Despite Recent Hype, Siemian Is Long Shot to Win Broncos’ QB Job for a Reason

The Denver Broncos are coming off a Super Bowl victory, but their starting quarterback in 2015, Peyton Manning, has ridden off into retirement.

For the first time since 1998, when current Broncos general manager John Elway capped off his career with a Lombardi Trophy, an incumbent Super Bowl champion is faced with the task of replacing its starting quarterback without even the potential of re-signing the passer.

According to the Denver Post’s Troy E. Renck, when the topic of the quarterback battle was brought up after an organized team activity, Denver head coach Gary Kubiak told the media, “I wouldn’t sleep on Trevor [Siemian] to win the job, either.”

As far as late spring goes, that’s as close to a bombshell as the NFL world is going to put out.

Why? Siemian was the 250th overall pick in 2015. Based on the team’s actions in the quarterback market this offseason, with Siemian already in their pocket for three more seasons, it’s doubtful that the Broncos value him much.

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First, they made an offer to Brock Osweiler, who started seven games for Denver in 2015. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the free-agency bidding war came down to the Broncos and the Houston Texans, who eventually signed the passer to a $72 million, four-year contract.

The train of thought that Denver thinks highly of Siemian is swiftly derailed by the fact that the team was at least in the ballpark of those massive numbers in the Osweiler sweepstakes.

Not only did the team target Osweiler, but it made a trade for Mark Sanchez, whom the Broncos are paying a $4.5 million base salary after acquiring the passer for a conditional 2017 seventh-round pick. While that may not seem like much, Sanchez’s base salary ranks sixth on the team, only behind Demaryius Thomas, Aqib Talib, Chris Harris, Emmanuel Sanders and Von Miller’s projected franchise tag signing, per Spotrac.

With Siemian on the roster, Sanchez was traded for on March 11. That date didn’t end the Colin Kaepernick trade rumors for the Broncos, though—a narrative that was played out all throughout the predraft process.

Even during the week of the draft, the idea of Denver targeting another passer was in the air, as Siemian wasn’t viewed by any major writer, analyst or pundit as someone worthy of even competing with Sanchez, who likely would have been the fourth quarterback on the Eagles’ depth chart had he not been traded.

Bob Holtzman of ESPN (via ESPN’s Adam Schefter) even reported that San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke at least left the door open for the possibility of Kaepernick being shipped out of town during the draft weekend.

49ers’ GM Trent Baalke told @BobHoltzmanESPN that it’s possible Colin Kaepernick could be traded this week.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) …

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