Broncos bench Siemian, Osweiler to start vs. Eagles
ENGLEWOOD, COLO » In a move few could have imagined just three months ago, Brock Osweiler will once again be the Broncos’ starting quarterback, this time taking over for Trevor Siemian.
After lengthy discussions with general manager John Elway and his coaching staff, coach Vance Joseph asked Osweiler and Siemian to report to the team’s Dove Valley headquarters Tuesday evening to inform them of the move. Joseph informed the rest of the team Wednesday morning that Osweiler will take over and start Sunday against the 7-1 Eagles in Philadelphia, where the Broncos will try to bounce back after three consecutive losses fueled by turnovers.
“It’s my job to do what’s best for the football team,” Joseph said. “Again, when you’ve lost three games in a row and you’ve had the turnovers like we’ve had them — we’re minus-11 — I think in the last three or four games and obviously (11) total — that’s not good. If you try to go the same way and it doesn’t get better, that’s on me.”
Following the Broncos’ 29-19 loss at Kansas City, where Siemian tossed three interceptions and the team totaled five turnovers, Joseph said a quarterback change was “a possibility,” a departure from his previous insistence that Siemian would remain the starter.
“It’s about results and we haven’t had them,” Joseph said. “We’ve lost three games in a row, and again, yesterday with four turnovers. At the end of the day, it’s about results. It’s not about how he’s played, it’s the end result that we’re not getting and it’s not good.”
Ironically, the reasons Siemian lost the job were the same ones that helped him win it twice in consecutive offseasons: his decision-making and consistency.
Over the past three weeks, Siemian has accounted for eight (seven interceptions and one fumble) of the team’s 11 turnovers. In his seven starts total this season, Siemian had 10 interceptions, two lost fumbles, nine touchdown passes and took 25 sacks.
The only option considered to replace him, Joseph said Tuesday, was Osweiler, a former secondround pick by Elway who was previously groomed to be Peyton Manning’s successor.
Second-year quarterback Paxton Lynch suffered a sprain in his right (throwing) shoulder in the third week of the preseason and has been on the mend since. Though he resumed practice last week, he was inactive for the Chiefs game and has been on the field for all of four days. And rookie Chad Kelly remains on the non-football injury list as he recovers from wrist and knee surgeries. Per league rules, he has yet to practice in full this season.
Lynch could be eyed as a future starter, Joseph acknowledged, but for Sunday and the near future, Osweiler is their guy.
The Broncos re-signed Osweiler to a one-year deal in September after his whirlwind 18 months that landed him in Houston as a handsomely paid free agent, then to Cleveland via trade and back to Denver shortly after.
He returned in the same role he left it, but the move sent shockwaves in the NFL, as many believed there were sour feelings from his final game in January 2016, when Manning took over after recovering from injury.
In Osweiler’s seven starts as a Bronco in 2015, he went 5-2 and totaled nine touchdown passes, five interceptions, one fumble lost and took 20 sacks. In his 14 starts for the Texans, Osweiler completed 59 percent of his passes and had 15 touchdowns, 16 interceptions and 27 sacks. He was replaced late in the season by Tom Savage, but later regained the starting job for the postseason.
When he arrived in Colorado in September, he quickly quashed any talk of hard feelings with the Broncos and said coming back was “probably a top five, if not top three day of my life.”
“I don’t think many people could have seen this situation taking place, but I will say I’m beyond excited that it did take place,” he said then, adding that he still felt like he could be a starter in the NFL. “… I’m going to embrace that role with everything I have because like I said, I’m so happy to be back here and there’s not greater place in the NFL.”
Now, he’s back — the Broncos, too — in a familiar situation. May the second Osweiler era in Denver begin.