Denver Broncos: How I Would Handle the Quarterback Situation

About a year ago, the Denver Broncos' quarterback situation was very clear. Newly acquired Kyle Orton was to be the guy to replace Jay Cutler as the starting quarterback. Although Head Coach Josh McDaniels technically said it would be a competition between Orton and Chris Simms, everybody knew it would be Orton.

The competition was more of a courtesy to Simms more than anything. That is not to say that McDaniels was totally committed to Orton. There were many rumors that Denver would draft a quarterback and that McDaniels tried to trade for Brady Quinn on draft day.

However, once the draft was over the direction was very clear. A year later it seems a lot less clear. This offseason, McDaniels did trade for Quinn. The reason Quinn was acquired is more arguable. Some say he was just simply brought in to add depth to the position and be the quality back-up.

Then there are those who say that Quinn was brought in to be the guy and will, at some point, replace Orton as the starting quarterback. Only McDaniels knows for sure. That will make things interesting once the preseason gets here.

One can only imagine, "If I were Coach McDaniels, how would I handle this?" On one hand you have Orton who was very solid but not spectacular last year. He played well enough to keep his job going into the season, but not really good enough to where it was unjustified to bring in Quinn.

Then you have Quinn who certainly has the potential. You don't shatter 36 passing records at a school that has already produced NFL greats like Joe Montana and Joe Theisman unless you have something. However, it is fair to say that he didn't live up to that potential in Cleveland.

Being completely fair, he really wasn't put into a position to where he could succeed. The Cleveland Browns were arguably the worst team in the league last year. Who cares that they won their last four meaningless games? He had no help around him.

Therefore, Quinn was put into a situation where success was virtually impossible and he failed. Based on that, it is safe to say he should be put into a situation where he is set up to succeed. At the same time, he hasn't really shown that he is worth betting the house on at this point. That can cause head scratching.

So what do you do if you are McDaniels? Do you stick with Orton knowing what you are getting?  Do you take a chance on Quinn when you aren't really sure if his failure in Cleveland was due to the environment or if he just isn't an NFL caliber quarterback? You know Orton deserves to start, but you have to find out what you have in Quinn.

What I would do is look at how most teams have a package of plays for a specialty quarterback to run the wildcat. I would do something similar for Quinn. Now Quinn is not a wildcat type, so the Broncos would have to run a different type of package for him.

One thing I know about Quinn, looking at his career at Notre Dame and even last year in Cleveland, is that he is at his best in the no huddle. So instead of a wildcat package, have a no huddle package in which you bring in Quinn for a series or two a game.

That will change the pace and speed things up. It will give defenses something more to prepare for. More importantly, it will give the Broncos a better idea of what Quinn will be able to do in a better situation. They can see what they have without setting the organization back if it fails.