{"id":943130,"date":"2026-07-12T01:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943130\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T01:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:18:20","slug":"weve-reached-the-i-feel-bad-chapter-of-the-paxton-lynch-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943130\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ve reached the “I feel bad” chapter of the Paxton Lynch story"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2014 Paxton Lynch\u2019s performance during the Denver Broncos\u2019 second preseason game is the least of his worries.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Lynch\u2019s woes began before he received his first snap.<\/p>\n

However, to get the full picture of exactly where the former first-round pick stands now, the clock must be turned back.<\/p>\n

Dating back to Tuesday, the day he was demoted to the third-string quarterback, Lynch\u2019s world with the Broncos has been flipped upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first got the news, I was pretty upset about it because I know how hard I work, I know how bad I want to play and I know how much this means to me,\u201d Lynch said on Saturday night, reflecting back to when he found out he was demoted to third-string quarterback for the first time in his career not due to injury.<\/p>\n

If being demoted wasn\u2019t tough enough, head coach Vance Joseph publicly criticized Lynch\u2019s overall performance\u2014the first time someone within the organization has done such in regards to the 2015 first-round pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is upset and he didn\u2019t like it. He wants to know why,\u201d Joseph said on Tuesday, describing how Lynch took the news while also mentioning he didn\u2019t understand why he was demoted. \u201cHe\u2019s got to play better. It\u2019s as simple as that. It\u2019s a competition. It\u2019s the league. Everyone is doing this. No one is not playing their best players.\u201d<\/p>\n

But before the roughest week of his professional career could end, it got worse.<\/p>\n

Saturday night, he was delivered his biggest blow as he stepped onto the field.<\/p>\n

Midway through the third quarter, after Chad Kelly once again had a stellar outing<\/a>, it was Paxton\u2019s turn to show the organization he\u2019s not done fighting.<\/p>\n

But as he began his trot out on the field, the wind was taken from his sails before he could even pick up steam. As No. 12 entered, Broncos Stadium at Mile High erupted.<\/p>\n

Two and a half years ago, after the Broncos traded up to No. 26 overall to draft the Memphis product, every soul would have assumed the eruption on Saturday night was joyful.<\/p>\n

Instead, it was an outcry of boos. A beating of boos. A haunting of boos.<\/p>\n

And they only grew louder as his 5-for-11 night wore on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I feel bad for Paxton,\u201d Joseph said after the game, making a statement rarely heard in professional sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut our fans want to win. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about, it\u2019s about passion. I feel bad for Paxton, but he has to ignore it and go play\u2014it\u2019s professional football, you know. No one is going to hold your hand. He has to go out and perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the game, in what felt like insult to injury, Lynch was asked if he even wants\u00a0to be the backup quarterback.<\/p>\n

The worst part of it all is Paxton gets it. And that\u2019s the toughest part of this whole ordeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just haven\u2019t been playing well,\u201d Lynch said after the game with sorrow present in every pore of his body. \u201cThat\u2019s not acceptable, especially playing quarterback here, you\u2019ve got to play well and give your team an opportunity to win every week.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former first-round pick very well could be staring at the final weeks of his tenure with the team that entrusted him to be their answer to Peyton Manning\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n

Lynch maintained he hasn\u2019t lost his confidence in himself. From the crowd\u2019s response on Saturday, he may be the only one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 Paxton Lynch\u2019s performance during the Denver Broncos\u2019 second preseason game is the least of his worries.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,6],"class_list":["post-943130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denverbroncos","tag-football","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116904375330372616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}