The last three weeks show that the Broncos QB competition was a farce

Throughout the offseason, training camp and the preseason, one big question hovered over Broncos Country: Who was going to be the team’s starting quarterback.

In one corner was the incumbent, Drew Lock. After a good rookie season, the young QB struggled as the full-time starter in 2020. As a result, the Broncos were interested in upgrading.

In the other corner was the challenger, Teddy Bridgewater. After signing a three-year, $63-million deal with the Panthers prior to the 2020 season, the veteran was traded to Denver for a sixth-round pick.

By all accounts, the race for the starting job was tight. The head coach called it “50/50” on multiple occasions and joked about perhaps flipping a coin.

Ultimately, the Broncos didn’t name Bridgewater the starter until late August. The competition went down to the wire.

That would lean one to believe that the team would be comfortable going with Lock if they had to this season. If Bridgewater gets hurt or isn’t playing well, the Broncos wouldn’t be nervous to turn to their backup quarterback.

Reality has suggested otherwise, however. In real time, Denver has been hesitant to go to Lock.

They were forced to in the second half against Baltimore, as Bridgewater was knocked out of the game with a concussion. But the next week, they trotted the starter back out there just seven days after suffering the injury.

When Bridgewater was hurt again in the Raiders game, he was on the field just four days later against the Browns. Despite being able to barely walk to his press conference on Tuesday, the quarterback played four quarters on Thursday despite being, in his words, only “70-75 percent.”

“I think he was a little higher than that, but I’m not doubting his word on it,” Fangio said this week in defense of his decision to play Bridgewater. “I thought he looked fine out there.”

Fine isn’t good. And certainly isn’t great.

So it begged a simple question: If the QB race was close, wouldn’t Lock at 100 percent be better than Bridgewater at 70-75 percent?

“He’s our quarterback,” Fangio said about Bridgewater. “When your quarterback can go, you go with him unless he can’t go. He never said he couldn’t go.”

That means one of three things is going on here. None of them are good.

First, Bridgewater won the quarterback competition going away and it wasn’t even close. That might be the case. But if it is, why on earth did the Broncos waste weeks of training camp and two preseason games splitting the reps 50/50? Why not get the starter as many reps as possible?

If that’s the reality, that would signal incompetence.

Second, the Broncos are so desperate to win right now that they’ll put Bridgewater in harm’s way. If the two quarterbacks really were close, meaning Denver’s coaches believe in Lock, then the only reason to play a banged up Bridgewater is because that game meant everything. The remaining 10 were a moot point.

If that’s the reality, that would signal incompetence.

Third, Fangio has an old-school mentality that once a guy is picked, the team has to stick with the guy until the bitter end. It doesn’t matter if the situation changes. There’s no room for flexibility. There’s no room for admitting an error. There’s no room for thinking outside the box.

If that’s the reality, that would signal incompetence.

Pick one. None of them are good.

In the end, the reality is that Bridgwater was always going to be the Broncos starting quarterback because he gives them a slightly better chance to win on any given Sunday (or Thursday) than Lock. And since it’s all about saving Fangio’s job, that’s the most important thing.

The Broncos put on a charade during the offseason, wasting valuable time in the process, to try to appease the fan base, locker room or whoever. It was all about trying to make things look “fair.”

It was a farce. And that’s plainly evidence after the last three weeks.

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