“I Can’t Tell You How Hard It’s Going To Be” – Denver Broncos Coach Talks About the Possibility of A New Starter

14 players from 2019 CFP National Champions in Louisiana State Tigers (LSU) found takers in this year’s NFL draft. Among these was top draft pick Joe Burrow who was snapped up by the Cincinnati Bengals. However, another of the Tigers in Lloyd Cushenberry has earned rave reviews from his the Denver Broncos with new OC Pat Shurmur, in particular, praising the pick. However, given the unique circumstances this off-season, the coaches acknowledge that the rookie will have his work cut out if he is to start. 

Lloyd Cushenberry earns praise from Denver Broncos OC

Cushenberry was the one responsible for snapping the ball to Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow. And as per DenverBroncos.com, the center has smartness as well as football awareness. 

As per the Denver Broncos OC Pat Shurmur, the 83rd overall draft pick is, “doing an outstanding job. He’s very smart. He’s very intuitive. … You can see why he plays center because obviously they handle a lot mentally upfront. He did a great job last year at LSU, and he’s really impressed us with how smart he is and his football awareness. That’s the starting point.”

However, knowledge needs to be put into practice for the coaches and coordinators to be really impressed. This hasn’t been possible this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic disrupting the traditional off-season schedules across the league. 

“I can’t tell you how hard it’s going to be for him to start. This is a unique year. The only thing I would compare this to obviously was the lockout year where in that year, we didn’t even have the virtual stuff. So a lot of us were meeting our players for the very first time if you were a new staff.”

However, Cushenberry appears to have made the right first impression and piqued the interest of the right people.

“But he’s impressed us. We feel like we’ve got to see him. We’ve got to see him compete, we’ve got to see him work. Once they get out there and start doing it, we’ll see how quickly he can master it.”

Can Lloyd Cushenberry be the one to start the season as the one to pass the football to QB Drew Lock? 

Based on what Head Coach Vic Fangio said following the draft, and Pat Shurmur’s comments it does seem possible. 

Drew Lock Will Be the Pop Guy This Year- Analyst Predicts Denver Broncos QB Will Win the MVP