Salisbury on talk of Broncos extending Siemian: ‘What’s the rush?’
Sep 21, 2017, 12:00 AM | Updated: 2:10 am
First, the Denver Broncos brought in Mark Sanchez, and Trevor Siemian beat him out. Then, the club drafted Paxton Lynch and afforded the first-rounder as many chances as possible to win the starting job.
Siemian beat him out too.
And when Lynch went down for several weeks with a shoulder injury, the Broncos brought in Brock Osweiler, the team’s once prodigal son who left Denver for Houston in 2016 only to return after a forgotten year with the Texans and, shortly, the Cleveland Browns.
At every turn, including his college days at Northwestern, Siemian’s been the guy targeted to be replaced, SB Nation’s Sean Salisbury told Sandy Clough on Wednesday.
So if surviving’s in Siemian’s “DNA,” what’s the rush to sign him to a long-term deal, Salisbury asked.
“He’s playing outstanding football the first two weeks, but what’s the rush?” Salisbury said. “Let’s see in six weeks. He’s not all of a sudden going to get insecure. Heck, his whole career has been dealing with insecurity because they trying to replace him and draft first-round picks.
“… All the dude does is just keep playing efficient, solid football. So, no rush.”
The idea of extending the third-year Broncos quarterback has been floated since his back-to-back strong weeks under center.
Through two games, Siemian leads the NFL in passing touchdowns (tied with Matthew Stafford with six), has the league’s sixth-best quarterback rating (106.9), and has led his squad to impressive wins over a divisional foe, the Los Angeles Chargers, and a Super Bowl favorite, the Dallas Cowboys.
Even Sports Radio 104.3 The Fan’s own Mark Schlereth (“Schlereth & Evans”) said on Monday that it made sense for the Broncos to at least get the conversation started about extending Siemian.
“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.”
But Salisbury said he thinks Denver should allow the situation to run its course before taking any action.
“Since he left high school, he’s been the guy that people are trying to replace. He wasn’t a full-time starter at Northwestern. He was a late draft pick that didn’t get any time. Every year they’ve tried to replace him,” Salisbury said. And guess what, all he does is fight them off.
“You’re seeing a trait in him, a DNA character, that says, ‘You know what? I’m pretty good when I’ve got to fight people off.’ So let him play it out.”
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.