Lynch still learning to call plays
Ex-Tigers star QB studying hard to catch up
USA TODAY Sports
The routine is the same most nights for Paxton Lynch.
Read the play on the page. Look away. Say it aloud. Go over in his mind what he’d have to do to run it. Follow the same routine with the next play, and the one after that.
Lynch, the Denver Broncos’ rookie quarterback, goes through the entire script for the following day’s practice twice. If there’s a section where he struggles, he goes over it once or twice more.
Tedious preparation isn’t unusual for quarterbacks, especially young ones. But these are critical hours for Lynch — usually by himself, ever since teammate Connor McGovern moved out of the hotel room they shared — as he tries to play catch-up and bring the Broncos’ future into the now.
“When I first got here, my head was kind of spinning,” Lynch said last week. “I had the playbook. I was trying to learn everything. But now it’s kind of slowing down and I can come out here and relax and play a little bit. I’m a lot more confident.”
A cannon-armed, 6-foot-7, 244-pound athletic specimen, Lynch remains no better than second on the Broncos’ depth chart behind Trevor Siemian, who seems to be leading the competition after coach Gary Kubiak announced he’ll start again in the third preseason game Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams. (Kubiak said Thursday he hadn’t decided whether Lynch or Mark Sanchez will play second.)
That seems like a tem-