Could Jacoby Brissett be a viable Broncos quarterback candidate?

If Jacoby Brissett joins the Denver Broncos, he would know what the job entails.

In Washington last year, it meant being at the ready in case the Commanders turned away from second-year quarterback Sam Howell. And when they did, Brissett responded; in two games of brief work, he logged a bulbous 146.8 passer rating.

A year earlier, he started 11 games for the Cleveland Browns while Deshaun Watson served a suspension. His passer rating, QBR, EPA/play and success rate were all superior to that of Watson.

Prior to that, Brissett started five games for Miami in relief of the injured Tua Tagovailoa. In 2020, he saw brief work for the Indianapolis Colts with Philip Rivers remaining healthy — but played for much of the 2019 and 2017 seasons before that.

At the age of 31, Brissett’s window of being a team’s long-term starter is likely closed. And if Washington doesn’t bring him back, he will be on his fifth team in as many seasons. Unless a Geno Smith-like revival awaits him, this is likely to be the pattern for what remains in his career.

But that doesn’t mean the career might not have several more years to it. And while the metrics don’t reveal anything spectacular, Brissett has proven that he can not only hold down the fort for a while, but he can be a supportive, intelligent presence from which a young quarterback can learn to aid his development.

If the job of Jacoby Brissett is to start, he can deliver league-average work. That would likely mean he plays above that norm under Sean Payton, given his history of extracting a bit more from quarterbacks than they accomplished prior to working together.

Evidence for that exists in the trajectories of Kerry Collins, Drew Brees, Teddy Bridgewater, Jameis Winston — and even Russell Wilson, given the across-the-board increase in production Wilson had coming off of his career-worst campaign of 2022.

But if Brissett’s job is to be an understudy, a bridge or both, he can do that, too.

That makes him an intriguing candidate as the Broncos make their pre-draft plans and deliberations.

JACOBY BRISSETT IN RECENT YEARS

In two of the last four seasons — 2020 and 2023 — he didn’t even accumulate 40 total quarterback plays (pass attempts, times sacked and rushing attempts). He had 263 in 2021 with Miami and 442 with Cleveland the following season as he held down the job in place of Watson.

But there are a few interesting patterns.

First, in EPA/play, his figure of 0.091 ranks 33rd of 83 quarterbacks since 2020 with at least 150 plays, according to rbsdm.com. (Brissett had 793 total plays, roughly equivalent to a little over one season off starting work.) His success rate of 47.4 percent is also 33rd of 83 passers.

Both figures are ahead of Wilson for the same four-season sample size. Wilson ranks 34th in EPA/play and 43rd in success rate. Significantly, both figures include the 2020 campaign in Seattle in which Wilson flirted with MVP contention.

Brissett’s four-year QBR — extrapolated on a per-play basis over four years — is also better, at 58.2 compared with Wilson’s 53.3 for the same span.

Indeed, Jacoby Brissett doesn’t keep elite company. And it’s unlikely he is the next Baker Mayfield. But it’s possible that the nine-year veteran could offer the Broncos comparable production at a small fraction of Wilson’s price.