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After a contentious offseason, Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas sounded happy to be back in camp and focused on being better.
The star receiver did make one thing crystal clear, though, “the faster we get the quarterback, the better we’ll be.”
Thomas explained, “I’m sure all of them have the potential to start and play. It’s easier for the starting receivers to see who they are going to have to connect with, so the offense can be better than what it was last year. We were 31st in passing, and we want to be better than that.”
The quarterback competition will be all the buzz at the start of training camp, but Thomas seemed most interested in getting answers sooner rather than later. For the rare star player who’s been scrutinized despite a 105-catch season, DT doesn’t just want personal improvement, but a step up from the entire offense.
Despite DT’s preferences, Coach Kubiak doesn’t seem interested, at all, in getting the decision made at any particular time. Kubiak’s primary concern appears to be getting the decision right, regardless of when.
“I’ve seen it happen that way,” said the head coach about open competitions getting decided early. “I’ve seen it take some time. We’ll see. The one thing I want to make sure is that every night when we go up in that office, Mark [Sanchez] had 75 throws that day, Trevor [Siemian] had 75 throws and Paxton (got equal reps). I want to be able to look at it that way. I want to be fair from that standpoint because I think they all deserve the opportunity.”
Being able to evaluate as accurately as possible and giving all his players a real shot is Kubiak’s only concern, and not just for his quarterbacks.
“As far as making a decision, I don’t have a timeline on it right now. I want to get to work and have as good of days as we can possibly have. We’ll go from there.”
Kubiak stated the same thing he has all along, “It’s an open competition… I think right now when we line up tomorrow, Mark [Sanchez] is going to go first, Trevor [Siemian] is going to go second and Paxton [Lynch] is going to go third. That will change on a day-to-day basis. We just want to give them all an equal opportunity.”
The head coach also praised Lynch’s development since coming back to the team facility.
“I think I’ve already seen something,” he explained. “He went away for a month. Basically, all of us have, and we’ve had him for a couple of days. I think Paxton’s struggles in the offseason were verbiage, huddle and all of those type of things. I’ve seen him improve already. His talent is exceptional, we all know that. I think he’s more comfortable right now just watching him bounce around and call plays. We’ll see how far he’s come.”
“I’ve seen how Paxton’s come back. I’m interested to watch Mark and Trevor hit the field tomorrow,” he added. “It’s how do they come back, how have they worked mentally and physically over the course of the last month. We should know a lot more in about a week, but I’m excited to see what happens.”
Sorry, Demaryius but there is certainly no urgency from the head coach.
