Landry: We can say Broncos blew Lynch pick if he doesn’t win QB job

Denver Broncos head coach maintained this week, as he has throughout the entire offseason, that both Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch will compete in a 50-50 quarterback position.

This week, during mandatory minicamp, Joseph cemented that notion even further, saying there’s probably a “zero-to-none” chance either quarterback could the starting role before training camp.

“It’s going to be won in the games in the preseason,” Joseph said. “That’s where evaluation starts in my opinion.”

Or, as LandryFootball.com’s Chris Landry put it this week on with 104.3 The Fan, “It’s kind of like going to school and you’re doing a good job taking note and you’re learning, but the tests haven’t taken place yet.”

“You haven’t written the essays and taken the tests yet. That’s where we are, at the teaching and learning stages,” Landry said.

So, any grades right now on if Lynch, the 2015 first-round pick whom Landry said the team wants to win the job, and Siemian, last season’s starter, are incomplete.

It’s Lynch’s job if he can catch Siemian, or even come close, Landry said.

“They see him as the guy that has the most physical ability, and that’s the direction that they’re going to go. But he has to have a better grasp of the offense, and that’s what they’re working to do,” Landry said.

“That’s where he’s not at this point, where he’s that close, but how much is he gaining ground? Well, I think he’s done a really good job in the offseason, coaches tell me. But it’s a process, and the process hasn’t taken its form where we really get to see how well you produce.”

But if he can’t take the job from Siemian at some point this season, Landry said it’s time to categorize drafting Lynch — whom Broncos GM John Elway and company traded up in the first-round to selection — as a bust.

“You move up to draft a guy, you draft him to be your starter, if he doesn’t win the job this year, then I think we can officially say they’ve blown that pick in terms of how they evaluated him,” Landry said.

“And we all knew, I did and a lot of us did, that it was going to be a bigger learning curve for him than the other quarterbacks. But at this stage, the fact that he hadn’t made the progress is a little concerning.”

But, Landry said, the Broncos aren’t there yet.

“We’re not at the start of the season. And he very well may get it done. We just need to see,” Landry said.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.