The Broncos have a starting QB in Drew Lock and now need to give him a solid backup.
The Denver Broncos have found their starting quarterback for the foreseeable future in Drew Lock. There should be no controversy this offseason.
But the team has a few different directions it can go in terms of the team’s backup quarterback spot. Will the team look within for Lock’s backup or will it go outside the organization and find a different option than one currently on the roster? Here are three options.
Option 1: Joe Flacco
(Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports)
The first option to consider is going to be Flacco, the veteran the team traded for last March and hoped to get a couple seasons out of. Instead, they might have just gotten part of one season.
Whether Flacco could be the team’s backup next season rests on a couple of things. One, is his contract, the one the team chose to restructure. Secondly, would be whether he has an interest in staying in Denver or if the organization has an interest in him staying.
It’s hard to imagine there being much interest on either side and though there would be a lot of dead money for the team to eat if it cuts ties with him, that should be the direction things end up going.
The Denver Broncos used three different quarterbacks in 2019. How did each quarterback do?
In looking back at the 2019 season, we will be handing out grades this offseason for each of the positional units of the Denver Broncos. We’ll jump right in with the position everyone thinks of first: quarterback.
Most teams in the league hope to start one quarterback all season and if not, the hope is that there is a capable backup sitting on the bench. In the case of the Broncos, the team used three different quarterbacks in 2019.
We will take a look at each of them individually, handing out a grade for each player and that will lead to a collective grade for the positional group.
During the offseason, the Broncos were looking to move on from Case Keenum, who had just posted a lackluster 2018 season. The answer to how they would do that came in March when the team traded for Flacco.
Ousted as the starting quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens by the fast-rising Lamar Jackson, Flacco, a Super-Bowl winning quarterback, needed a change of scenery. Denver seemed to be a logical place for him to renew his career, but if you instantly hated this move, you and I have something in common.
Flacco’s best days are behind him, regardless of what John Elway may think, but the reason he was so bad for the Broncos was that he is just not a good fit for the offense Rich Scangarello wanted to install.
The offense sputtered with Flacco at the helm and that was evident even in the preseason. But if you want an idea of just how bad he was, go back and watch the Week 7 game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Allen started three games for the Broncos and that was probably too many. For some reason, the team was hesitant to go with its second-round pick, Drew Lock.
Instead, Allen, a former sixth-round pick playing for his third different team came in and won a game against the Cleveland Browns and suddenly, fans were talking about how he could be the starter going forward and into the future.
Really?
That’s just how hungry Broncos Country is for a quarterback it can believe in, but Allen is a competent backup quarterback at absolute best.
He did the best he could given the circumstances but the fact that he was the starter for three games was a poor decision by the coaching staff. That’s not on Allen, but if he was a better quarterback when he played, it might not have been a poor decision.
