ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Let the competition begin.
George Paton has stacked the Denver Broncos’ roster with competitions at countless positions. But no competition will be more important and more talked about than the one taking place at quarterback.
The competition at the most important position in all of sports will take the field and officially begin this month.
Throughout the offseason, Paton maintained he would bring in competition for Lock. One day before the draft, Paton landed his former first-round pick back in his time with Minnesota, Teddy Bridgewater, to push Lock for the job.
But what exactly will that competition look like? As the newcomer, will Teddy have to unseat Lock for the starting job? Or will he start with the upper hand? On Friday, during the start of the Broncos’ rookie minicamp, Vic Fangio detailed his plans for the battle between No. 3 and No. 5.
“It’s totally 50-50,” Fangio said, not giving an upper hand to either quarterback in the competition.
“By the end of the day, meaning the end of training camp, before those guys make the decision for us with their play, it’s going to be a 50-50 proposition,” the head coach continued. “Some days, some guy might get more than the other, then it will even out the next day or two days later. It’s not going to be 50-50 probably every day, but over the course of this offseason and training camp, it will be.”
Without implicitly saying it, Fangio acknowledged this competition won’t be settled by the start of training camp.
Beginning on May 24, the Broncos will have four weeks of OTA practices, including mandatory minicamp, where Bridgewater and Lock will split reps. After a roughly six-week summer break, the competition will heat up under the summer sun at the end of July during training camp. If the competition goes into the preseason, there will only be three exhibition games this year to duel it out.
In 2019, Lock took the NFL by storm at the end of his rookie season, posting a 4-1 record and throwing seven touchdowns to only three interceptions. However, after being anointed the starter in 2020 without any competition brought in during the offseason, Lock struggled. In his sophomore slump, Lock led the NFL with 15 interceptions, while only 16 throwing touchdowns and ranked in the bottom of nearly every major statistical passing category. During his starts, the team went 4-9.
Bridgewater didn’t have any better fortunes finding wins with the Carolina Panthers last year as he went 4-11. However, the eight-year veteran did have more individual success as he threw 15 touchdowns to only 11 interceptions. Bridgewater also had a better passer rating, QBR and completion percentage than Lock last year.
But regardless of Teddy’s better stats and Drew being the incumbent, the competition is going to be 50-50, even down to who takes the first rep.
“They’ve got to flip a coin to see who takes the absolute first snap of the offseason and training camp,” Fangio said, not giving any indication on if he’s joking or not.
For the third time since Peyton Manning retired, the Broncos will have a quarterback competition. Much like the previous two, expect Bridgewater versus Lock to go deep into the summer.
