Trevor Siemian, QB, Broncos
The skinny: Another year, another quarterback battle won. Siemian, a seventh-rounder out of Northwestern, has seemingly toppled every obstacle placed in front of him the last two seasons, handily defeating veteran Mark Sanchez and then first-round draft pick Paxton Lynch for the starting job in consecutive offseasons. And he’s done so with different head coaches, different playbooks and a nod of approval from his teammates, who voted him captain in 2016 and again in 2017. He enters year two as a starter with greater comfort with the pro speed and the system, and a clean bill of health.
The background: In January, Siemian underwent surgery to repair his left shoulder. He suffered a serious sprain early last season and played with pain (and behind a porous offensive line) for most of the season. The procedure was said to be mostly a cosmetic fix, to get rid of the protruding bone and to alleviate any discomfort when lifting weights. But it seemed unlikely he could have returned 100 percent without it. With added strength and what the Broncos hope is an improved offensive line, Siemian is poised for improvement.
His take: “Just that first game there’s a lot of anticipation,” Siemian said. “You have a lot of time obviously to think about it, go over the game plan and all of those things. Definitely more comfortable I think this year going into year two. First year I felt good about everything but at the same time you’re still holding on to the seat of your pants a little bit. I like where I’m at, I like where we’re at and I feel really good about it.”
Their take: “I love Trevor and I think Trevor has all the talent you need to do this,” said former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer. “But now he’s got Brock (Osweiler) behind him. Before it was Paxton and everybody was, ‘We want Paxton!’ and it was like with me with Jay Cutler. ‘We want Jay! Jay would have completed that!’ How do you know? It’s different, and everybody leads differently and players react differently to certain players. Right now I think Trevor has a lot in front of him. I think he’s going to have a great season.”