Does the Broncos quarterback change signal that the 2017 season is over?

Every Broncos fan needs to understand one thing and one thing right now: The 2017 season is over. Read that 10 more times and really let it sink in. The 2017 season is over. What that means is no division title, no playoffs, no championship banners to be fought for. The ONLY caveat is if Brock and/or Lynch straight ball out of their minds and we run the table. That’s it. That.Is.It! And that ain’t happening!

So now I urge everyone to look at this QB situation through that lens.
Everybody knows what Trevor Siemian is. He’s a backup at best. He’s had his time, he’s had his growth period, and he’s failed to raise his game. He also can’t inspire confidence in anyone around him and will a team to victory even when he’s struggling the way other QBs we’ve had could. He’s hit his fullest potential, and as of today, that potential is the 36th ranked quarterback. Again, read that and really let it sink in. He’s not only the worst starter in the NFL (there’s only 32), but he’s worse than 4 other team’s backups or starters that use to be backups, or starters that use to be backups’ backups. THAT my friends, is the textbook definition of pathetic! And you can’t even blame it on the OL, they are the definition of “average” as they rank 16 out of 32.

So now we have Brock. But we already know what we have in Brock you say? Well, basically yes. Brock is a great backup/fringe starter unless he can raise his game and show that with the right coordinator, he can do really good.

I hear all of you screaming “then why bench Siemian if Brock won’t win us any more games?!?!” Simple, because this season is no longer about winning games. This season has officially become about evaluating what we have for next year and beyond. All winning a few games with Trevor will do is have us lose draft positioning while still learning nothing about the quarterback of the future, whether already on the roster or not.

Brock will start until Paxton Lynch is healthy. This season will officially conclude with Lynch playing football for the Denver Broncos. We need to use the rest of this season to see what Lynch has. Could he be a horrific bust? Yep. Could he grow through experience? That’s inevitable. But we need to find out! If we don’t find out, then we enter next season with a QB competition and we use 2018 as the “this season is lost before it even starts” season. If we don’t start Lynch to find out what he has to offer with more than 1 game here and 1 game weeks later, then we enter 2018 with him suffering the growing pains that he NEEDS to get out of his system in an already lost season.

So this move to Brock is window dressing to keep the locker room from a full on revolt. The grand plan is for Lynch to get 6+ games of experience to see if he can enter next year as the starter without the “rookie mistakes” to be made. If he can’t, we need to draft a QB, trade for a QB, or have a QB competition with Chad Kelly.

But make no mistake, the 2017 season is no longer about winning games. Winning is a byproduct of what needs to accomplished. We should have started Lynch from the get go. And guess what? If Deshaun Watson (who is a future HOF QB if he keeps this up) is on the roster instead of Lynch, he wouldn’t have beaten out Siemian either. So don’t use that lazy excuse of “Lynch couldn’t beat Siemian.” Dak Prescott couldn’t beat out Siemian in camp either. Its time to face the fact and recognize that so many dynamic players couldn’t beat out the vets ahead of them, but were thrust into starting via injury, ineptitude, or draft position. Lynch will be no different, and no, it doesn’t guarantee he’ll be any good.

Things will be ugly with Lynch’s growing pains, and that’s ok. Remember, we need him to iron those out in an already lost season and not next season. If he can’t, then all aboard the $wag Wagon and support Chad Kelly. But everyone needs to fully understand and accept that this season is about the future, its no longer about the present. Wrap your minds around that, and you’ll see that painful and difficult actions need to be made in the present to ensure a brighter future. Its true in life and football. And I for one am glad that we finally made the difficult decision to do what is ultimately right for this franchises future.