The Joe Flacco deal makes a ton of sense for the Broncos IF...

I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend.

On Wednesday morning, news surfaced that the Denver Broncos have agreed, in principle, to a trade with the Baltimore Ravens to bring veteran quarterback Joe Flacco to Denver, with the Broncos sending a fourth-round pick in return.

Let us start with a couple of exercises.

First, your life depends on a football team winning a game, and you only have two choices for the quarterback of your team, who do you pick?

A) Joe Flacco

B) Case Keenum

If you answered ‘A’— as more than 85 percent of people did here—please proceed to the next exercise. If you answered ‘B,’ I hope you have a good life insurance policy.

Now, if I had told you—without naming names—that the Broncos could improve their entirely bare quarterback cupboard for the low cost of a fourth-round pick, would you have signed up for that?

Of course you would have.

Joe Flacco is not the long-term answer for the Broncos at quarterback, but that doesn’t have to mean this was a bad deal. Let’s start there. This deal should be judged on the next move the Broncos make at QB.

Here’s the million-dollar question—is this Elway’s plan, or is this part of Elway’s plan?

If John Elway looked at Joe Flacco and the three years left on his contract and said, “Yep, this is the guy right here. Trade for him and our quarterback woes have been alleviated,” then the Broncos are in deep trouble.

If John Elway looked at Joe Flacco as a way to bring in a steady veteran for a relatively low price and expand his options at quarterback, then this makes a ton of sense. Allow me to explain.

Sitting at No. 10 overall in the upcoming NFL Draft put Elway in an awkward position, he and new head coach Vic Fangio knew they could not move forward with Case Keenum as their quarterback, but at 10 there were no guarantees. Elway was in a position where he essentially had to trade up before the draft to ensure that he could get his quarterback of the future—and the present. That’s not a good place to be, especially considering the fact that Elway would have no leverage in negotiations. Missing on a quarterback in the first round hurts, but missing on a quarterback that you had to trade up at least five spots in the top ten for can set you back five years or more.

With a signal caller in place that Denver feels comfortable with, there is now no pressure to get desperate on draft day, something John Elway has always been adverse to. Now, when the draft rolls around, Denver can be flexible. If a quarterback they like falls to 10, they can pick him up and put him behind a true pro for a year as he learns the Scangarello offense. If a quarterback they like is available at say seven, they can make a trade offer on their terms and wipe their hands if the trade partner wants too much.

Let’s say there isn’t a QB they like at 10. Well, now they have the option to pick the best player available, maybe it’s Devin White, Vic Fangio’s field general. But they also have the flexibility to trade back and potentially pick up another first-round pick for the 2020 draft, putting them in a position to create an enticing package to pursue a QB then. Or, if you really want to get crazy, it could give you a chance to trade back in 2019 and 2020 and give yourself a massive haul to use in an effort to secure the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 to get Trevor Lawrence.

Another path that’s now in play for the Broncos is to take a quarterback in the middle rounds of the 2019 draft to put behind Flacco as more of a project play. It’s a low-risk move that could eventually leave you with a solid backup for your future franchise quarterback, or you could hit the jackpot and get your Russell Wilson. A no-pressure situation.

The options are endless.

All of the sudden, everything is on the table for the Broncos, they traded a fourth-round pick to protect themselves from having to get desperate and predictable in the first, but it doesn’t and shouldn’t prevent them from going after a QB in the upcoming draft.

If this is the plan, the Broncos are doomed, if this is a part of the plan, Elway could end up looking like a genius.