How soon will the Denver Broncos get Drew Lock on the field? Here are three prominent succession plans they could try to follow.

May the best man win.

When it comes to NFL quarterback succession plans, that old cliché is a load of garbage that rarely — if ever — works.

NFL teams need to have plans in place for young players to get on the field and take their respective franchises into the future, and the Denver Broncos had to learn that the hard way. They cannot make the same mistake they made with Paxton Lynch from 2016-18.

Let’s quickly re-hash what went wrong there.

The Broncos drafted Lynch after trading up in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft to get him. They had a clear path to the starting position for him with Mark Sanchez (who was cut) taking starter reps in the offseason and untested Trevor Siemian (a 7th-round pick the year before) the only other competition.

The Broncos let the best man win that competition, and Trevor Siemian started the majority of the games in Lynch’s rookie season despite apparently neither being a franchise QB option.

The Broncos wasted a year with Lynch because they felt they could still compete for a championship seeing as they were fresh off of winning a title.

Siemian beat Lynch the following year as well, and Lynch suffered a pre-season injury that forced him to miss extensive (valuable) practice time.

By the time 2018 came around, the Broncos could not afford to take their lumps with a rookie or a player like Lynch. They signed Case Keenum to be the starter and there was no competition — he was the guy.

Lynch was ultimately cut. The Broncos were forced to give up.

How can they avoid this mistake with Drew Lock? At the very least, how can they make sure they at least know what they have with Lock as a starter?

I want to take a look at five succession plans that have been executed around the NFL in the last decade or so, three examples many of you will remember.