Vic Fangio and George Paton hint at a timeline for naming a starting quarterback

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On Wednesday, for the third time since Peyton Manning retired, the Denver Broncos will open training camp with a quarterback competition under the toasty Colorado sun.

The stage is set for Teddy Bridgewater versus Drew Lock.

And make no mistake about it, the competition will be entirely up for grabs. Vic Fangio made that very clear on Tuesday during the Broncos media barbecue where he stated the competition will remain 50-50 between the two quarterbacks during training camp.

“Until the point where we make a decision, it’s going to be a 50-50 thing,” Fangio stated. “Both from a reps standpoint and working with what group.”

But as even as the competition will be, one signal caller has to get the very first snap of camp. That honor will go to Drew Lock. However, don’t read into it.

“He was here. He’s been here. He’s more seniority with the Broncos, I guess. It was really no big deal,” Fangio said, downplaying the importance of the former second-round pick getting the first snap on Wednesday.

Starting with Lock’s first snap of camp, Paton and the Broncos will be evaluating both quarterbacks day in and day out, looking to see improvement from each every day.

“Who is the most consistent. Who is the most steady. Who is the most calm,” Paton said, outlining what he’ll be looking for when evaluating the quarterbacks. “There are just so many things to evaluate in a quarterback as you know, it’s not just one thing. We put a lot of time into it, obviously visually on the field, when we get off the field, we study the tape as a group, individually. We get with the coaches.”

Once camp is underway, the Broncos will have two weeks of practices at the UCHealth Training Center before jetting out to Minnesota to hold joint practices with the Vikings ahead of their first preseason game on Aug. 14. That week is when George Paton hopes to see some separation in the quarterback competition.

The following week, after practicing back in Colorado for the final week of training camp, the Broncos will go to Seattle to face the Seahawks on Aug. 21. Fangio believes he’ll “probably” give Lock and Bridgewater each a preseason start before making a decision.

“Because of where we’re at with the quarterback position, you may see the so-called ones and some of the twos playing more in the preseason to help us get a true evaluation of the quarterbacks,” Fangio said, explaining how the quarterback competition will impact the playing time of other starters during the preseason.

Each quarterback “probably” receiving a start in the preseason would put the Broncos naming a starting quarterback roughly a month out.

Ultimately, the head coach will make the call on who will be Denver’s starter Week 1 against the Giants.

“Vic’s going to make the call,” Paton stated on Tuesday without hesitation. “But just me personally, I don’t think you put a deadline on it… I know it’s tricky, they both need the reps, but I wouldn’t put a timeframe on it. I think it just needs to happen organically. And again, that’s up to Vic and his coaches.”

While Fangio wouldn’t put a strict deadline on when he will make the decision either, he did acknowledge the sooner, the better.

“Ideally, you’d like to come to that decision sooner rather than later, but we’re going to let the decision be made for us hopefully and whenever that happens, it happens,” Fangio said. “If it’s so close that we can’t make a call and it stretches into the first week of preparation, then I’ll probably be playing games with you all week that first game week as to who the starter is. We’re like everybody else, we want it to define itself quickly—sooner rather than later. But we’re going to let the process play itself out.”

If a decision hasn’t been made after each quarterback receives a preseason start, Fangio would presumably be tipping his hand in whomever he decides to start the third and final preseason game. But that would be stretching the decision out through the entirety of training camp and all of the preseason, which, as Fangio admitted, wouldn’t be ideal.

Fangio hopes whomever he names the starter at the beginning of the season will play well enough to hold onto the job throughout the entire year. But if not, he knows he’ll have a capable backup just a few yards away.

The competition heats up on Wednesday.