Why Case Keenum doesn't care if the Broncos draft a quarterback

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Case Keenum has 36 million reasons why he shouldn’t care if the team that just signed him to a massive deal drafts his replacement less than two months later.

But that’s not the reason why he won’t be bothered if the Denver Broncos do just that.

“For me, it doesn’t change my mindset,” Keenum said Friday, when asked what his thoughts would be if Denver drafted a quarterback in the first round. “It really doesn’t. I prepare every day with the mindset that I’m going to do everything I can to be the best quarterback for this team, to be the best leader. It doesn’t change my mindset at all.”

Forget the fountain of youth, the 30-year-old has clearly been drinking out of the fountain of maturity and eating out of the basket of wisdom.

On top of that, it’s become clear Case is a smart man, both on and off the field. The moment he made the Broncos his No. 1 destination this offseason, he understood John Elway very well may be eying a quarterback with the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft.

“I’ve been around long enough to know that anything is a possibility in this league,” he said, awkwardly having to answer a question about his potential replacement plan at his own introductory press conference. “I was a starting quarterback when we drafted somebody No. 1 overall [with the Los Angeles Rams], and the team traded a bunch of draft picks [to do so]. I know how that goes, too.”

He’s such a great team player, in fact, he would even understand if his team did such a thing.

“Like my teammates, like my coaches, like the front office, everybody is doing everything they possibly can to be the best Denver Broncos that we can be.”

Heck, Keenum’s contract even hints to this as a realistic possibility.

Instead of signing a five-year, long-term deal in Denver, the Broncos and Case agreed to a two-year deal. If things go awry, or let’s say the Broncos do in fact draft a quarterback this year and want him to play next year, Denver could realistically move on from the former Viking after this year and only take a $7 million hit in dead money in 2019. Essentially chump change when it comes to the wacky quarterback market.

Of course, Keenum—and his ultra-completive spirit—doesn’t plan on this being the case.

“First of all, we want to be here long term. My wife and I love it already,” he said with a smile on his second day in town. “We want to play the rest of my career here; there’s no doubt about that. I think the two years is an opportunity for me to continue to prove myself as a starting quarterback, as a franchise quarterback and as someone that a team and a franchise can count on. I think that made the most sense for my agents and I, and the deal they put together was great… It made the most sense, and I couldn’t be more thrilled at how it has turned out.”

Fortunately, for both Case and the Broncos, the splash QB signing now makes Denver not desperate to draft a quarterback in the first round anymore.

“We have a lot of opportunities at five now,” the decision maker himself Elway said Friday. “Once we get in our draft meetings in the first of April then we’ll start looking at all of the ways we can go.”

Even if the Broncos were to go QB at No. 5, the $18 million man will have the early advantage on the young gun. When head coach Vance Joseph was asked if a rookie quarterback would change Keenum’s status as the starter, Joseph simply, and quickly, shot back, “No.”

“Case is the starter right now. Having Case as our starter and Paxton [Lynch] as the two right now, with that fifth pick we have flexibility now.”

Within days of signing the contract of his—and his kids and their kids—life, Keenum was already faced with questions about his potential successor. For some, this could have been a major problem. For him, it was a challenge.

Bring it on.