No Winner Yet In Broncos QB Battle

The Denver Broncos quarterback situation remains one of the only true starter competitions in the NFL, and for good reason.

Head coaches at all levels have long despised any uncertainty under center because the success of the entire team flows directly from the quarterback. The rest of the team needs repetitions to get familiar with the starter so that trust and leadership can develop. Anything less, any ‘gray’ area in the locker room, seemingly always leads to lackluster performance on the field.

Drew Lock was drafted in 2019 by the Broncos, and has played in 18 games for the team, whereas Teddy Bridgewater is looking to build on the momentum of a surprising 2020 campaign in Carolina which reinvigorated his career. Neither option is considered around the league to be a slam dunk, but both are thought to have nice upside. But who will get the nod?

With the clock ticking on the preseason, though, Denver head coach Vic Fangio is still spinning his quarterback competition as a good thing: “Both of these guys have done well. We can play and win with either one of these guys, and that’s a good thing.”

Fangio did acknowledge that the season is about to begin, and that a decision will need to be made.

“The calendar’s closing in on us,” Fangio said. “It won’t be tomorrow. The earliest it would be would be early next week, or we’ll let it go another week. These guys, both of them, Drew and Teddy, have done well, as you guys have seen, and they’ve made it a hard decision. We’ll give it thorough thought. We’ve been discussing it with the coaches, with George [Paton] all along, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Common sense would make Lock the favorite, considering his second-round draft status and upside. But credit to Bridgewater, who was dangerously close to being labelled  a ‘back-up’ in the NFL, for establishing himself as a legitimate starter option in the highly-competitive market.

“He’s got good quarterback awareness and instincts,” Fangio said about Bridgewater. “I think it’s shown in the way he can move within a pocket, and buy time that way. You know, there’s two types of elusive quarterbacks, the ones that run around and there’s the other ones that manipulate the pocket to buy time. And the best in the last 20 years of that has been Tom Brady. And he’s got a little of that in him, as far as manipulating the pocket.”

It sounds as if Fangio will eventually lock himself in his office and make the difficult decision after a heavy film session, seeing as a coach can only see so much at one time during the speed of the game.

“I want to see all the plays with a remote in my hand and take a good look at them, rather than what I saw at the field at the time.”