Two and a half games later, playing in Salina, Kansas, Lynch planted his right leg as a defender crunched him from the left side. His right knee buckled. Tests revealed Lynch tore his LCL, ending his comeback attempt before he could even play in the Spartans\u2019 home debut on April 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pissed off,\u201d Lynch told The Denver Post. \u201cAnd it sucks. I didn\u2019t want it to be like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he did not ask himself why, or why him, or why he couldn\u2019t catch a break, or any of the possible whys that come when hope is killed. He couldn\u2019t go there, Lynch said. Not anymore. He did not join the Spartans for a whiff of former glory. This was an exercise, really, in football therapy.<\/p>\n
At some point, bouncing around cities and leagues, Paxton Lynch the man and Paxton Lynch the football player diverged. The man knew himself. The football player, though, lost all confidence. Lynch joined the Spartans to reconcile the two and find part of himself in Denver again. The experiment lasted just a few weeks.<\/p>\n
Still, if you ask him, it was successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018OK, if I play this year in arena football,’\u201d Lynch said, \u201c\u2018I\u2019m going to play as Paxton Lynch. I\u2019m going to have full confidence in myself. I don\u2019t really care.\u2019 And that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt good to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Paxton](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-879833204.jpg\")
Paxton Lynch of the Denver Broncos is sacked by Denico Autry of the Oakland Raiders during their NFL game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on November 26, 2017 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Robert Reiners\/Getty Images)
\nThe road back<\/p>\n
Looking back, the breaking point was 2017.<\/p>\n
Lynch was the Broncos\u2019 first draft pick after Super Bowl 50. The first pick after Manning\u2019s retirement. The first pick of the last year of the Kubiak Era. Lynch rolled into Denver, used to being \u201cthe guy,\u201d as he put it, from three years starting in Memphis; he started two games in his rookie year in 2016 behind Trevor Siemian, and lost the job again in his second year.<\/p>\n
In 2018, the Broncos signed veteran Case Keenum as their starter<\/a>, and Lynch lost direction.<\/p>\n \u201cI just remember that whole entire preseason, it was like \u2014 I wasn\u2019t Paxton Lynch,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cI was just, like, Paxton Lynch without the confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n The Broncos cut him that September, after two years and just four total starts. Lynch told himself he had to fight to change his mindset. He mostly lost. He lasted less than a year in Seattle. He lasted a year in Pittsburgh. He went to the CFL, the USFL, and the XFL and searched for nearly a decade to recapture the feeling he\u2019d first brought to Denver as a young 22-year-old man before the doubt crept in.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew who I was,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cI had a strong relationship with God. I have a strong foundation in my faith. So I always knew who I was off the field. But when it became Paxton Lynch the football player, and all these people had these different opinions about me \u2013 that\u2019s when it was hard for me.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like \u2026 \u2018You believe that you\u2019re good. But you\u2019re not playing good. And then all these people are saying you\u2019re not good,’\u201d he continued. \u201cSo it\u2019s like, \u2018Are these people seeing something I\u2019m not seeing?\u2019 It was the constant battle in that.\u201d<\/p>\n By 2024, the line had gone cold, and Lynch accepted a new stage of his life. Mostly. He was the play-caller for his son Asa\u2019s team with Park Hill,<\/a> and had an eye on coaching collegiate football. Then Thompson sold him on arena football at a Los Dos Potrillos.<\/a> Lynch told himself and family, after all, that he would play the sport as long as he possibly could.<\/p>\n That applied in this case, he figured, even if he was playing indoor games up at the Denver Coliseum rather than a few miles south at a rocking Empower Field.<\/p>\n Lynch hoped, of course, that something \u2014 another call, anything \u2014 would\u2019ve come out of this Spartans journey. But he felt no pressure to be perfect or prove he was good enough. By that late-March practice, Lynch was slinging with little abandon, and cackling in glee at two teammates arguing about their defensive assignments, and waving his hand over his nether regions in a belt-to-behind celebration after one touchdown pass.<\/p>\n \u201cTwo years off of playing football, that\u2019s when I was like, \u2018OK, if I get the opportunity, then I\u2019m just going to completely be myself again,’\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n Lessons to his kids<\/p>\n Lynch joined the Spartans to rehabilitate his own image as a football player, yes. Also, to better himself as a father, as his 10-year-old son Asa is a burgeoning quarterback in his own right in Denver youth ball.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI was doing things where I was like \u2013 I didn\u2019t even, like, give myself a chance, in a way,\u201d Lynch recalled of his career. \u201cI tell my son that all the time, too. When he goes out there and is afraid to throw an incompletion, or afraid of this, I\u2019m like, \u2018You\u2019re messing up, and you\u2019re not even feeling good about messing up. Because you\u2019re not even doing it, like, 100%.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Lynch had visions of leading the Spartans to a championship in the Denver Coliseum, with his kids cheering from the stands. Thousands more cheering, too. Thompson\u2019s franchise has heavily marketed Lynch since he signed last fall. W<\/a>hen visiting the Spartans\u2019 website<\/a>, a chatbot pops up with the same message: \u201cWe just signed Paxton Lynch to the Colorado Spartans, and season tickets are live now.\u201d<\/p>\n Spartans head coach Fred Shaw called Lynch a \u201ctrue leader\u201d and said his 6-foot-7 frame was built for the arena game, which features walls around the playing field that players crash into as a live boundary. The Spartans averaged over 40 points a game in the two games Lynch started, Shaw said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been in this Arena League for over 20 years now,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cAnd his play alone \u2014 I felt like he was going to become one of the best quarterbacks that ever played arena football.\u201d<\/p>\n Even with his season over, Lynch plans to attend as many home games as possible. He\u2019ll start with Saturday, April 11, at the Coliseum if he\u2019s able, coming off surgery this week.<\/p>\n \u201cI know there was a lot of people who wanted to come watch me play again,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cSo, my goal is to go there and give them the experience, and at least \u2014 if they want a picture, they want an autograph, they want to meet me, whatever \u2014 my goal is to be there to give them the opportunity, even if I\u2019m not playing.\u201d<\/p>\n His goal, too, was to give his son a firsthand look at the preparation it took to be a professional quarterback, at any level. And to work for his dreams. And to show him how to handle failure. It\u2019s taken Lynch a long time to learn that, himself.<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t know, yet, if he\u2019ll play again in 2027. If this was the true end of Lynch\u2019s playing career, though, he\u2019ll walk out happy.<\/p>\n \u201cI do feel like that\u2019s what I came out here and did \u2014 I was, like, authentically myself,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n![\"Quarterback](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-900124530.jpg\")
Quarterback Paxton Lynch of the Denver Broncos is tackled by inside linebacker Terrance Smith #48 and defensive tackle Jarvis Jenkins #94 of the Kansas City Chiefs scrambles against the Kansas City Chiefs in the second quarter of a game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on December 31, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n