Paxton Lynch didn’t open any eyes on Sunday; in fact, he probably closed a good deal of them.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, as the Broncos’ first-round quarterback seemingly couldn’t throw a pea into the Pacific if he was standing on a pier. Short, long, left, right — accuracy was not Lynch’s strong suit against the Jaguars.
Should we be concerned? Is this a sign that we have a bust on our hands?
Well, that sort of depends on whether you’re a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full type of fan. Of course we’d like to have seen more from Lynch, but it’s also just his second career start; writing off his career might be a bit premature at this point.
Here’s what head coach Gary Kubiak had to say on Monday about his quarterback’s performance:
On Lynch’s struggles throwing deep
“I just think it was just a guy who went out and played in his second start. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve seen young players. I look at the course of the game. He was really locked in to what we were doing early, on top of what we were doing early, as the game got longer, now it’s time to adjust. He’s still a young, raw player. There’s some opportunities in the game where he has to give us a better chance with the ball. It’s really just making those plays. If you have the opportunity to do them again, make them again, knowing third-and-2 with the game on the line and a seven-point lead, give [WR] Emmanuel [Sanders] a chance with that ball. He learned a lot from this game. He missed two big plays in the game off the bootlegs that could have been touchdowns for us. He’ll learn from that, and he’ll be better because of it.”
On how Lynch can improve:
“The more you play, those things get better for you. He has two starts under his belt right now. As he goes through his career and as he continues to practice and get opportunities, he will improve upon those things.”
On if he feels confident about Lynch’s potential:
“I think this guy has a brilliant career ahead of him. I’m really excited. We’re asking a lot of him. We threw him in there against Atlanta and he got a start against Atlanta, and he gets a start on the road against Jacksonville. He’s a young kid. I’m excited about some of the things I’ve seen. I’m also excited about things I know we can correct that are going to help him out. He’s a hard worker. He’s a good kid. He went in there and protected the ball yesterday, which we needed him to do for us to win. Yes, he can make some more plays, he knows that. I have confidence that he will.”
On if Lynch was a little too cautious:
“I think that could happen sometimes, especially when you’re young and some things are going on in the game. You don’t want to take away a guy’s aggression either as a player. We were playing a team yesterday that we felt like if we won the turnover battle, we’d have a chance to win the game. Winning the football game is the most important thing we do each and every week.”
