Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio has to be on the hot seat after an ugly 17-14 loss Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns.
He trotted out an injured Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback and stuck with the veteran, who was visibly hobbled, instead of putting Drew Lock into the game.
The Broncos offense sputtered, got no help from the running game, and the Browns won with a slew of injuries all over the roster.
So will a quarterback change be coming after four straight losses?
The answer is a resounding no.
Fangio made it clear after the game and said as much without much hesitation:
“I thought he played good, especially there in the second half,” Fangio said. “I do not think Teddy’s injuries from my vantage point affected him that much. I thought that he was courageous. He is our quarterback.”
This either speaks to blind loyalty in Bridgewater or zero faith in Lock.
Vic Fangio has full faith in Teddy Bridgewater as the Broncos' QB1 🏈 pic.twitter.com/ixV9WZBxTf
— Broncos Country (@BroncoCountryCP) October 22, 2021
Going Down With The Ship
Fangio’s team has a ton of problems and a quarterback switch may not solve them all.
However, it was clear Bridgewater was limited Thursday night.
Is Lock really so bad he can’t even get a chance to prove himself?
You want the cold hard truth?
Teddy Bridgewater – Not the answer
Drew Lock – Not the answer
Vic Fangio – Not the answer
Pat Shurmur – Not the answer
The #Broncos have no owner and a 1st year GM who did not address the long-term plan at QB. There is no end in sight.
— Denver Broncos 365 (@DailyBroncos) October 17, 2021
The Broncos coaching staff must really think Lock is an awful option if he cannot get any time over an injured Bridgewater.
Bridgewater now has extra time to rehab and prepare for Denver’s Week 8 game against the Washington Football Team.
Given he played Thursday, he may need to be in an actual cast to not play in that Halloween showdown.
Fangio has to be on his way out given the current trajectory of this team after a 3-0 start.
Putting a hobbled Bridgewater on the field and ignoring the obvious speaks to him being in way over his head in this role.
I have more faith in Lock after what I’ve seen from Bridgewater. Teddy is not a sound vet as you all think. There’s no excuse. The team needs to stop talking and start proving
I think they need to send the hole staff out of denver wake up an do this today
QB, is not the PROBLEM, they had very little opportunities since the DEFENSE and run offense is terrible. you need to learn the game before pointing a direct finger at the QB.. the defense is as worse as it GETS!!!
I mean, the defense hasn’t been good, especially being the highest paid in the league. However, they are ranked in the middle of the pack. It is definitely not as worse as it gets.
Our offense stalls because the OC and HC are stuck in 1995 and think they can coach that way still and win. They are too predictable. Teams don’t respect us and so they stack the box and dare us to throw deep, which we can’t.
Cleveland elected to receive the kickoff at the beginning of the game where the norm has been to defer. That showed me they had no fear of Denver’s defense. They then proceeded to ram the ball down Denver’s throat and scored on their first possession. Who’s in charge of the defense….yeah that would be Fangio the same guy who refuses to fire his OC and his Special Teams coach.
You Are absolutely right!!!
I do wonder how much of the anti-drew sentiment fangio holds is from the covid debacle last year. They did all intentionally lie and try to deceive the system causing the whole situation. I’d be pretty furious too as fangio, but I’d get over it by now.
Regardless, Fangio wants to hold his little Teddy as he sinks with the ship.
Teddy is not the problem, did you see Cleveland run through the defense like water, Teddy could use some help from the offensive line they can’t block and boles is holding alot put the blame where it belongs
Bolles has 3 penalties this year.
Get rid of Drew lock he is harmless!!
I don’t think it could hurt to give Teddy time to recover (we’re already losing anyway lol). Before hiring our new offensive coaches Drew Lock was quite consistent, and even a player as good as Manning spent a few games warming the bench (injured) during our Superbowl season. All I see is a head coach doubling down on red hoping to appease fans when he needs to learn to call plays, focus on patching holes in our o line and lean into our two solid running backs to remove pressure otherwise Teddy will be leaving in a stretcher soon enough. Also where the **** is our pass rush? you have Von freakin Miller and call 1 blitz a half? Derick Carr had nearly 5 seconds to connect those down field throws and had we even hit him a couple times there’s no way he’d have been comfortable enough to peg those… Imo we have a solid starting team but more and more of them are out for the season and as we fall back on second string the lack of leadership is growing painfully apparent.
Get rid of coach and teddy and john relay and sale team to Payton manning.
Thank you.. All these people who don’t know football, always want to point the finger at the QB. Is Teddy the long term answer,,no but he’s playing solid enough to get us wins. Check his stats maybe. Not to mention we don’t have the greatest line. Long ball plays need tie to develop. The Line doesn’t give us that time.. Also we need to establish more of a run to set up play action. We have 2 great bellcow backs. But again the line can’t block for them constantly. 100% blame goes to the whole coaching staff.. Where is Fangio great defense, other than the first 2 games against bum squads. I know we suffered some significant injuries, but I don’t like to use injuries as an excuse… If u have a good scheme and players with that next man up mentality, than there shouldn’t be that much fall off. Shurmer’s offense is played out too, like my man said. Too predictable, can’t even have success on a simple screen play. Throw to the TEs more. And the way Teddy was hobbled, why not let him rest a game or 2 and see again what u have with Lock. Gonna probably have to
draft a QB either way.. Not like we are going to make the playoffs anyway.. If we don’t finish at least 9-8, the whole staff should be fired.. Vance Joseph sucked and only got a year and a half. What improvements year to year has Fangio shown. None, I mean we were 5-11 last year.. And I think we have the talent, just need coaching to put it together the right way. Fangio is too soft as well. Since we won with Peyton, I see the same issues and mistakes every time I try to watch this team, which I don’t even want to do anymore out of frustration.