The Broncos haven’t named a starting quarterback for the second preseason game, so the date of their announcement of a starting quarterback for the first week of the regular season remains unknown.
Coach Gary Kubiak said Tuesday that the competition between Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian has “been very close” to this point in the summer and General Manager John Elway says the team is planning to wait through the third week of the preseason to “see if somebody jumps out at you.” While Elway hopes that happens to make for an easy decision, it doesn’t sound like the ultimate choice will have much effect on the team’s approach to the 2016 season.
“The good thing is we’ve got a good enough team around them,” Elway said, via USA Today. “We’ll be able to run the ball, and we won’t throw them out there and say, ‘You guys have to go win this.’ Do your job, make good decisions and keep the team in position to win. And that’s really all we’re asking of that position right now.”
Elway doesn’t mention the defense, but that’s the other significant part of the plan in Denver for the coming season. While they drafted Paxton Lynch in the first round in hopes that he’ll ultimately be a quarterback who can win games for them, the short-term plan looks more like the defense-heavy one that carried them to the Super Bowl last season and the right quarterback will be the one that does the least to damage that effort.