Is John Elway getting out-maneuvered as a GM?

In all the hand-wringing over the Broncos current state of disrepair, the usual comparisons are to recent Broncos teams and their performances.

But perhaps a more useful comparison for actually learning a lesson or two would be to look farther west to the Bay Area, where it appears John Elway may be getting out-GMed by his former safety.

John Lynch, first-time GM at the 49ers and former Broncos/Bucs safety, made a shrewd move just before the trade deadline over a month ago in swapping a second-round pick for Patriots backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

And that former backup has now won three straight games for the Niners, a team clawing its way back from an 0-9 start. Garoppolo completed 72 percent of his passes, threw for 381 yards and had one touchdown pass to beat the Tennessee Titans.

Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro at The Afternoon Drive discussed whether John of the Elway order is getting outmaneuvered by John of the Lynch order.

And it many ways it seems so.

Since Lynch was hired as the GM, Kyle Shanahan was brought in as head coach, Lynch “poached” Broncos’ Adam Peters as his VP for player personnel and he pulled a coup in the draft by trading back one spot and getting three extra picks (two in 2017 and one in 2018).

And now he looks to be a genius by having gotten a likely QB-of-the-future for practically nothing.

Oh, and guess how the “other John” is doing with his first-time head coach and his quarterback?

Speaking of which...

Chad Brown weighed in on the Broncos latest QB conundrum - “INDECISION 2017 CONTINUED” - noting that the Broncos can’t seem to decide whether their message is to try to win in 2017 or move on to 2018 now that head coach Vance Joseph has basically announced that if Paxton Lynch is healthy, he’ll start on Sunday.

Shapiro posed a good question - what is more important, winning the last two games or “seeing what they have” in Lynch?

To answer that question, Brown made another interesting comparison with the Bay Area team - the Niners have “moved on to 2018” in a positive way, having won three of last games in a row, found a possible quarterback of the future and are headed into the offseason with something to build upon.

Where are the Broncos? Having carried over arguably a stronger team from last season than the Niners, the Broncos find themselves slipping behind.

The 4-10 Niners may end up just ahead or just behind the 5-9 Broncos when the season draws its curtain, but they are already way ahead on 2018.

And the Broncos are still “seeing what they have” from 2016.