The Denver Broncos are once again set to enter the quarterback market, as they continue a seemingly never-ending quest to find thair next great — or even servicable quarterback — to replace Peyton Manning.
Although this reality is saddening, they have been granted a blessing with the fact that Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson — two future hall of famers at the game’s most important position — are on the quarterback market.
However, landing one of those superstars is far from a guarantee, and we have to acknowledge the possibility that the Broncos are left empty-handed when all is said and done.
If the Broncos do strike out, what backup plans will put them in the best position for both short-term and long-term success? Strap in as we take a deep dive into the Broncos’ other options at the position.
Editor’s note: Deshaun Watson will not be involved in this list. As one of, if not the only recorded athlete to ever have over 20 civil cases alleging sexual crimes and several criminal investigations alleging the same, he appears to have bigger things to focus on than playing football for the Denver Broncos. Plus, there are problematic moral implications attached to adding an athlete with these allegations still under investigation.
5. Teddy Bridgewater
If the Broncos tread water at the game’s most important positions, with either one of their presently rostered quarterbacks heading into the 2022 season, it should be viewed as a colossal failure.
Bridgewater was the best quarterback the Broncos have had since Peyton Manning in 2015, and as milk toast and boring as his style of offense his, it produced points and yards — which is kinda the ultimate goal of offense — at a higher rate than any other Denver quarterback over that span.
However, we all know who and what Bridgewater is. He’s the epitome of mediocrity. A milk toast starter that will thrive against bad teams, stumble against good teams, and shouldn’t be viewed as a viable long-term option.
He’s a band-aid at the quarterback position. Like any band-aid, the Broncos would be wise to rip it off now that it’s time, as opposed to letting it fester and rot off after multiple years.
4. Drew Lock
“Wait, but I thought you just said Bridgewater was the better quarterback,” I hear you question through your laptop screen.
I did, and he was, but that also doesn’t change the fact that Bridgewater’s more of a known commodity and that Lock might have some untapped potential. Studying the start to every quarterback’s career over the past 11 years suggests that Lock turning it around this far into his NFL career is highly unlikely, but it is possible, and that’s something you can’t say with Bridgewater.
Again, running it back with either of these two would be a colossal failure for the franchise, but Lock is slightly more appealing as he at least has the potential to improve on what he showed in 2021.
This is especially true when you consider the mental leap he seemingly made from his backup appearances early in the season to his starting appearances later on in the season — though it should be noted there’s still a lot of progress that would have to be made before he’d be a viable franchise quarterback.
3. Rookie quarterback in the draft
This option could potentially be worse than running it back with Lock — and maybe even running it back with Bridgewater — if the Broncos once again get stuck with a young, floundering quarterback they’re overly patient with.
That stubbornness to accept quarterback misses has plagued the rebuilds of many of the fledgling franchises in the league. The one team to aggressively move on from their fledgling young top quarterback was the Arizona Cardinals, and they’ve been handsomely rewarded.
The Broncos failed to target a quarterback in 2017 and 2018 — two classes that produced multiple MVP candidates at quarterback — in part because they wanted to hang on and see if Paxton Lynch could develop. Denver once again failed to address the position in 2020 and 2021 — two classes that project to be stronger than the 2022 or 2019 quarterback class — as they wanted to see if Drew Lock could develop, only for him to lose an offseason competition to perennial journeyman and monument to mediocrity, Teddy Bridgewater.
Denver has tried the ‘draft a quarterback in a weak class and give them way too much time’ strategy twice now, and both times they’ve been predictably burned.
That said, this class will produce NFL starters. There aren’t many guys that wow you or have electrifying traits, but there are several players who look like they should be solid starters.
Kenny Pickett has questionable upside due to his athletic traits and his hand size is an extreme negative outlier that will hurt his play in cold games and games with adverse weather, but he has all the other traits to be successful at the NFL level. He has sufficient athleticism, upper-end accuracy and processes the game at a high level, but he ultimately feels more Mac Jones than Joe Burrow.
Carson Strong should be really appealing to the Broncos. He’s probably the most pro-ready quarterback in the class and easily has the most arm talent in this class, as he not only boasts elite arm strength but eye-popping accuracy with the ability to layer the football in stride to every level of the field. His lack of mobility and knee injury concerns that will likely lead to a shortened career are serious red flags, but it could also lead to the Broncos getting the best quarterback prospect in this class in the mid-to-late second round — far later than he deserves to be drafted.
Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder are the two elite athletes of the class, but they both have some hideous warts that have improved at such a sedated and inconsistent pace, that them realizing their extreme potential at the NFL level feels relatively far fetched.
If the Broncos want to spin the roulette wheel and take advantage of this quarterback class’ impressive mid-round depth for one year to see what they’ve got, they should go for it. That’s an appealing option that could land the Broncos a cheap, legitimate answer at the position to build around for the future while maintaining their flexibility for upcoming seasons
Another hypothetical; If George Paton was the type of general manager to quickly move off a bad quarterback pick and swing again in 2023, you could make a compelling argument that this move should rank atop the list.
However, holding that philosophy appears to be so rare among NFL general managers, that it should be expected that the Broncos would fall into the ‘stubborn to accept disappointment’ tier, and that’s enough to keep it down here.
2. Mid-level veteran quarterback
It feels like this might be the most likely path the Broncos take to soothe their quarterback woes if their ‘Plan A’ of Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson falls through.
One of the positives to this option will be that it should keep the Broncos flexible for the 2023 quarterback market, which should be much richer than the 2022 market — especially in terms of young talent the Broncos could feasibly build their franchise around for the next decade.
There’s also a solid chance that there’s appealing big name starters available next offseason too, as that appears to becoming a surprising norm in the new NFL.
The ability to remain flexible at quarterback — if the Broncos are unable to land Rodgers or Wilson — in 2023 should not be underrated.
Another is that with better coaching, a dramatically improved culture under the next head coach, and another mid-level quarterback, the Broncos might be able to replicate their 2021 plan but experience more success this time around.
However, theres a lot of negatives too. Treading water with another band-aid veteran must sound extremely exhausting to Broncos Country after wandering through the quarterback desert for so long. The guys in this tier — much like Teddy Bridgewater — aren’t long term options or answers.
They’re a ticket to nowhere that is ultimately just a solution to make the Broncos competitive and watchable for 2022, while keeping the future bright. That ticket to nowhere might feature the best quarterback play of the past six seasons, but it’s still a ticket to nowhere.
Fortunately for them, there’s a lot of different options in this tier if this is the route they chose to take, though a few in particular are worth mentioning here.
Jameis Winston had a nice showing in New Orleans this season and appeared matured as a player, but there are aforementioned moral implications involved there and he would also be coming off an ACL tear.
Davis Mills has recently garnered some interest and it’s easy to see why. He’s a cheap rookie that flashed a lot. However, Denver would be foolish to buy-in to the notion that Mills is the long-term answer to their quarterback melaise. There’s a reason the team as desperate for any glimmer of hope as the Houston Texans are willing to trade a rookie quarterback that flashed tons as a rookie — he’s probably not a long-term NFL starter.
Gardner Minshew could maybe offer a better version of what Bridgewater offered the Broncos this season for a non-expensive price, but it would ultimately still just be a version of what Bridgewater offered the Broncos — game-managing quarterback play — and Denver seemed pretty sick of that this season.
Lastly, Baker Mayfield could be an interesting reclamation project that would have an outside shot at being the long-term starting option. However, by the end of the 2021 season, he appeared to be so lost in the weeds that his return to glory is highly unlikely. Four years into his NFL career he’s still a slow processor, and he doesn’t have the high-end physical traits to help him make up for being late, or to allow him to create plays off-schedule.
1. Kirk Cousins
There are plenty of flaws with Kirk Cousins as an offseason quarterback addition and future starter at the position, but guess what? If the Broncos are unable to secure Wilson and Rodgers this offseason, there isn’t an option at quarterback that isn’t brimming with flaws.
Cousins has the fewest.
For starters, of the remaining options after Wilson and Rodgers, Cousins is the best quarterback option available by far. Every other option is seemingly in the Teddy Bridgewater tier, or worse.
Meanwhile, Cousins is a respectable starter that is comfortably in the top half of the league’s starting quarterbacks. He might not ‘wow’ Denver, similar to Bridgewater, but unlike Bridgewater, Cousins isn’t scared to take downfield shots and bet on his receivers to win one-on-one matchups. He would bring a lot of the same positives as Bridgewater, but wouldn’t have the same obvious flaws (hyper-conservative nature, bad arm talent, bad in conversion situations).
Plus, relative to the quality of quarterback play Cousins would likely provide, he should be a pretty cheap option. Following the firing of their long-tenured head coach, Mike Zimmer, the Vikings are looking to tear down and rebuild, and Cousins doesn’t fit with a rebuild.
He’s a highly tradeable asset that should get you some decent compensation in return; the Vikings would save $35 million against the cap; having Cousins on the roster next year would hurt their draft positioning, and therefore, their rebuild; and the Vikings next head coach would probably like to get a look at Kellen Mond this upcoming season before addressing the position as a part of their rebuild.
Now, the big knocks with Cousins will be that he’s not going to win you a Super Bowl most likely and that his contract — slated to pay him $45 million in 2022 — is pretty foul.
Both of these knocks are fair. However, we once again have to compare these flaws to the other options out there.
Jameis Winston, Gardner Minshew, or a rookie aren’t winning you a Super Bowl run. Cousins likely has the best chance of the remaining options to take you to the playoffs, and at least make the Broncos an exciting, competitive team, and isn’t that what we’re all clamoring for in Denver?
Now for the contract. The putridness of that deal is decreased somewhat by the fact that the Vikings will have to eat $10 million of that cap number, dropping Cousins’ hit to $35 million. Plus, as George Paton proved with Teddy Bridgewater’s gross, one-year deal a season ago, there’s also the potential they could get the Vikings to swallow some of that cap number to bring the price down even further. It’s undeniable that Paton is closer with Minnesota’s front office than he is with Carolina’s so that certainly seems possible.
Also, let’s remember, Bridgewater is going to be looking for $25 million this cycle, and he’s gonna get pretty close to that number. Winston and the other appealing vet options shouldn’t be too far off that number either. So, sure, Cousins’ contract is a little gross, but isn’t the markedly better quarterback play worth those $7+ million? Especially when you consider that the Broncos have more salary-cap space than almost any team in football this season.
It should also be noted that this is the last year of Cousins’ contract, so the Broncos would only have to stomach that hefty price tag for one year, and then they would be incredibly flexible for the 2023 offseason, which projects to be much stronger at quarterback.