Stokley: Broncos 2019 season about finding club’s future at QB

If indeed Case Keenum is a “short-term fix,” as general manager John Elway told Peter King earlier this month, the 2019 season for the Denver Broncos should be about finding who will be the long-term guy under center, says Brandon Stokley.

The “Stokley and Zach” co-host said on Friday that finding the right quarterback to lead the Broncos past 2019, or at least be on the right path to find said quarterback, should be the first priority for the organization as it heads into the offseason.

“It’s about finding our quarterback. Getting another step closer to finding out who our quarterback’s going to be. I think when you don’t have one, that’s where it always starts,” Stokley said. “Every single year, if you don’t have one, we’ve either got to eliminate a guy or we’ve got to give a guy a check mark for the next year.”

Stokley, however, said that with the current crop of college prospects, and the Broncos committed to Keenum for at least another year, Denver might be stuck with the veteran for at least another season.

“If you have a good option, yeah, you can move away from Case. But if you don’t, then you’re kind of stuck with him for another year,” Stokley said. “You’re just stuck. OK, you’re going to ride this thing out for another year in this bad relationship because, you know what, you’ve got no other options.”

But if by this time next year the Broncos find themselves staring at free agency with no prospects at quarterback, Stokley said he’d consider that the “worst-case scenario.”

“The worst-case scenario is we get through the year, and we realize, again, it’s not Case Keenum as our quarterback,” Stokley said. “We didn’t draft one, we’ve got no young one to go to, and we’re heading into free agency without a quarterback. We’re heading into the draft without a quarterback, and, OK, we’ve got to start the process in 2020.”

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