Bye: Broncos keeping Case Keenum as backup QB is a ‘win-win’

Feb 28, 2019, 4:48 PM Updated: Mar 1, 2019, 7:51 am

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More than two weeks removed from the Denver Broncos agreeing in principle to trade for Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, the question of what the club will do with current quarterback and 2018 starter Case Keenum remains unsolved.

Though some have called upon the Broncos to trade the signal-caller and others to outright release him, “Stokley and Zach” co-host Zach Bye on Thursday said keeping Keenum on the roster next season may be mutually beneficial to both the quarterback and the team.

“Case Keenum walks out the door, and your backup quarterback just got worse,” Bye said. “Case’s opportunities get worse. We looked around the league yesterday. There’s not going to be opportunities for Case Keenum to start.”

Bye argues that Keenum, sporting a “unique personality where he’s not the largest guy in the room,” wouldn’t cause rifts in the locker room. Also, he would return to the backup role, where he’s been much of his career, behind a quarterback in Flacco in which his “health is no certain thing.

“If we need to Case Keenum to come in and play for three games, four games, we’ve seen him thrive in that role where there’s not the pressure of being the franchise quarterback,” Bye said.

However, Bye’s co-host, Brandon Stokley, said he disagreed with the premise, saying that, much like Trevor Siemian a year ago, it’s wiser to just move along from Keenum.

“I don’t see Case coming back. I don’t. I don’t see it happening,” Stokley said.

If Keenum does end up staying in Denver, which Broncos general manager John Elway said on Wednesday would be his preference, he’d have to do so with a reworked contract.

“Where there has to be an adjustment of the contract, first of all. And that’s going to be up to him. So, we’re going to do whatever he wants to do there,” Elway said. “As I told him on the phone that we’re going to work with him and it’s up to him on what he would like to do, and we’re going to accommodate him.”

On Thursday, however, “Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth said it’s likely not Keenum’s preference to remain a backup in Denver while also taking some sort of pay cut, adding the likelihood of the quarterback sticking with the Broncos is “about zero” percent.

“You’re saying it’s entirely up to him. In the same breath you’re saying but he’s got to take a pay cut,” Schlereth said. “If it was entirely up to him, he’d say, ‘OK, I’ll come back and be a backup. Just honor the damn contract you signed me to a year ago.’

“That’s why I just don’t believe there’s any way that Case Keenum’s going to be a backup quarterback here in Denver.”

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