Broncos confident that Paxton Lynch will be ready quickly

The Denver Broncos opened up their rookie mini-camp on Friday morning and, as you can imagine, all eyes were on the first-round pick out of Memphis, Paxton Lynch. Even head coach Gary Kubiak, when asked about fifth-round pick Connor McGovern, admitted he’d have to go back and watch the tape because his focus was consumed by No. 12.

“Obviously, a big, strong, talented young man who can throw the ball very well,” Kubiak told of his new quarterback. “We’ve got a long way to go but it’s exciting to see a kid like that and what he can accomplish.”

“Coming out here, this is your first time getting on the field since you became an NFL player, so it’s pretty crazy,” Lynch said of the experience. “I’m blessed to be out here and, like I said before I even got drafted, I’d be blessed to be anywhere. Now I’m here as a Bronco and I’m excited so I’m just really glad I got a practice under my belt.”

The first practice of many where the young quarterback will attempt to drink from a firehose and sure up his understanding of the Denver Broncos offense as fast as he can. It’s a tall task but there seems to be a lot of confidence around the facility that Lynch can learn quickly.

Yesterday, John Elway said he thinks Lynch will be ready “quicker than a lot of people think.” Today, Kubiak shared a similar sentiment.

“Obviously, I think he’s going to make up ground quickly,” the head coach told. “I see that in him, I feel that when I’m around him.

“This will be a big five or six weeks for him, we have to make a lot of progress,” Kubiak added. “Just watching him today, he’s swimming but from start to finish, just handling the huddle and that type of thing, I think this guy is going to make up a lot of ground very quickly. Very eager, very good energy from a leadership standpoint… A lot to do but he’s all in so we’re looking forward to it.”

Lynch feels the same as the men in charge.

“I’m pretty confident in myself that I can pick up things quickly and learn what I need to learn,” he explained. “Like I said before I got drafted, we did this offense my freshman year at Memphis so I’ve been in the huddle, I’ve been under center, I’ve done all of that.”

Much has been made about the transition the rookie will have to make from the spread offense they ran his last two years at Memphis to the pro-style, west coast offense Kubiak is known for but the Broncos are downplaying that heavily, saying that college football players, in general, have to make that transition. Lynch himself said he’s been getting used to the under-center type of stuff ever since he began training for the combine, as for the first day, though, he was hoping to get things down a bit faster.

“Obviously, it’s a whole new offense, it’s an NFL offense so there are going to be struggles with everybody,” he admitted. “But I felt like I knew what was going on, I just don’t think I was picking it up as fast as I should. That will come in time, I just love the fact that I’m getting every rep  I possibly could get right now.”

He really is, Lynch is the only quarterback in rookie mini-camp with the Broncos. Great for the reps but it may cause a problem tomorrow when the quarterback returns to Memphis for his graduation ceremony.

“We’ll go to the wishbone tomorrow,” Kubiak said with a laugh before adding they would figure something out.

A sacrifice the head coach joked he has to make because his own mom would “wear [him] out” if she found out he wasn’t letting his players go back to graduate.

Despite losing one day tomorrow, it sounds like everyone in the organization is confident that Lynch will be able to handle the fast track. All that’s left is to find out how fast that track will really be.