John Elway made it clear that Mark Sanchez will head into the season as the starter for the Denver Broncos, but you don't draft a quarterback in the first round to have him sit on the bench for very long. Sanchez may have that ball in his hands, but Paxton Lynch won't have to do much to take it from him.
On Friday, The Afternoon Drive with Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro spent a good portion of their show discussing Lynch and Sanchez. They felt that Lynch won't be able to take over the starting job right away.
I tend to disagree with that sentiment in this case as Gary Kubiak's system is designed for a quarterback to make one or two reads, so it is a system that a young quarterback could learn fairly quickly.
A little later, they brought on Lynch's agent, Leigh Steinberg, who talked about how his client and the Broncos are a perfect fit. My first reaction was, "Thank you, Captain Obvious. Of course you are going to say that." However, Lynch might end up being the best quarterback of this draft class when its all said and done and it will be because he was drafted by Denver.
In the next segment, Eric and Les talked with Dave Woloshin who is the radio voice of the Memphis Tigers. He has watched every game Lynch has played.
He felt Lynch is about a year away from starting in the NFL. He noted that the Dallas Cowboys spent a ton of time with Lynch before the draft and Elway came in to steal him away from them in the first round.
Woloshin said he came from the same system that Andy Dalton played in and will become a great quarterback in the NFL. From the read-option threat to loading up for a 70 yard bomb, but he may lack some maturity. Lynch likes to goof around a lot, which could be an issue early on.
This was a very insightful segment of the show and worth a listen here.
I feel like everything will get accelerated in the NFL. Should Lynch sit a year? Probably. All I can remember is an interview of Elway from the 1990s where he was recalling his rookie season. He was benched that year, but he felt that he learned so much more quickly by being on the field than sitting on the bench.
The question then becomes, has Elway changed his mind about that? I just cannot envision any scenario where Lynch is working his tail off and getting the reps where he isn't the starter for the Broncos come Week 1 of the 2016 regular season.