Griese: Paxton Lynch no bust, but shouldn’t have been 1st-rounder
Aug 22, 2017, 12:00 AM | Updated: 12:45 am
As the color analyst on the television broadcast during Saturday night’s Denver Broncos win over the San Francisco 49ers, it became evident to Brian Griese that Paxton Lynch was not ready to become team’s starting quarterback.
Griese, a former Broncos quarterback himself, told “Schlereth & Evans” on Monday that Denver was running a “Basic Football 101” offense against the 49ers, the Day 1 installation as their game plan, and Lynch got tripped up.
“Paxton clearly had trouble going through his reads, seeing the whole field, and if he’s not able to do that in the Day 1 install offense then he clearly doesn’t have a chance when it gets to the gradual level later on in the year,” Griese said. “And that’s what I saw, and that’s what became, I think, evident.”
Head coach Vance Joseph at a Monday press conference at the team’s headquarters that Lynch, the Broncos first-round pick in 2015, “has rare talent and he works at it.”
But “some guys need more time.”
“He’s a young player so in a year or two he may be ready to take over the reins, but right now he’s not,” Joseph said. “That’s hard to answer.”
“… Potential is only going to take you so far. Being a No. 1 draft pick is only going to take you so far. Doing well in practice is only going to take you so far because most of that is scripted,” Griese said ahead of Joseph’s press conference Monday.
“You ultimately have to get on the field and do it. And you’ve got to do it in an environment where you don’t know what’s going on. You’ve got to be able to react. You’ve got to be able to lead men. Go through reads. All those things.
Lynch may be a work in progress, but don’t label him a bust just because he was drafted highly, Griese said.
“I don’t think he should have been drafted where he was drafted to begin with. So, is that his fault? No. He didn’t pick where he was going to be drafted,” Griese said.
“I don’t think he’s a first-round draft pick. I don’t think that any of these quarterbacks coming out of the spread system who are not asked to read defenses and read the whole field should be taken anywhere near the first round. So, I wouldn’t personally use that word with him.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.
