Broncos head coach Vance Joseph has officially named Trevor Siemian as the club’s starting quarterback over Paxton Lynch, according to multiple reports. Former Denver receiver Brandon Stokley (now a 104.3 The Fan contributor) first reported the news earlier today (Twitter link).
“It’s a permanent decision,” said Joseph, tweets Mike Klis of 9News. “As for as Trevor being our guy, he’s our guy.”
Siemian, of course, won Denver’s quarterback job in 2016 even after general manager John Elway traded up in the first round to select Lynch with the 26th overall pick. A former seventh-round pick choice who spent his rookie campaign on the bench behind Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler, Siemian responded by completing 59.5% of his passes for 3,401 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.
The Broncos didn’t attempt to hide Siemian in their offense, as the club ranked in the middle of the pack in percentage of passing plays (15th) and finished fifth in offensive pace. But Denver’s offense clearly struggled with Siemian at the helm: the unit only scored on 30.3% of its drives (26th in the league) and averaged just 5.3 plays per drive (29th). As a whole, the Broncos ranked 22nd in points and 28th in DVOA, both of which represented dips from the team’s 2015 performance.
All that said, it’s not readily apparent that the 23-year-old Lynch would constitute a significant upgrade. The Broncos, under new offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave, presumably gave Lynch every chance to win Denver’s quarterback gig before handing the duty to Siemian. And Lynch didn’t perform all that well in relief of Siemian last season, either: in two starts, Lynch completed 59% of his passes for 497 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, making his quarterback rating of 79.2 about five points worse than Siemian’s figure.
What this decision means for Lynch’s future isn’t entirely clear at the moment, but he’ll join an ignominious list of first-round quarterbacks who failed to start their respective club’s season opener in their second NFL season, as Scott Kacsmar of Football Outsiders tweets. Lynch is under contract for two more years, and the Broncos also hold a fifth-year option for the 2019 campaign. Siemian, meanwhile, is under team control through only 2018.
We’ll see bout Lynch, so far underachieving, hear those reports he doesn’t do the extra work it takes to be an NFL starting QB, I’d be a lil surprised if Elway whiffs on a 1st round QB, Elway was a genius not paying Osweiler n letting him leave, good 4 Siemian !
“And Lynch didn’t perform all that well in relief of Siemian last season, either: in two starts, Siemian completed 59% of his passes for 497 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, making his quarterback rating of 79.2 about five points worse than Siemian’s figure.”
I think you meant LYNCH completed 59% of his passes. Just wanted to point that out to you guys.
Thanks, fixed.