Broncos Roundtable: How should Denver handle their quarterback situation moving forward?

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — There are six 0-3 teams in the NFL entering Week 4. Two of them, the Jets and the Broncos, faceoff in a primetime matchup on Thursday night where one team will, likely, come away with their first victory of the season.

Will it be third-string quarterback Brett Rypien and the Broncos traveling across country to New York or will it be the Jets led by pick-six Sam Darnold?

The DNVR Broncos Crew breaks it down.

HOW SHOULD DENVER HANDLE THEIR QUARTERBACK SITUATION MOVING FORWARD?

Zac

Get Drew Lock 100 percent healthy and then play him — Unless a miracle is in store, the Broncos’ hopes at making the playoffs in 2020 are slim to none. Because of that, the focus of the remainder of the season comes down to finding out if Lock is the quarterback of the future.

However, the Broncos will want to make sure they see the real Drew Lock on the field this year, not an 80 percent Drew Lock. At this point, there is no reason to rush Lock bad to get an unhealthy look at him. Play Rypien or Blake Bortles — who I predict will start in Week 5 if the Broncos lose to the Jets —  until Lock’s shoulder is fully recovered and then put the former second-round pick in.

Once Lock is back in, the most important evaluation of the season continues. If Lock balls out, he’s Denver’s guy. If not, see how far up the draft board you can get to grab the guy.

Mase

A three-stage plan — Stage One is Thursday. It’s the game that you’re simply trying to get through. Based on what we saw from Rypien compared with Driskel last Sunday, the man who started the regular season on the practice squad is the better bet. Just one series of regular-season work for Rypien means that the Broncos can use the element of surprise to their advantage, just as they did with Brandon Allen against Cleveland last year.

Stage Two comes if Lock is not ready to return in the following two games against New England and Miami. If Rypien hits the wall Thursday at MetLife Stadium, the Broncos should have enough time to get Blake Bortles ready to run a reasonable, if scaled-back, version of their offense against the Patriots. If Rypien flourishes Thursday, he could stay in the lineup and could position himself to be a long-term backup option.

Finally, you come to Stage Three: Lock’s return. And yes, it is possible that the Broncos could play exactly three games without Lock and start three different quarterbacks. But the Broncos cannot rush this stage. If there is a risk of Lock exacerbating his right-shoulder injury, he should not play. The Broncos cannot get into the business of risking their long-term future for short-term gain.

Ryan

A three-part plan — Part 1: Watch as Brett Rypien shows you that he is an extremely capable backup.

Part 2: Pick one of Bortles or Driskel to keep at your No. 3. Considering you already guaranteed Driskel $2.5 million, I would say that you stick with him and make him at least earn those checks.

Part 3: Cut Blake Bortles. Because he wasn’t on the roster Week 1, his salary is not guaranteed, meaning you can save some of the ~$1 Million that you would owe him if you keep him around.

Part 4: Get Drew back to 100 percent and give him the rest of the year to show what he’s got.

Lack of belief in Brett Rypien is going to end up costing this team a lot of money, but they can save a little bit of it this year by moving on from Bortles and even more next year by moving on from Driskel.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTIONS VS JETS (+2.5)

Zac

Jets 13, Broncos 12 — Yes, the Jets are really, really, really bad. Like worst-team-in-the-NFL bad.

But.

The Broncos have to travel to New York on a short week and, more importantly, the Jets have a better quarterback situation than Denver.

While the Broncos didn’t name their starting quarterback until Tuesday morning, the Jets have Sam Darnold. Although Darnold has been far from living up to his expectations as the third-overall pick in 2018, he has showed flashes of his potential time and time again.

On the flip side, Brett Rypien will be making his first NFL start. While I did like much of what I saw from Rypien in his lone series on Sunday, he did still have an interception.

I’m putting it as a one-point game and could easily see the Broncos being on the right side of that one point. But it’s just too hard for me to ignore the quarterback situation along with all of Denver’s injuries.

Mase

Broncos 20, Jets 10  — Through three weeks, the Jets are to quality football what Tuesday’s Presidential debate was to decorum and dignity.

Even with the injuries, the Broncos have enough explosive talent on the offense to make some plays as long as Rypien gets the ball out as quickly and decisively as he did on the one drive he led last Sunday.

Furthermore, consider this: According to pro-football-reference.com, the 2020 Jets are the 13th team in the last 25 years to start 0-3 without scoring 20 points in any game AND with all three defeats coming by double digits. All of the previous 12 lost their fourth game by an average margin of 14 points and an average score of 28-14. The Broncos won’t make it there, but they’ll win and stop their season-opening slide.

Ryan

Broncos 13, Jets 10 — Buckle up, folks, we are in for a barn burner.

To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I’ve been this unsure of who to pick in a Broncos game, it might have something to do with the fact that damn near half of the Broncos roster is comprised of players most people had never heard of a month ago.

For me, the tiebreaker came down to the narrartive coming out of New York that Adam Gase has lost the team. With that in mind, I think the Broncos simply want it more when push comes to shove.

After a painful 59 minutes and 57 seconds for all involved, Brandon McManus nails a long field goal to seal the deal for Denver.