Paxton Lynch won’t wait long to play quarterback for the Broncos
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By NICK GROKE |
ngroke@denverpost.comPUBLISHED: August 30, 2016 at 4:38 pm | UPDATED: August 30, 2016 at 10:51 pm
The Broncos used a first-round draft pick on quarterback Paxton Lynch, then told him to wait. They put Trevor Siemian and Mark Sanchez through a ringer to decide on a starting quarterback. But the competition will not stop when the season starts.
Lynch is on a fast track, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said Tuesday. And Denver is pressing the 22-year-old rookie from Memphis as much as he can be pushed.
“As fast as we can get it,” Kubiak said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Lynch will likely play the first snap to last Thursday in the Broncos’ final preseason game, at Arizona against the Cardinals. Siemian, who will start when the season opens Sept. 8 against the Carolina Panthers, will not play. If there’s a moment when Lynch can’t go Thursday, Sanchez would be his backup, Kubiak said.
“I want to see him consistently improve,” Kubiak said of Lynch, who is listed as the Broncos’ third-string quarterback. “He’s going to play a little faster and see if he can take another step.”
Lynch has excelled in the preseason, dodging pressure. But his size — Lynch is one of the tallest players on the team at 6-foot-7 — occasionally puts him out of position in shotgun formations.
“In the gun, he’s such a big and long guy, he gets too deep with these NFL edges, which he’s not used to,” Kubiak said of opposing defenses. “He’s so long, that when he drops, he ends up about a yard and half deeper than Mark or Trevor. What you have to do is adjust him on the front end, not the back end. We try to move him up a little bit.”
It remains possible that Sanchez could be cut or traded before the season begins. But one way or the other, the Broncos are rushing toward their future quarterback.
“We’re going to have to find ways, once we get going, to actually do a lot more extra with him than say some other guys you’re working with,” Kubiak said. “We want to get it done as quickly as we can.”
Best,
Laram