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Pro football remains a meritocracy, and there’s no place where that statement is more true than in Denver. Especially at the quarterback position.

The team led by Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway won’t hesitate to put the best guy on the field and, as they showed on Sunday, the worst guy out to pasture. Even if he arrived via the a trade up in the first round of the draft.

After Lynch losing a fair-and-square quarterback competition in 2016 and 2017 to former seventh-rounder Trevor Siemian, Lynch fell behind last year’s Mr. Irrelevant. And Lynch has now fallen off the roster.

So with Chad Kelly bypassing the guy in whom Elway invested a first-round pick, the next question becomes whether, and when, Kelly will skip past free-agent arrival Case Keenum. Much of that depends on Keenum, and obviously plenty depends on Kelly. But Elway won’t tip the scales in Keenum’s favor simply because they paid Keenum a bunch of money. The moment Elway thinks Kelly gives the Broncos a better chance to win, Kelly will be the guy.

If/when that happens, it will be no more controversial than the decision to dump Lynch, the decision to bench Manning, the decision to let Brock Osweiler walk away, and the decision to make Tim Tebow run.