Schlereth: Time to start talking Siemian as Broncos future at QB
Sep 19, 2017, 12:00 AM | Updated: 1:55 am
The sample size may be small, but Mark Schlereth says it’s time for the Denver Broncos to at least start the conversation about locking down Trevor Siemian long term.
The “Schlereth & Evans” co-host said on Monday that it “make sense” for the Broncos to look at extending an offer to Siemian if he keeps trending the way he has through two games.
“You have to see more of a sample size, but I’m saying let’s start thinking about it and start creating the conversation,” Schlereth said. “If you get into Week 4 next year, you’re a playoff team, and Trevor was a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback … too late.”
Schlereth pointed to how Denver handled Von Miller contract negotiation in the wake of Kansas City Chiefs pass rusher Justin Houston’s six-year, $101 million deal.
Had the Broncos come up with an offer for Miller instead of letting the deal play out, the club could have had the Super Bowl 50 MVP at a lesser cost than his monster six-year, $114 million contract.
“You need to start thinking about the future of your quarterback, who’s going to be leading this franchise into the future, and the economics of getting things done a little bit earlier than you probably want to save yourself a lot of cash in the long run,” Schlereth said.
Denver has Siemian under contract through the 2018 season — at a modest $615,000 this season and $705,000 next — and could franchise tag the quarterback after that. But that’s a route that Schlereth said could be costly for the Broncos.
“Two years from now, if you have to franchise him, you’re talking about huge money,” Schlereth said.
During the 2017 offseason, the NFL set the franchise tag tender for quarterbacks at $21.268 million.
As of Monday, Siemian leads the NFL in touchdown passes with six and ranks sixth in quarterback rating.
In his first full 16 games as a starter, Siemian’s compiled a 10-6 record, completing 60.1 percent of his passes for 3,851 yards on 328 completions. He’s thrown 24 touchdowns to go with 12 interceptions and has a career quarterback rating of 87.0.
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.
