Has Chad Kelly earned a permanent role as Case Keenum’s backup?

Aug 21, 2018, 1:09 PM Updated: 1:10 pm

Quarterback's Chad Kelly #6, Case Keenum #4 and Paxton Lynch #12 of the Denver Broncos heading to their section of the field for drills during training camp at the UCHealth Training Center August 7, 2018 in Englewood, Colorado. (Photo by Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

(Photo by Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

After Saturday’s preseason tilt with the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos head coach Vance Joseph said he couldn’t say for two weeks from then but “right now” Chad Kelly is the club’s backup quarterback.

But it’s that uncertainty, and the emphasis on the phrase “right now,” that Cecil Lammey said makes him think the Broncos aren’t quite ready to commit to Kelly as it’s full-time backup.

“Anytime they talk about Chad Kelly … they always use the term right now. He’s our No. 2 quarterback right now,” Lammey said Saturday. “And when you frame that properly, I think it means that they’re not set or sold on him quite yet to be the backup, to be one play away behind Case Keenum as the primary backup for this team.”

And when asked on Monday if third-string quarterback Paxton Lynch could earn his No. 2 spot back, Joseph said, “We’ll see. It’s early. We’ve got two more weeks and things happen in this league.”

“He is focused on competing. He’s obviously motivated by what happened to him a couple weeks ago. That’s a good sign. He’s upset by it, and he should be upset,” Joseph said. “We’ve got two weeks to compete, and we’ll see where it falls.”

The consensus among 104.3 The Fan hosts on Monday, however, skewed more toward moving on from Lynch and settling on Kelly as the second-team quarterback.

“… Everybody sees that Paxton Lynch is not going to be the guy,” said “The Drive” co-host Alfred Williams. “Everybody sees it.”

“Stokley and Zach” co-host Brandon Stokley said he thinks the Broncos may be hesitant to commit to Kelly because he wasn’t necessarily on the club’s radar for that role to start the preseason.

“Now they’re open to evaluating him, and how could you say that he hasn’t done enough to be the guy?” Stokley said. “You want to see that continue through the preseason, but everything tells me he’s going to look like he’s looked the last couple of weeks. Maybe not to that degree, but I think he’s going to go out there and perform well.

“So, why shouldn’t he be the backup?”

Sandy Clough, however, said he thinks it’s not necessarily a great sign he thinks more highly of Kelly than the Broncos appear to.

“If I like Chad Kelly more than the Broncos do, that’s bad news for Chad Kelly,” Clough said.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.