God help me, rationalization is a powerful thing. But I have started to see John Elway’s 3-D chess moves come together in my head, and I like it.

YES. That means that I think it is a good and proper idea to go into the 2016 season with The Sanchize as Corpse PeyPey’s replacement. As the unquestioned starter. No, I haven’t been hitting the Tussin yet.

It’s all about opportunity cost. When you are up against the cap, with no credible starting QB on the roster…opposing GMs and agents are gonna try to play you for suckers. So, you can cripple the franchise for a speculative, marginal at best (I mean, Jeebus, we’ve seen Colin Kaepernick play) for years down the road. Or, you can bask in the warming glow of SUPER BOWL L CHAMPION GOODWILL.

Rolling with a $4.5M starting QB (who, all joking aside, is really mostly average if you surround him with talent and don’t ask him to do too much) allows you to do things at other positions. Like re-sign the only plus non-kicker offensive performer from said Super Bowl (CJ Anderson). Not a coincidence that Elway matched after the Kaep trade/restructure deal fell apart. Next up? An honest-to-God left tackle! Perish the thought, but Russell Okung is coming to town for oats and hay with the big man, and the corpse of Ryan Clady will likely hit the bricks in exchange.

Denver can’t make that swap if it does the Kaep deal. Hell, Elway might not even have been able to keep Clady on a reduced deal.

So now you have a borderline Pro Bowl-caliber RB (with fairly low mileage), a solid starter at LT, and most importantly – ALL your draft assets still to play with. If one of the top QBs slips, Elway can take one in the 1st, and trade up as need be. Otherwise, as I would prefer, he can draft one of the elite OG prospects to step in right away and give Denver a complete, very good-to-excellent line for years to come. This sets the foundation for the running game to have a real chance, and for the yet-to-be-determined QB of the future to succeed.

Next comes the hard part. Denver has to do its diligence on Dak Prescott, to determine if he is still draftable after the DUI arrest, and if so, whether he will still be there in the late 3rd. Would be mighty tempting to go with another pass rusher to replace Malik Jackson with the 2nd round pick, and still get the QB you want at the end of Day Two. But that’s high stakes poker.

Glad that I trust the talking horse with the cards in his hoof.