Put Lynch in, rethink offense
Is Broncos quarterback Paxton Lynch ready for his close-up? More than 18 months after being drafted in the first round, has Lynch finally learned the dang playbook?
OK, let’s stop it right there. Here’s the real question: Are the fuddy-duddies on the Broncos coaching staff, so stuck in the 1990s they should be wearing flannel and listening to Nirvana, finally ready to put Lynch in a position to succeed?
If Vance Joseph, Mike McCoy, Bill Musgrave and all the old quarterbacks on the Denver staff are incapable of designing an offense that embraces the spread principles succeeding from Philadelphia to Kansas City, then John Elway should fire them all and start over with new coaches who understand how to win football games in 2017.
When the Broncos installed their offensive game plan Wednesday for Cincinnati, the quarterback throwing the ball on pass plays with the first team was … dum dee dum dum … Lynch!
So what does that mean? Well, Brock Osweiler was dinged with a shoulder bruise suffered during a beatdown against New England. Osweiler is expected to be healthy enough to start against the Bengals.
But here’s the real importance of Lynch supplanting
Trevor Siemian as No. 2 on the depth chart. Although seven games remain in the regular season, this team has come to the realization 2018 is closer than anybody in Broncos Country has previously wanted to admit.
“If you ask me if I can play, I’m going to say yes,” said Lynch, sidelined with a shoulder injury suffered in August.
So let’s get on with it. Let Lynch play. Sooner rather than later. The Broncos’ Super Bowl past is dead.
Yes, a 9-7 team will probably sneak into the AFC playoffs. With a 3-6 record, the Broncos are not mathematically eliminated from the wild-card hunt, because the schedule will serve Denver nothing except cupcakes from now until New Year’s Eve.
But unless Elway is blind, he saw in back-to-back dismantlings of his Broncos by the Eagles and Patriots that Denver is not a serious contender. Not this year.
It’s time to get on with the future. And, frankly, the Broncos have been hopelessly stuck in the past, while Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Russell Wilson, Marcus Mariota, Russell Wilson and even 33-year-old Alex Smith have redefined how a quarterback can succeed at the pro level by using the spread formation and implementing read-option techniques long popular at the college level.
It’s time for a change. Brock Osweiler and Trevor Siemian, who have guided Denver to last place, know the score.
“Teams are always trying to find someone better and cheaper to replace you,” Osweiler said.
Siemian wandered through the locker room like a lost puppy, looking like a discarded team captain who could use a stiff drink from Captain Morgan.
Former Broncos coach Gary Kubiak, whose play-action offense was more ’90s than Starter jackets and “The Fresh Prince of BelAir,” never had any real use for Lynch, who came out of Memphis playing a style of football that wasn’t the coach’s style. This isn’t a knock on Kubiak, who won Super Bowl 50 with a dominant defense and Peyton Manning, the ultimate oldschool quarterback.
But what is McCoy’s excuse? The game plans of Denver’s offensive coordinator should be thrown in the garbage. At 18.4 points per game, Denver ranks 24th of 32 NFL teams. If McCoy offers Lynch the same milquetoast offensive suite of plays given Osweiler and Siemian, the team’s No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft is doomed to failure.
Weeks ago, as Denver prepared to play the Chiefs, I asked Joseph if spread offensive concepts were here to stay in the NFL.
“It’s part of our league now,” Joseph said. “It’s here and it’s not going away, even the zone-read stuff.”
The future? What a concept. Let’s get on with it.
Lynch will never be Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers. But he might be Smith or Prescott, if the Broncos give him a game plan not stuck in the ’90s.