SPORTS SIEMIAN BACK TO BEING BRONCOS’ STARTING QB
Broncos’ quarterback carousel returns to way season started
“I thought he started off with the right frame of mind to play a good football game. Then certain things happened, and it went downhill for the kid.” Broncos coach Vance Joseph, on Paxton Lynch, who started Sunday’s game at Oakland
Paxton Lynch watched the f inal quarter of his f irst and possibly last start of the season in tears and pain on the Broncos’ bench.
After a lengthy recovery from a sprained shoulder in the preseason, Lynch suffered a high ankle sprain in the Broncos’ loss at Oakland on Sunday and is expected to miss two to four weeks, coach Vance Joseph said Monday. Trevor Siemian, the team’s starter to begin the season, will reclaim his job and possibly finish out the Broncos’ season.
Lynch went down on a rollout play late in the third quarter and hobbled to the sideline after a third-down completion to Emmanuel Sanders. But the injury occurred earlier, as Lynch appeared to start limping after Denico Autry’s sack in that quarter.
Broncos trainers ruled Lynch out immediately, and he watched the rest of the game from the bench, visibly upset. Before getting hurt, Lynch completed 9-of-14 pass attempts for 41 yards and scrambled twice for 20 yards
rushing. But he also took four sacks, and his second-quarter interception at the goal line set up the Raiders’ first touchdown and turned the momentum toward Oakland.
“I thought Paxton early in the football game made good decisions for us,” Joseph said Monday. “The first third down of the game, they were playing bracket coverages. It’s an unscouted look. He found the one-on-one and missed the throw. Simple as that. But it was a great read. The next drive, we called a playaction pass with Andy (Janovich) in the flat. Both guys are covered, he throws the ball to the flat for a 25-yard gain, we get a holding penalty.
“That drive, we move down into the red zone and he throws a pick on the goal line and it went downhill for him after that. He took some sacks, holding the ball too long on occasion there. But I thought he started off with the right frame of mind to play a good football game. Then certain things happened, and it went downhill for the kid.”
Siemian took over and engineered two long touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, closing the Raiders’ lead to 2114. The performance earned high praise from his coach and, coupled with Lynch’s injury, re-earned Siemian the starting job for Sunday’s game at Miami.
“I thought Trevor did a great job of being down for a week and being back on the roster, getting himself back engaged and playing good football,” Joseph said. “That speaks to Trevor as a person to bounce back through adversity and come back and play a decent football game in the fourth quarter for us. I was excited to watch him go on two long drives and give us two touchdowns.”
Siemian beat out Lynch in another competition for the starting job this past summer and guided the Broncos to a pair of victories out of the gate. But the momentum hit a road bump at Buffalo in Week 3, and the season turned sharply after Denver’s Week 5 bye. Siemian was benched after three consecutive losses and six interceptions and was replaced by Brock Osweiler.
In his seven starts this season, Siemian has completed 61.5 percent of his passes for nine touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 76.8 passer rating.
The Broncos have cycled through all three quarterbacks on their roster, with each getting a chance to start, each serving as a backup and each taking a turn as the inactive third-stringer.
Only one of those quarterback swaps — the most recent — was due to injury.
“It’s not good when you’re playing with three quarterbacks not because of injury. That’s not a good thing,” Joseph said. “We’ve got to find the right guy for our football team. … Again, when you don’t have success at the quarterback level, it’s a lot of things — it’s blocking and throwing and catching, all of those things. It’s details. I can’t say it’s all those kids’ fault. It’s a unit issue. But it starts with the quarterback.”
Sunday, the quarterback carousel comes full circle as Siemian retakes the reins.