ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- As the Denver Broncos sift through all that went wrong in a 5-11 season, the question of quarterback Paxton Lynch's future is a fairly significant piece of the puzzle.

The team's top football decision-maker, John Elway, went as far as to say Lynch's future will be "high on the topics as far as discussion, where we think he is and if he can be that guy going into the future."

What the Broncos do at quarterback tops the offseason to-do list and neither Elway nor coach Vance Joseph has seen enough from Lynch to say he's absolutely part of the plan.

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"The unfortunate thing with Paxton is we didn't get a chance to see him as much as we wanted this year," Elway said. " ... We have to figure out where he is in the process as far as him developing as the quarterback. There's no question, we have to figure that out, too. The hardest thing is that we didn't get to see him play this year and he didn't get that experience that we were so hoping to get him, especially when he got hurt in the Raiders game."

The Broncos sent first- and third-round picks to the Seattle Seahawks on the first day of the draft in 2016 to move up from No. 32 to No. 26 to select Lynch. It's a well-worn tale of how the Dallas Cowboys wanted to select Lynch and the Broncos moved to make the pick before the Cowboys could trade back into the first round.

That's an investment. Since then, Lynch has lost back-to-back training camp battles to Trevor Siemian for the starting job and he has made just four regular-season starts in two years, playing in five games overall.

His best showing came this past Sunday, but even that was a lukewarm affair. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 254 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions against the Kansas City Chiefs' reserves, while he largely had the Broncos' starters around him.

He lost two-thirds of his potential practice time this season with a shoulder injury in the preseason and then he suffered an ankle injury during his Nov. 26 start against the Oakland Raiders. That is certainly a slice of bad luck, but now Elway has made it clear he's looking for quarterbacks in free agency and the draft.

Lynch said earlier this week that he was still trying to formulate his offseason plan. From a football perspective he has work to do, whether he wants to accept that or not, and there are many in the league who say he doesn't always project urgency about what specifically he will do.

"I just want to get better, whatever I can do in the offseason to get better, I'm sure I'll figure that out whenever I actually dive into it," is how Lynch put it earlier this week. " For now, I'm just going to decompress a little bit and relax a little bit. The goal is always to come back better then when you left."

"We have to figure out where he is in the process as far as him developing as the quarterback," said John Elway of Paxton Lynch. Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports

Most of the Broncos' internal discussions about Lynch will take place before free agency and before the draft, which is also before Lynch gets to throw a football again for the team in a practice setting. It means some of this is out of his hands.

As far as what he needs to do, several personnel evaluators who met with Lynch before the 2016 draft and have watched him play since say he needs to speed up his game-day decision-making if he's going to evolve past a first-read-and-run quarterback. Joseph said he was pleased at Lynch's work against the Chiefs' backups this past Sunday, but hinted at that assessment as well.

"As far as his growth, he needs to just keep playing and keep growing as far as a quarterback -- his football IQ and all of those things," Joseph said.

In four starts, Lynch, whose mobility is supposed to be his strength, has largely used his legs to leave the pocket rather than move to make a throw. He's been sacked 18 times in just under 17 quarters of play -- five games overall.

He won't turn 24 until next month, but the Broncos' words and actions in recent weeks show the clock is already ticking on whether or not the Broncos give him another chance to show what he's learned.