Broncos still mum on starting QB decision

ENGLEWOOD — The deliberations continue for Denver Broncos coach Vic Fangio.

Nearly a month of training camp and two preseason games have not provided enough evidence for Fangio to choose Teddy Bridgewater or Drew Lock as the starting quarterback for the team’s season opener at the New York Giants on Sept. 12.

Bridgewater and Lock have each started one preseason game and Fangio said he is undecided who will start Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams or if both will even play.

Quarterback talk commanded the most attention during Fangio’s briefing with reporters — his first availability since last Saturday’s win at Seattle.

“It’s close and it’s close, I think, for a good reason — they’ve both played well,” Fangio said. “The good news of this competition is we have two quarterbacks we think we can go and win with.”

Fangio said he isn’t holding off on naming a starter for competitive reasons, said the quarterback snaps were supposed to be divided evenly between Bridgewater and Lock and explained the format of practice — only 40% of the team work is devoted to the Rams’ plays — allows for the competition to continue.

The clock is ticking until the Broncos have their first regular-season practice in two weeks.

What can be gained by carrying this competition to another week? In theory, by choosing a Week 1 quarterback this week, it would allow Fangio to sit out most

if not all of his offensive starters and not risk injury.

“We just want to do it at the right time, meaning the right time for obviously the players involved, for the team, for everybody,” Fangio said. “What’s today’s date (Aug. 24)? We’ve got 19 days.”

Fangio believes the battle has made Lock and Bridgewater better players.

“Competition does that,” he said.

“I was hopeful (the competition) would be to the good end (of the spectrum) and both guys have played good. It’s hard to come up with a guy (who won the practice) after each and every day.”

Fangio and the coaches will meet with Bridgewater and Lock once the decision is finalized.

“I think they know it’s close,” Fangio said. “The good thing is they’re both pulling for each other and both want each other to do good and make it a hard decision for us and they’ve succeeded in that.”

Notable

Before practice, the Broncos cut down to the 80-man roster limit by waiving rookie receiver Branden Mack and inside linebacker Josh Watson. Watson, who played at Colorado State, appeared in 17 games for the Broncos in 2019-20, but was passed on the depth chart by Justin Strnad and Baron Browning.