Paxton Lynch never has been one to disguise his feelings or thoughts, and he seems to have no desire to start now.

There’s a childlike wonderment that Lynch cannot and will not shake. But against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at Sports Authority Field, the Broncos’ rookie quarterback could be relied upon to start or share the load as Trevor Siemian works his way back from a sprain in his nonthrowing shoulder. Lynch could take the reins of a defending Super Bowl champion as it faces perhaps its biggest test yet this season.

The pressure seems great, sometimes too great for a 22-year-old who is less than six months removed from the college life. But maybe not. Lynch’s natural talent exceeds that of many rookie quarterbacks, and his improvement in the Broncos’ offense has been noticeable — in practices and last Sunday, when he closed out a victory at Tampa Bay.

“From the footwork up, I feel really confident in myself, how I am with the playbook now and how my footwork has timed up with the routes and concepts as well as getting in and out of the huddle,” Lynch said. “I’m getting better at that day in and day out. I’m just pleased with where I am right now.” Related Articles October 5, 2016 Broncos finally face a winning team in the streaking Falcons. Is this Denver’s toughest test?

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Lynch saw his first NFL action after a sack injured Siemian’s nonthrowing shoulder late in the second quarter. After Siemian headed back to the locker room for examination, Lynch guided the offense to three scoring drives, including his career-first touchdown pass — to Emmanuel Sanders in the fourth quarter.

“His confidence throwing the ball — he’s always had that. It’s handling all the aspects of walking in here today, getting a game plan that’s different from the one he had last week. He adjusts a little quicker,” coach Gary Kubiak said. “I think he’s just more confident in his ability each week to kind of refocus and start over and get ready to play.”

Against the Bucs, Lynch showed flashes of his progress and potential. Lynch completed 8-of-10 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown on throws, noted Pro Football Focus, between 10 and 19 yards, putting his arm strength on display. He converted three third downs, with two — an 18-yard completion to Sanders and a 3-yard pass to running back C.J. Anderson — leading to field goals. He reignited a running game that struggled to find its footing in the first two quarters. And he had multiple occasions where he wisely threw away the ball instead of risking turnovers.

“His footwork has gotten better and faster. He’s more comfortable with the offense, so it shows up in his tempo and timing with his decisionmaking and his route-throwing,” said quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp. “That’s been positive to see. He had to handle quite a bit of verbiage since he got here, and each week we’ve seen him grow within the system on spitting out the play and talking. He still will have some moments — I think Gary was quoted saying, ‘Hey, get out of the huddle a bit quicker.’ But part of that was nerves and the first time doing it.”

Kubiak said Lynch’s worst play was his first, when he underthrew a pass over the middle that was intended for Bennie Fowler and nearly intercepted. In 32 minutes of play, Lynch’s time under pressure was limited. According to Pro Football Focus, he was under pressure on only four of the 25 times he dropped back. None of those plays resulted in a completion.

“There’s so much of a growth for any young quarterback when it comes to learning defenses, learning different protections on offense,” Knapp said. “But, on top of that for him is he was never in a huddle. He was never having to call the plays. He was never having to go through a variety of protection calls, so that just adds more to the learning curve for him. Game experience is one thing, but he can’t get enough reps in practice.”

So, on Wednesday, Lynch got more. As Siemian observed practice, Lynch shared the reps with only Austin Davis, the Broncos’ veteran third-stringer. It was part of the plan, mostly to allow Siemian time to rest, but also to help Lynch enter Sunday as prepared as possible should the Broncos need him to start.

After all, they’ve done this before.

“Just like we went through last year when we had to have a first-time starter (in Brock Osweiler) having to play during the playoff hunt,” Knapp said. “We feel like if we bring a guy in the building, there’s a reason he’s here, so it’s our job to make sure he’s prepared to execute whatever is asked of him. They’re both young guys. It’s not like Trevor has been playing so many years. They’re both going to have their growing pains, but we feel like both work well together and are really growing at a good rate.”

Passing Breakdown

Broncos rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch saw his first NFL action Sunday in Tampa and received high praise from coach Gary Kubiak for his improvement, especially with his footwork and decisionmaking. Here’s a snapshot of Lynch’s situational passing in a little more than two quarters of play vs. Trevor Siemian’s through four games this season (via STATS LLC):

3rd-down passing Att-Cmp. Pct. TDs Int. Sacks Rating Siemian 14-23 60.9 2 1 2 101.5 Lynch 3-8 37.5 0 0 0 53.1 Blitz passing Siemian 19-31 61.3 2 2 2 89.7 Lynch 2-8 25.0 1 0 0 85.4 Non-blitz passing Siemian 49-70 70.0 4 1 6 104.0 Lynch 12-16 75.0 0 0 1 99.5 Red-zone passing Siemian 6-13 46.2 3 0 1 92.6 Lynch 2-3 66.7 1 0 0 119.4

Stable of quarterbacks

A look at the Broncos’ use of quarterbacks over the past two seasons:

Peyton Manning: 10 games played, 7-2 as starter (Weeks 1-10 of 2015)

Brock Osweiler: Eight games played, 5-2 as starter (Weeks 11-17 of 2015)

Trevor Siemian: Four games played, 4-0 as starter (Weeks 1-4 of 2016)

Paxton Lynch: One game played (Week 4 of 2016)

Nicki Jhabvala, The Denver Post