Denver Broncos Announce New Starting Quarterback for 2021 Season

The Denver Broncos have a new starting quarterback for the 2021 season. On Wednesday, Broncos head [...]

By Brian Jones

The Denver Broncos have a new starting quarterback for the 2021 season. On Wednesday, Broncos head coach Vic Fangio told the team that Teddy Bridgewater will be QB 1 to start the year. The veteran quarterback earned the job after completing 16-of-19 passes for 179 yards, two touchdowns and a 141.0 quarterback ranking in the preseason.

This past weekend, Bridgewater, who beat out Drew Lock for the job, completed 9-of-11 passes for 105 yards and one touchdown in the game against the Seattle Seahawks. "Teddy played well, obviously," Fangio said Saturday. "You guys saw it. Some of his good plays were hard quarterback plays, where he had to manipulate the pocket, step up, step laterally, wait for something to come open late. I thought he did really well. He was helped by the fourth-down conversions, but one of those fourth downs was because we dropped a pass on third down that would have been an easy conversion. So I thought he played very well."

The Broncos acquired Bridgewater via trade from the Carolina Panthers in April. In his one season in Carolina, Bridgewater, 28, started 15 games and threw for 3,733 yards with 15 touchdowns and a 92.1 quarterback rating. He spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons with the New Orleans Saints and was the backup QB for Drew Brees.

Bridgewater was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings No. 32 overall in 2014. He led the Vikings to the playoffs in 2015 after having a solid sophomore season but did not play the entire 2016 season after suffering a torn ACL during training camp. He played in just one game during the 2017 season and then signed with the New York Jets in 2018 before being traded to the Saints.

With Bridgewater the starter, that means Lock will be the backup. The 24-year-old started 13 games for the Broncos in 2020 and threw for 2,933 yards, 16 touchdowns and 15 interceptions with a 75.4 quarterback rating. Lock was drafted in the second round in 2019 from Missouri. In his rookie season, Lock played in five games and threw for 1,020 yards and seven touchdowns.

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