Real estate job no longer in plans
Siemian keeps overcoming hurdles to be Denver’s starting quarterback
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — He’s an undersized underdog, underpaid and unshakable.
Trevor Siemian, who considered going into real estate when his college career ended on crutches, has spent three consecutive summers forcing the Denver Broncos to rethink their plans.
Siemian has dispatched two former first-round QBs the last two summers following a year’s apprenticeship under Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler when he flashed so much in training camp that sneaking him onto the practice squad became impossible.
In dispatching Mark Sanchez last season and Paxton Lynch this summer, Siemian has wowed two different coaching staffs while engineering two contrasting offenses.
“That was a huge deal for him being a seventh-round draft pick, being an NFL starter and winning the job two years in a row. That’s a tough deal,” coach Vance Joseph said after declaring Siemian the winner of the fivemonth audition Monday.
“It’s great,” Broncos star linebacker Von Miller said. “I feel very comfortable with Trev.”
So does Joseph, Denver’s rookie coach whose first order of business after replacing Gary Kubiak was to hire Mike McCoy to coordinate his offense and whose second move was to declare his QB job up for grabs in a “50-50 open competition.”
Reapplying for his job was something Siemian took in stride .
“Honestly, I think you have to compete for your job every day and every week,” he said. Just like Manning used to do. That work ethic served Siemian well as he digested McCoy’s playbook and fended off Lynch while disregarding the cacophony of Lynch supporters who felt the athletic, agile prospect deserved the job based on potential, not performance.
“I just worried about myself and improving,” Siemian said.
A sometimes starter at Northwestern, his rather unremarkable résumé included a scant 14 starts for the Wildcats with 27 career touchdowns to go with 24 career interceptions.
“I really wasn’t expecting a call to be honest with you,” Siemian said, the day the Broncos made him the 250th overall selection of the 2015 NFL draft.
Despite missing the offseason program while recovering from knee surgery, Siemian unseated Zac Dysert in training camp as the team’s third quarterback. He also forced his way onto the 53-man roster of a Super Bowl-bound team that quickly realized sneaking him through waivers and onto their practice squad wouldn’t work.
Although he took just one snap that season, Siemian gained invaluable experience listening to Manning and facing Denver’s defense.
Siemian’s rise as Manning’s surprise successor began when Osweiler jilted the Broncos and left for Houston in free agency 48 hours after Manning retired last year.
Now, the talk is about Siemian and how, with a solid season, he could hit the jackpot.
He’s only making $615,000 this year, a bargain for a starting quarterback in an era where the established starters make $20 million and even a quarterback like Chicago’s Mike Glennon — who’s completed 41 percent of his passes this preseason — can command $15 million annually.
Siemian is heading into unrestricted free agency after this season, so other teams could get into the mix and push his price higher if he puts up good numbers. The Broncos could also franchise tag him — this year’s franchise tag for quarterbacks was worth $21.268 million.
Those are heady numbers for a guy who once figured football was in his rearview.