On the day after Halloween, the Broncos find themselves in the NFL's scariest place

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Starting on the road, against the best team in the NFL, with only three practices to prepare, behind a shaky-at-best offensive line sounds like cruel and unusual punishment for the crime of getting the Broncos into this whole mess in the first place.

It’s safe to say, though, that Brock Osweiler feels quite the opposite.

“I hard to really put in words,” he said of being named the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos, “just because of how much love I have for this organization, my teammates and this city.”

The truth is that the real cruel and unusual punishment has been watching the Broncos offense, a punishment doled out those like the fans and the defense, who have committed no crime at all.

“We’ve been fighting uphill for three years,” Chris Harris Jr. said of the defense on Sunday night.

The Broncos were stuck between a Brock and hard place.

Staying with Trevor Siemian after three straight losses that saw their starter throw two touchdowns to six interceptions and a fumble would be to prove insanity. Going with Brock, their ultimate decision, risks derailing the “football rehab” mentioned by John Elway when he announced the team was bringing back the man once thought of as the “QB of the future” in Denver.

“I’m checkin’ out,” Osweiler said with a laugh, cutting off his proverbial QB rehab ankle monitor.

But the Broncos didn’t want to play Osweiler this year, of course they didn’t. Nobody wants to stray from the player they named the starter when the season began. Who knows, that rehab may be why they didn’t pull the trigger on this move earlier, but desperate times call for desperate measures and the fact that Paxton Lynch has only practiced four times since returning from injury meant the Broncos’ hands were tied.

So they’ll throw a guy out there who had 16 interceptions to 15 touchdowns in 2016 with the best-case scenario including the fact that they’ll look bad for not making the switch before three very winnable games went directly down the drain.

And then what?

What if Brock does exactly what he’s being asked to do—not turn the ball over—and the team gets back on track? Are they going to make Brock the long-term guy? If he goes 1-2 or worse over the next three games, are we going to hear the seven worst words a football team can hear “got to see what you have in” regarding former first-round pick Paxton Lynch? “Got to see what you have in,” means the games don’t matter anymore.

While Brock Osweiler was refreshing on the podium on Wednesday, and his confidence and attitude are sure to have some sort of positive influence on the offense as a whole, what this all means is that on the day after Halloween 2017, the Denver Broncos have found themselves in the NFL’s scariest place.

Quarterback purgatory.

A place where you don’t know who your quarterback really is. A place that at least one-third of the teams in the NFL are in. You know how many of those teams are in the current playoff picture? Zero.

Now, you could argue that the Jacksonville Jaguars—the worst team in the playoff picture—aren’t in love with Blake Bortles, but they did pick up a $19 million fifth-year option on him. They also lead the league in defensive touchdowns. And the Vikings aren’t currently playing their franchise QB, but they believe they have him in the building.

The point is, you don’t want to be here. You don’t want to go into every Monday having to announce who your starting quarterback is, and that’s where the Denver Broncos are right now. A place where few teams have success.

Everything we thought we learned in 2015—when the Broncos defense carried a bad offense all the way to a ring—has been reversed in the last season and a half. Those guys are amazing, but they need help.

Whether that help is on the roster is to be seen, but it doesn’t look good. Can Brock Osweiler play the winning football he put on display in 2015? Maybe. Can Paxton Lynch put it together after well over a year in the National Football League? Maybe.

There’s a good chance we find out the answer to both of those questions over the final nine games of this season. But if those “maybe’s” turn into “no’s” then the Broncos will have to press reset on their quarterback situation. They’ll have to chase a guy in free agency or play the game of roulette that is drafting a quarterback in the first round.

Quarterback purgatory is a place full of uncertainty.

What is certain is that as we sit here on Nov. 1, 2017, the Denver Broncos don’t have the quarterback, and until they do, the words “Super Bowl contender” that everyone expects to be next to their name won’t be there. John Elway knows that won’t do.