Elway’s gift to Joseph must be bona fide QB
No matter how much anyone in Broncos Country might want to fire coach Vance Joseph, there’s no way general manager John Elway can do so now.
It took Joseph 14 NFL games to figure out what it takes for Denver to win. Maybe he’s a slow learner, but beating Indianapolis 25-13 on the road put an ugly eight-game losing streak farther in the rearview mirror. Elway can now rationalize giving Joseph another season to grow into the job and avoid making a coaching change for the third time in four years.
Giving Joseph a second chance? Thanks, boss. But it won’t matter unless Elway goes out and gets Joseph a bona fide NFL quarterback.
The Broncos overcame a 10point deficit in the first half and survived the loss of quarterback Trevor Siemian to yet another shoulder injury to record a victory that was as much about character as talent.
It’s a credit to Joseph that players on a team eliminated from playoff contention focused on the football business at hand, instead of letting the mind wander over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s with the holidays fast approaching.
“No one blinked,” Joseph said Thursday night. “And that’s a good sign.”
Regrets? Joseph has had more a few that have led to a disappointing 5-9 record. But what has hurt Joseph more than any interception by Siemian or the same special-teams mistakes week after week? Two things. Joseph underestimated how limited Denver was offensively and chased fireworks that proved to be duds. Even more costly: Joseph naively placed too much trust in assistant coaches rather than taking problems into his own hands.
The human body was not meant to play two football games in the span of five days. So until the NFL stops playing “Thursday Night Football,” can we stop pretending the league gives a hoot about player health?
And, in all likelihood, Siemian’s run as the Broncos’ starting quarterback came to a painful end against the Colts. Scrambling to make something happen in the red zone, Siemian went down in a heap under the 239-pound weight of Indianapolis linebacker Barkevious Mingo in the first quarter.
The look of anguish on Siemain’s face as Denver’s training staff tended to him on the team bench said it all. He’s done for the season, with the same damaged shoulder that required surgery in January. Football is a brutal game, so this is no slam on Siemian. But, regardless of what the Broncos might think of his skill set, he’s simply too fragile to be a regular quarterback at the pro level.
If the Broncos truly want Joseph to succeed, it is paramount that Elway finds a quarterback who can make an inexperienced Denver coach look smart. By drafting a rookie QB in the first round, the lone way to let anyone from Sam Darnold of Southern Cal to Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma grow would be through trial and many errors. That would likely result in another last-place finish by the Broncos in 2018, which would regenerate the same unpleasant speculation about Joseph’s job security.
For the Broncos to have a decent shot at making the playoffs next season, it makes far more sense to sign a veteran quarterback as a free agent. Who will be on the market? It’s impossible to predict now. Eli Manning? Too old. He would get crushed behind this Denver offensive line. Kirk Cousins? I’m not certain it makes budgetary sense for a team built on a strong defense to allocate more than $25 million in annual salary to quarterback that isn’t named Aaron Rodgers.
But maybe, just maybe, Kansas City decides to turn over its offense to Patrick Mahomes and chooses to part ways with Alex Smith. Smith could be the game manager of Von Miller and the gang’s dreams.
Let’s try a blind test. Player A has thrown 22 touchdown passes and nine interceptions for a 97.7 quarterback rating in 2017. Player B has thrown 23 touchdown passes and five interceptions for a 104.4 quarterback rating.
Player A? Cousins. Player B is Smith. There might not be a dime’s worth of difference between these two quarterbacks, let alone millions of dollars.
To defeat the Colts, Denver beat them up. Behind a seasonhigh 158 yards rushing from C.J. Anderson, the Broncos went smashmouth, running the football 45 times while throwing 26 passes. Denver is 5-0 in games this season when they run more often than pass, 0-9 when they pass more than run.
Style points aren’t required to win in the NFL. But life is never beautiful for a coach that’s losing. Smith is a quarterback born to win ugly.
“It’s just fun to win,” Joseph said.
As long as he does win, nobody in Broncos Country will care how Joseph gets it done.