John Elway’s defense of Paxton Lynch not as glowing as many would think

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — To the dismay of Broncos Country, the Paxton Lynch era continued on Saturday as the Denver Broncos added the third-year quarterback to their official 53-man roster.

With names such as De’Angelo Henderson and Jeff Holland on the chopping block, the Broncos decided to keep the former first-round pick as their third quarterback instead of opening up a roster spot elsewhere.

On Saturday evening, they had a chance to explain the decision that sent Broncos fans into a tizzy.

Head coach Vance Joseph pointed to Lynch’s near perfect 14-for-15, two touchdown performance during the team’s fourth preseason game as the young quarterback showing progress and “continuing to get better.”

“He played well the last two weeks. I’ve been impressed with Paxton and how he’s handled his demotion,” Joseph said, pumping up Lynch.

“I think keeping three quarterbacks for us is a good thing because that position is so important. If you have a guy you think can, in the future, be a player, you’ve got to give him time to develop. That’s my opinion on Paxton. He needs more time, but we all watched him play Thursday night. It looked real. I think with more time he’s going to be fine for us, but it’s an important spot in this league that you can’t just let guys go if they have potential there.”

But John Elway, the man that drafted Lynch, didn’t toe the company line to the extent his head coach did. In fact, keeping Lynch, in Elway’s eyes, had more to do with Kelly than it did with the former first-round pick himself.

“That decision was made because we’re looking at it and looking at the situation, with Chad [Kelly] not having a lot of experience, not having played in a regular season game before, we thought that we had to go with three quarterbacks and Paxton was our third,” Elway explained, not necessarily giving a ringing endorsement to Lynch.

“I thought at this point in time, that was the best decision for us. Paxton continued to improve. But he is the third-string quarterback.

Not only did Lynch make the 53-man roster as a result of wanting to have three quarterbacks, Elway admitted the team had been in talks with “several” veteran quarterbacks in an attempt to bring them in and potentially join the team.

“The veteran quarterbacks didn’t want to come in right now,” Elway said, explaining why traction never picked up in regards to the team adding a veteran, adding, “they all want to wait.”

As the team digs through the waiver wire through Sunday, Elway confirmed Lynch’s spot on the team is safe.

Since Paxton will be on the team, at least for now, it’s “key,” as Elway stated, for the physically gifted quarterback to continue to develop as he sits behind Kelly and Keenum.

“Once you get into the season, there’s only so much you can do, but obviously Paxton’s got to take it upon himself to continue to try to improve,” Elway firmly stated. “He’s going to get a lot of reps with the scout team. He’s going to go against the first-team defense. He’s got to improve there. That’s what he has to do because the focus is going to go to winning football games.

On Saturday, after shifting his outward approach in regards to how he talks about Lynch to the media, Elway left the former first-round quarterback with one message.

“With that being said, Paxton’s got to concentrate on getting better.”