John Elway Comments on Paxton Lynch, Broncos QB Situation and More

The defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos will guard their title without the quarterbacks who helped get them there, as Peyton Manning retired in March and backup Brock Osweiler signed with the Houston Texans. 

Denver then traded for Mark Sanchez in an attempt to come up with a starting replacement, and it missed out on a deal for the San Francisco 49ers' Colin Kaepernick.

"With Brock going to Houston, we've been looking for quarterbacks this year and trying to find out who's going to be that next guy," Broncos general manager John Elway told Dave Logan and Susie Wargin of Denver Sports 760 on Friday. 

On draft day, Denver traded up to No. 26 in Round 1 and took Memphis' Paxton Lynch, as Elway went through the organization's thought process.

"We didn't know where he was going to go or where he was going to fall. We had him ranked high and really liked him a lot so we were hoping that if he did fall into the twenties where he did, we were going to try and work to get up," Elway said. "We think he is a young guy with tremendous athletic ability...He's a guy that we feel can really fit into this offense."

Lynch though is a quarterback that NFL Network's Mike Mayock said would be "a year away from playing," per Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

Elway doesn't appear to share Mayock's point of view, though:

"

We look at Pax as a guy who really has the potential to be a long-time starter and a very good quarterback in this league who can be a guy we can build around for the future. Is that going to happen tomorrow? Probably not, but you never know when it can happen. We think he's going to be ready quicker than a lot of people think."

"

At 6'7" and 245 pounds, Lynch has the size of a powerful quarterback, and he put up the numbers in his junior year at Memphis to back it up. In just 13 games, he threw for 3,778 yards, 28 touchdowns and only four interceptions. 

He also showed off his big arm during his pro day in 24 mph winds, per the NFL:

There will be a learning period as he adjusts to the speed of the game and to the elite defenses bearing down on him. 

Still, Sanchez hasn't established himself as a bona fide starter either. He started just 10 games over the past two seasons and has had only two years with a winning record as a starter since his debut in 2009 with the New York Jets. 

He's also completed less than 57 percent of his passes and has thrown 84 interceptions against 86 touchdowns, so in no way will this job be handed to him though Elway said he has been doing a "nice job."

If Lynch manages to show that he's ahead of schedule and impresses Broncos management, he could see some starting time in 2016. 

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com