Why didn’t Fangio turn to Lock vs. Cleveland?
Q: Vic Fangio said all camp long how close the race was between Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock. If that were the case, wouldn’t it had made sense to switch to Lock with Bridgewater hurt and ineffective in the first half of the Browns game? Do you think Fangio is being influenced by George Paton not to switch since Bridgewater is his guy?
— Brandon Brown, Rogers, Minn.
Ryan: Watching Bridgewater go through pre-game warm-ups last week in Cleveland, the thought amongst a lot of us media-folk was he wouldn’t make it to the finish line.
But Bridgewater gutted it out. Lock was warming up between offensive series throughout the first half.
I go back to Lock’s poor performance in the second half of the Baltimore loss. Was that enough to convince Fangio that a notthat-healthy Teddy is better than a completely healthy Drew? It might have been. Remember, the sentiment before the season was Bridgewater would keep his job so long as the team was winning. The Broncos have lost four consecutive games but Fangio remains committed to Bridgewater.
I don’t believe Paton is getting involved with start-him-or-bench-him quarterback decisions in-season.
Q: Humor us, please. In your time in Jacksonville, were the Jaguars ever this incompetent and incapable?
— Kris H., Grand Prairie, Texas
Ryan: Well, yes. The Jaguars teams I covered went 2-14, 4-12, 3-13, 5-11, 3-13 and 10-6. Included were losing streaks of seven (2012), eight (’13), six (’14) and nine (’16) games. But it seemed like every year except for ’12, there was something interesting going on. New coach/new GM in ’13. Rookie quarterback in ’14. Free-agent money spent in ’16. This Broncos team, right now, is, well, boring.
Q: Why do the Broncos stink? Why has this organization taken a drastic dive into the football abyss?
— Ricky Lopez, Cedaredge
Ryan: The same answer applies to both questions.
1. Quarterback play. Period. No stability at the sport’s most important position — last month, Teddy Bridgewater was the fifth Week 1 starter in as many years.
2. And look at the last five first-round picks. Left tackle Garett Bolles needs to pick it up. Outside linebacker Bradley Chubb and receiver Jerry Jeudy have been injured. Tight end Noah Fant has yet to get going. And cornerback Pat Surtain II has been fine as a rookie.
Q: Why is Vic Fangio still there? How many losing seasons does it take to say enough is enough?
— Robert Rivers, Powdersville, S.C.
Ryan: Hey, the Broncos believe they’re still in it even though they are 3-4 and are 12th out of 16 teams in the AFC!
Moving Fangio out at this juncture is pointless. In baseball, hockey and basketball, you see interim coaches occasionally spark their team to a new height. Not so much in the NFL, where the only reason to make a change is to get a head start at vetting the next coach. If it’s three losing seasons in as many years, that will likely be it.
Q: How many of the failures are from this coaching staff? Remember when we had Rich Scangarello as the offensive coordinator and Drew Lock started to win games, so how different would things be if we had the right coaching?
— Christopher G, Gunnison
Ryan: The blame should be passed around to every part of the football operation — management, coaches and players.
The Scangarello firing, which happened two weeks after the 2019 season, will always be viewed as weird because Lock went 4-1 in his cameo, but he was drafted to play in a very specific offense. Then, poof, after one year, Lock had to start over.