veteran who the team traded a sixth-round pick to the Panthers for in April. Head coach Vic Fangio had resisted naming a Week starter for the 2021 season until Wednesday, but as it’s official, it’s time to review what Bridgewater brings to the field.