Paxton Lynch is going into an absolutely perfect scenario with the Broncos

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Leigh Steinberg, Paxton Lynch’s agent, Charlie Taaffe, Lynch’s coach in the offseason, and even Paxton himself couldn’t have drawn up a better situation for Lynch to get his opportunity to shine in Denver than the one he is presented with now.

While the timing isn’t ideal—twelve weeks into his second season in the NFL—the cards he’s been dealt are close to a royal flush.

Internally, the Denver Broncos are doing everything possible to allow their former first-round pick to shine, everything. On Monday, just a day before the team named Lynch the starting quarterback, they fired their offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and promoted Bill Musgrave to fill his spot. His task was straightforward and simple: build a simple offense that created a high completion percentage.

Musgrave also had significant input in who his starting quarterback would be, as Broncos’ head coach Vance Joseph said, “We’ll see what Bill’s vision for the offense is and who fits it best.”

He chose Paxton.

Along with a playbook and offense catered for the second-year quarterback, Lynch will have an intangible on his side: the element of surprise. Whether it be Sunday against the Oakland Raiders or even a few weeks down the road, opposing teams won’t know what to expect from Lynch and the Broncos’ offense.

Sunday will be Lynch’s third career start, however, the other two were under a completely different coaching staff, and scheme, not to mention Sunday will be Musgrave’s first game leading Denver’s offense.

Outside of the UCHealth Training Center, nearly all of the stars align for Paxton to have success, too. In his first start of 2017 on Sunday, he’s going against a bad Raiders defense, specifically their lack of ability to defend the pass.

Not only are the Raiders bad, they’re historically bad.

Through the Raiders first 10 games, their 72.3 opponent completion percentage and 113.3 opponent passer rating are both on pace to be the second-worst in NFL history. If that wasn’t enough, their six takeaways are the fewest ever through ten games, and they are the only team in the league with no interceptions.

“Turnovers and third down are the keys to playing good defense,” Raiders’ head coach Jack Del Rio said to the Denver media on Wednesday. “We’ve got to be much, much better there.”

Sounds like a quarterbacks dream.

And it doesn’t get much more difficult after Sunday, either. After the Raiders game, four of the Broncos’ final five games are against teams with losing records, many of those with poor defenses.

Three of the five remaining teams are among the seven-worst scoring defenses in the league, including the worst scoring defense, the Indianapolis Colts, and the second-worst Washington Redskins.

Along with the Raiders being the worst defense against the pass in the league, many of the remaining teams have holes in their pass defense as well. After the Raiders, three of Denver’s remaining five opponents are in the bottom third for passing yards allowed per game and the Miami Dolphins, their Week 13 opponent, ranks in the bottom-five in the league in interceptions and opponent passer rating.

Whether Paxton is able to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity is up to him. But his opportunity couldn’t be any better.