The Broncos' biggest offensive problem isn't Joe Flacco, nor is it their conservative mindset

Well, Broncos fans, it’s time to start getting excited about another top-10 pick in the draft.

It’s time to start getting excited about the Senior Bowl. Hey, maybe the Broncos will get selected to coach the game for the second time in the last three years!

It’s time to start getting excited about the combine. 40 times and hand sizes, woo!

Sadly enough, the “offseason” has become the on-season here in Denver. At least the Broncos are still in the race then.

With Denver now 2-6 on the season, the most exciting storyline around the team is what they will do at quarterback next. Will they finally get Drew Lock in there and find out if they have their guy? If not, will they select a quarterback with their top pick?

This weekend, as I did my preparation for the on-season, I watched as many of the top prospects at quarterback as I could. And in that research, I got my first full look at a player by the name of Joe Burrow, the quarterback at LSU, the new No. 1 team in the country.

As I watched Burrow make play after play, leading the Tigers to a huge victory, I couldn’t believe that there were folks out there clamoring for the Broncos to select this guy with a top-10 pick. And that has nothing to with Mr. Burrow’s abilities.

Joe Burrow is the perfect case study to illuminate how wrong the Broncos are to continue trying to run their archaic 1990’s offense.

Last season, in a boring pro-style offense led by offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger, Burrow compiled a mediocre stat line of 219-of-379 (57.8%) for 2894 yards, 16 touchdowns and five interceptions. As the Tigers finished with a relatively disappointing 9-3 record, Burrow was considered nothing special.

In the offseason, LSU brought in a new passing game coordinator in Joe Brady, 29, who had spent the past two seasons as an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints. Brady ushered the Tigers into the 21st century with a no-huddle, spread offense, featuring modern concepts like the RPO.

The result? Through eight games, Burrow is 205-of-260 (78.8%) for 2,805 yards to go with an eye-popping 30 touchdowns and just four interceptions. Joe Burrow has gone from just a guy to a Heisman favorite thanks to a quarterback-friendly offense.

And don’t get me wrong, the kid is accurate with the football, has a good arm and I dig his moxie, but I’m not kidding when I say that if John Elway calls him on Draft Day and asks, “How would you like to be a Denver Bronco,” he should respond with a swift, “Thanks but no thanks.” John should understand, he’s been there before. Burrow has been back to 1998, and he’s much happier in 2019.

On the other hand, the Broncos would be absolutely crazy to look at Burrow, who has flourished in the spread and struggled to produce under center, and say, “That’s our guy.”

At this point, maybe you’re thinking, “Okay, so forget about Burrow, what about the guys who are flourishing in the pro-style system for their college.”

Here’s a comprehensive list of those guys: __________________________

Out of all the top prospects, the one playing in the most “pro-style” system is Jake Fromm at Georgia, and out of all of them, he looks the least impressive to me. Although it’s not his fault that his head coach, Kirby Smart, didn’t call Joe Brady this offseason.

Burrow, Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, all these guys are operating in the spread and flourishing. Hell, Jalen Hurts went from one spread to a more extreme version of the spread, the Air Raid, and guess what? He got even better.

This isn’t that hard.

All over the NFL, young quarterbacks are succeding in offenses that make life easy on them. Gardner Minshew in Jacksonville, Kyler Murray in Arizona, Lamar Jackson in Baltimore, the list goes on. Oh, and by the way, John Elway wrote off the last two as options for the Broncos at their respective combines, mostly because they didn’t fit his offense.

Here’s a tip: if great players don’t fit your offense, your offense sucks.

In both New Orleans and Kansas City, backup quarterbacks are succeeding in the relief of stars because of QB-friendly offense. Meanwhile, the Broncos can hardly muster 15 points a game with their “starter.”

You get the point. The National Football League is evolving, and the Denver Broncos are getting left in the dust.

While explaining why rookie QB Drew Lock needs more time, Broncos offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello has talked repeatedly this season about how hard he believes the transition from a college spread system to his system is.

Maybe, just maybe, the Broncos need to get out of the stone age and start running an offense that capitalizes on what these college quarterbacks do best, rather than trying to guess which one of them will be the best at getting in a time machine to go back two decades.