Mark Sanchez, Denver Broncos starter. We'll let that sink in. Go take a little walk while you let those words, that thought, marinate in your brain, seep into your subconscious and burnish itself as cold, hard fact. Because as things stand right now and whether Broncos fans like it or not, Sanchez - Mr. Butt Fumble, Mr. I Couldn't Beat Out Sam Bradford - is your starting signal-caller for the 2016 season. Now, there's every reason to believe that that may change sometime between today and the start of the regular season, but the intervening months are unlikely to bring an answer that makes fans in Denver feel as warm and fuzzy as they did when they had a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer, Peyton Manning, and a talented former second-round pick who spent his entire four year NFL career learning under said future Hall denizen, Brock Osweiler, topping the quarterback depth chart.
Winning a Super Bowl will do that to you. The shine that comes with having "Super Bowl Champion" attached to your name is not easily washed off. And for players like Osweiler, defensive lineman Malik Jackson, linebacker Danny Trevathan and, likely, running back C.J. Anderson, there was never going to be a better time to strike in free agency than coming off a Super Bowl victory.
Which brings us back to the Broncos.
Sanchez is not the guy you want leading your franchise into the regular season or the playoffs. Sure, Manning at the end wasn't good - it's a fact as cold and hard as the Sanchize's sudden high standing in Denver that Manning didn't lead the Broncos to a Super Bowl 50 victory, he basically did just enough not to lose it for them. Sanchez, during early career runs through the AFC playoff field with the Jets, put together a fairly competent playoff stat line. Between 2009 and 2010, Sanchez completed 95 of his passes - just over 60 percent completion - for 1,155 yards, 9 touchdowns, 3 interceptions and a quarterback rating north of 90 during those mostly successful postseason charges.
Looking at the stats, you'd say that's a guy you want on your team. Heck, that's a guy you'd want on the field for a playoff game against a division foe in frigid, sideways weather.
But Sanchez is not that guy. He's proven it time and again in both New York and Philly. Most recently, playing in Chip Kelly's up-tempo system, wherein the quarterback is tasked with making quick decisions, moving the offense at breakneck speed and, first and foremost, holding onto the ball, Sanchez, unsurprisingly, set career-highs in completion percentage (64.1, 64.8) at the same time as he continued an alarming trend of turnovers.
Between 2014 and 2015, Sanchez tossed 15 interceptions and fumbled 8 times. During that same span, he accounted for just 18 touchdowns. So when Sanchez says he's "battle-tested" and ready to start for the Broncos, it should be taken with a horse-pill sized grain of salt.
That Sanchez is not, and should not, be the guy leading the Broncos in 2016 is a given. But therein lies the problem for Elway - there are few more palatable options available.
Sure, Sanchez buys them some time and maybe a little negotiating power when it comes to the likes of veteran free agent Ryan Fitzpatrick and San Francisco 49ers trade bait Colin Kaepernick. But those options, outside of Kaep (maybe) represent nothing more than a stopgap.
Elway has proven himself a capable and shrewd evaluator of talent thus far in his tenure atop the Broncos organization - the presence of head coach Gary Kubiak and the formerly star-studded and still uber-talented Broncos lineup attest to that. But he's also facing perhaps his most pivotal offseason at the helm of the franchise.
Guys like Jackson, Trevathan and Anderson can be replaced. Manning, as much for his personality and leadership as his actual on-field production, can't be. And the loss of Osweiler, who the franchise invested so much time and money into (not to mention that second-round pick) certainly re-sets them at the quarterback position.
But other GMs in the league have done more with less and there's nothing that says Elway can't come out of this looking none the worse for the wear.
It won't be easy though. Maybe the 49ers will cave and accept that fourth-round pick for Kaep, though it doesn't sound like they're all that interested in that. Maybe Brian Hoyer can be plucked from the Texans - wouldn't you just love to hear the phone call between Elway and Texans GM Rick Smith? - or Fitzpatrick will get fed up with playing head games with the Jets and take a lesser deal elsewhere out of pure spite.
But the best and clearest answer for Elway and Co. to the plight that befell them the moment they hefted the Lombardi Trophy in December?
There isn't one.
The remainder of the NFL's free agency period should provide a partial answer, but so too should the 2016 NFL Draft, in the form of a Connor Cook or Christian Hackenburg. And whether it's Hoyer or Fitz or even Sanchez, that player shouldn't be viewed as the long-term answer, but a gateway.
Because for too long Elway has - to great effect, of course - ridden the coattails of another franchise's quarterback draft hit. As much money as Osweiler got from Houston and as much as it hurt the Broncos to watch him walk, no one who saw him play last season can say with any certainty what or who he is. $37 million guaranteed or not, Osweiler represents a massive gamble for the Texans and Bill O'Brien, just as he would have been for the Broncos and Elway. It likely had much to do with the Broncos' valuation and the reason they wouldn't budge from that figure, even when it became clear Osweiler was thinking of jumping ship.
Really, much of the decision-making at quarterback in Denver has been done for Elway this offseason. But he's got a big one of his own looming. And trying to again patch up a position that traditionally requires a long-term commitment won't cut it this time.
Why?
Because there's not going to be any Manning - that tired, but still tough-as-nails cowboy, blowing into town like some savior sent by the football gods themselves - this time.
