The Kansas City Chiefs will play a meaningless game against the Denver Broncos this weekend. It means nothing for either side and both teams will likely be throwing their backup quarterbacks into the mix.
It wasn’t too long ago when the Kansas City Chiefs were constantly playing little brother to the Denver Broncos, but ever since Sheriff Manning left the Mile High city, Kansas City has owned the AFC West. This week, both teams will play for nothing in the regular season finale in Denver.
The Broncos were eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago and have had a very un-Bronco like season. They’ve won just five games this season and their defense hasn’t been elite by any means.
Denver has also struggled at the quarterback position. When I say struggled, I mean it’s been REALLY bad. The Broncos have had to choose between Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, and Paxton Lynch this year. Yikes.
The Chiefs very well could be sitting most of their starters in this game and that would give Patrick Mahomes his first glimpse of NFL action since the preseason. The Broncos, on the other hand, might be seeing what they have on their quarterback depth chart as well.
Broncos head coach Vance Joseph made a comment in his press conference on Tuesday morning that the team plans to roll with Paxton Lynch at the quarterback spot. Lynch was a first round pick by the Broncos in 2016 and has seen limited action in the pros to this point.
Joseph: "The plan is to start Paxton."
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) December 26, 2017
Lynch has appeared in just one game this year and that came in week 12 against the Raiders. He’d go on to complete just nine passes off of 14 attempts for 41 yards and an interception and was injured during that game.
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Prior to this season, Lynch made two starts for Denver as a rookie, throwing for 497 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. The former first round pick out of Memphis, who the Broncos jumped in front of the Chiefs to draft, has underachieved in his first two years. Denver needs to see what they have with him in week 17 to decide if he’s worth building around.
Regardless of Lynch’s performance on Sunday, the Broncos will likely look for a quarterback in free agency this offseason. Guys like Kirk Cousins or even Tyrod Taylor would do well in Denver and it’s been proven that John Elway doesn’t have much luck with drafting quarterbacks.
If this weekend’s game ends up being a battle between Patrick Mahomes and Paxton Lynch, then perhaps this will be a quarterback match-up we see a lot over the next few years. At this point, however, it’s hard to have much faith in Lynch to lead the charge for the Broncos, as he’s been very below average through two seasons.
The Chiefs don’t need to win this weekend due to not being able to move up in the playoff standings, but losing to Paxton Lynch would still be kind of embarrassing.
Let’s enjoy the bad Broncos while we still can. I don’t see Denver sitting through another pitiful season in 2018.