Mr. Right Now

“Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right.”

– Phil McGraw

Early in my 20’s, and at the beginning of my management career, I ended up with a team a little larger than most first-time bosses get to steer. I found myself constantly second-guessing even my smallest decisions, and my team often got to see it happen. Confidence was low when we ended up needing to make a change in our primary software platform, and were thrust into make a decision between two new competitors in the space.

A series of examinations from several angles only further served to show just how little the two platforms differed. At the end of the over-long process, it was clear there had never really been a wrong decision between the two. What made it all the most painful for my team wasn’t the software I’d picked. It was how late in the process I ended up making the call, as I’d spent the time sure I’d missed some important “aha” moment to show me the light. At launch, my team had to spend untold time ramping up due to my last-second call. For over two months we limped along, trying to catch up with the learning curve of our new platform. While it eventually all worked out, it would have been far less painful if I’d only been decisive sooner.

Let’s just say I can empathize with Vic Fangio’s current predicament.

And what a predicament it’s been. In nearly three weeks of a quarterback competition between Drew Lock and Teddy Bridgewater, neither of the player has placed more than a paper-thin differentiation between them for more than a day. Each has had triumphant moments, and head-scratching ones. Each has completed huge plays with the Denver Broncos highly talented receiving corp, only to turn around and miss connection after connection. The daily QB competition tracker that DNVR’s own Andrew Mason and Zac Stevens have kept so diligently have ended in so many 5-5 ties and 6-4 “wins” that after all this time, the two players are separated by a single point. While there were a few days of separation in both directions, it was primarily a lot of close calls. Here’s how it all broke out thus far:

Make a quick sweep of several others on the Broncos beat, and all of DNVR’s close competitors agree with Mase and Zac. The Denver Broncos quarterback battle is too close to call.

The experts see it as a toss-up. The coaches see it as a toss-up. Hell, even the two friendly competitors seem to see it as a toss-up. If it walks like a toss-up, and quacks like a toss-up… Well… Mixing my metaphors, but that duck is probably quacking and waddling towards a toss-up. It’s hard to imagine that one more preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks second team this Saturday will tell us anything new. Whichever of the two quarterbacks starts the regular season will be more about optics and sensibilities than giving the team a far better a chance to win.

So if the decision will be a push in odds of success, and with the shortest NFL preseason schedule in years, it would seem as if the best decision that Fangio can make is any decision at all. There are 10 other guys on that side of the ball who need as much time as they can get to gel around their leader. There is no “right” decision. It’s simply time to make the decision right. And right now.