Broncos’ Shaq Barrett Could Play Week 1
At one point this year, the Broncos feared that Shaquil Barrett would miss the bulk of the 2017 season. Today, they have reason to believe that the edge rusher will be able to suit up for the season opener. 
[RELATED: Broncos Name Trevor Siemian Starting QB]
Barrett was removed from the non-football injury list on Tuesday, according to the team’s latest edition of the roster. Apparently, Barrett has bounced back well from his hip injury and will be able to resume football activities this week.
The linebacker will now practice with an eye on suiting up for the team’s opening game against the Chargers on September 11. Failing that, he’ll hope to be ready in time for Week 2 against the Cowboys (September 17) or Week 3 against the Bills (September 24). Barring any unforeseen setbacks, the Broncos will probably have him on the 53-man roster to start the season. Otherwise, the Broncos would have to keep him on NFI for the first half of the season.
When Barrett takes the field for Denver, he’ll likely be the team’s top reserve option to spell Shane Ray and Von Miller. The Broncos are also keeping their fingers crossed when it comes to Ray since he is dealing with a torn ligament in his right wrist that could sideline him for the start of the season.
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/21/17
Today’s minor moves:
Dallas Cowboys
- Waived from IR: RB Jahad Thomas (Twitter link via Adam Caplan of ESPN.com)
Denver Broncos
- Claimed off waivers: RB Stanley Williams
Detroit Lions
- Signed: TE Scott Orndoff
- Waived/injured: DT Bruce Gaston
Green Bay Packers
- Signed: DL Calvin Heurtelou
Houston Texans
- Waived from IR: DeAndrew White (Link via Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle)
San Francisco 49ers
- Waived from IR: LB Jayson DiManche (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area)
Seattle Seahawks
- Waived/injured: TE Marcus Lucas, T Justin Senior
Tennessee Titans
- Waived: DL Mehdi Abdesmad
Broncos Name Trevor Siemian Starting QB
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.
Broncos Cut RB Bernard Pierce
The Broncos are releasing running back Bernard Pierce, as Mike Klis of 9News tweets. Pierce had been with Denver since signing a reserve/futures deal in January.
The 27-year-old showed potential as a rookie in 2012 with the Ravens, averaging 4.9 yards per carry on 108 attempts. He spent another two seasons with Baltimore, but his performance was up-and-down in his reserve role. In 2015, he hooked on with the Jaguars and totaled just six carries for 11 yards. He did not see the field in 2016 and he was even passed on by the Jets in December.
The Broncos still have a good number of running backs on the 90-man roster, including C.J. Anderson, Devontae Booker, Jamaal Charles, Juwan Thompson, and De’Angelo Henderson.
Trevor Siemian May Have Secured Starting QB Job
Broncos QB Paxton Lynch did not play particularly well in last night’s preseason contest against the 49ers. He completed 9-of-13 passes for just 39 yards, no touchdowns, and no interceptions, which culminated in a 72.3 quarterback rating. He also rushed three times for 27 yards. While he showed some promise, he also displayed difficulties reading and reacting to defenses, and he was thoroughly outplayed by Trevor Siemian, leading Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post to believe that Denver’s quarterback competition may be over and that Siemian may have won it for the second straight year. Head coach Vance Joseph said it would be ideal to name a winner prior to next week’s third preseason game, but he added, “The timeframe is not important. What’s important is we get it right, so it could be this week, it could be next week. But we’re going to go back and watch the tape and see where we are.”
Kyle Shanahan, John Elway Address Broncos’ HC Decision
Kyle Shanahan lost out to Vance Joseph when the Broncos chose a coach to replace Gary Kubiak in January. But Shanahan ended up in San Francisco, and the first-year HC said during the 49ers and Broncos’ joint practices he sensed he wouldn’t get the Denver job.
“I just had this gut feeling that I wouldn’t,” Shanahan said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com, of his chances at becoming the Broncos head coach. “I went into the interview, I really enjoyed it, meeting with those guys. I hadn’t seen them for a while. But yeah, I never felt like it. I felt after the interview I made it hard on them, but I always had a feeling that I wasn’t.”
Elway played for Mike Shanahan for most of his career, when Shanahan was an assistant or during the four years he coached Elway as Denver’s HC. While the Broncos GM passed on bringing Mike’s son into the fold, Elway said the then-Falcons OC “wasn’t far behind.”
“His knowledge of the game is as good as there is in the league. It’s just a matter of finding the right fit,” Elway said. “I’m very happy with Vance, but Kyle wasn’t too far behind just because he has that knowledge. There’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to have a lot of success in this league.”
Due to the ties he had growing up in Denver, Kyle Shanahan ended up with a slight sense of relief he didn’t get the Broncos job. The younger Shanahan spent time in the Bay Area growing up as well, with Shanahan separating his Denver stays with a three-year run as OC in San Francisco, but most of Mike Shanahan’s NFL coaching years came in Colorado.
“Always deep down, I think, I’d rather [be in] a different situation,” Shanahan said. “But I loved Denver. I loved growing up there. My family is from there. My wife’s family is from there. So it would be a hard thing to say no to when your family’s there and things like that. But by no means was that my situation of choice.”
Elway agreed one of his finalists receiving the job Joseph now has would have created potentially a more pressure-packed environment and expounded on why Shanahan viewed it as a lesser fit than his current position.
“You are coming back to where you were raised and friends and family and everything that’s back there, all of a sudden you might have been walking into a pressure-cooker, especially with the situation that we’re in, having won the Super Bowl a couple years ago, so the expectation level was very high,” Elway said of the disparate natures of the job Joseph got and the rebuilding task Shanahan agreed to undertake. “So I can understand what his thinking was on whether he wanted that job or not because [of] having grown up there and such.”
NFC West Notes: Rams, Watkins, Seahawks
Here’s a look at the NFC West:
- The Rams started discussing a Sammy Watkins trade with the Bills in the spring when they declined to exercise his fifth-year option in the spring, L.A. GM Les Snead told SiriusXM (Twitter link). The Watkins deal came completely out of left field, so it’s impressive that the two sides were able to keep rumblings of the deal out of the media for four months. The Rams acquired Watkins and a 2018 sixth-round selection in exchange for for cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick. Los Angeles has already expressed interest in inking him to an extension.
- Tramaine Brock‘s one-year deal with the Seahawks is for the minimum salary, Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times tweets. In the days leading up to his deal with Seattle, we heard that Brock had interest from as many as a dozen teams. Since Brock will only be making the minimum, it sounds either like the level of interest league-wide was overstated or Brock took less money from a quality team like the Seahawks in order to give himself a better platform for free agency next year.
- 49ers GM John Lynch says he has spoken with Broncos GM John Elway about which players might be available in trades (Twitter link via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area). Lynch offered no specifics, so we don’t know which players were discussed or how close the two sides were/are to a deal.
Latest On Jamaal Charles
It was said earlier this offseason that Broncos RB Jamaal Charles may only have a 50-50 chance to make Denver’s roster, and no one seems to know when he will make his preseason debut. He did not participate in the team’s first preseason matchup Thursday night, and head coach Vance Joseph said, “I’m not sure yet,” when asked if Charles would play against the 49ers next Saturday, as Nick Kosmider of the Denver Post writes.
If Charles did not have a history of injury problems, his not participating in any preseason games would not be a big deal. After all, he is entering his tenth professional season and his track record of production (when healthy) speaks for itself. But he has undergone multiple knee surgeries over the past several years, and he has seen limited practice time this offseason as he continues to recover.
That reality, combined with Charles’ fairly modest contract, helped generate the earlier reports that Charles’ roster status was up in the air. But the fact that Joseph said several weeks ago that the team would continue to proceed cautiously with Charles even though he was fully cleared from a medical standpoint indicated that Charles was going to make the club, and as Kosmider reports, his full-team repetitions have been elevated during the past week. Devontae Booker‘s recent injury has also given Charles a little job security.
Nonetheless, Joseph did say that he would “probably” need to see Charles participate in a preseason game before he makes a final decision. While it currently seems as if Charles has a good chance to make the team and be a significant contributor to boot, it’s fair to wonder if injuries and age have caught up with him, especially given that his game is predicated on speed and elusiveness.
For his part, Charles said he has had no setbacks, even though he has made a concerted effort to test his knee as much as possible. He said, “I don’t think I have to prove anything. People know what I can do. I feel confident. Whatever Coach Vance and the trainers say, that’s their direction. I’m just out here every day just getting healthy and getting my craft ready and preparing to play whenever.”
Minor NFL Transactions: 8/12/17
Here are today’s minor moves.
- Ryan Tannehill‘s season is officially over. The Dolphins placed the quarterback on IR and signed linebacker Junior Sylvestre. Tannehill, who will have knee surgery next week, is expected to be ready for the 2018 season. Sylvestre spent time with the Ryan Grigson-era Colts for two years but was cut after Indianapolis’ 2016 training camp. He signed with the Bills earlier this year but was cut after a month.
- The Panthers signed defensive lineman Connor Wujciak, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Wujciak was an Eagles UDFA signing on in 2016, but an injury wiped out his would-be rookie season. The Chiefs worked out Wujciak last week. Panthers defensive tackle Vernon Butler will miss some time, Ron Rivera revealed Friday — via David Newton of ESPN.com — opening the door for an extra defensive line opportunity. Rivera said Butler’s target date for a return is Week 1. The Panthers waived defensive tackle Drew Iddings with an injury designation to open a roster spot, Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer reports (on Twitter).
- Carolina also brought back offensive lineman Brian Folkerts, Person reports. The Panthers made room by cutting offensive lineman Tyrus Thompson, who had spent time with them since last season (Twitter links). A three-year backup blocker who played in 16 games for the 2014 Panthers, Folkerts last played for the 2015 Rams. Los Angeles cut him when paring its roster down to 75 players last summer.
- Cornerback Jumal Rolle signed with the Bills and will replace Charles James, whom the team released, Joe Buscaglia of WKBW reports (on Twitter). Both players have at least two years’ experience and both previously played for the Texans. The 27-year-old Rolle was a Houston UDFA in 2014 and has played in 18 games. Rolle also intercepted three passes as a rookie before becoming mostly a special teams player in the time since. James played in 21 games with Houston between the 2015-16 seasons; Buffalo claimed him on waivers in May.
- The Broncos relocated defensive lineman Billy Winn to IR after his ACL tear diagnosis emerged Friday. They signed linebacker Nelson Adams, Jeff Legwold of ESPN.com reports.
- Linebacker Reshard Cliett negotiated an injury settlement with the Chiefs, becoming a free agent after being removed from Kansas City’s IR list, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports (on Twitter).
- The Giants waived linebacker Jimmy Herman, whom they signed Friday. James Kratch of NJ.com tweets Herman was given a “left squad” designation.
- The Saints and linebacker Sae Tautu agreed on an injury settlement to trigger Tautu’s release from New Orleans’ IR, Josh Katzenstein of NOLA.com tweets.
- Rookie wide receiver Keevan Lucas signed a three-year contract with the Eagles, the team announced. Philadelphia waived linebacker Steven Daniels to make room. A Tulsa product, Lucas declared early but was not signed by a team after the draft.
- Washington signed wide receiver Jamari Staples and waived/injured left tackle Kevin Bowen, per John Keim of ESPN.com. The Chiefs waived Staples in June after initially signing him in May. The Redskins also placed Trent Murphy on IR. Murphy tore his ACL in Washington’s preseason opener Thursday night.
Carlos Henderson Out Until At Least Week 1
The Broncos have lost some key auxiliary performers in recent weeks. Outside linebackers Shane Ray and Shaquil Barrett could both be sidelined past Week 1, and defensive line rotation cog Billy Winn is out for the season after tearing an ACL. Denver’s offense received some bad news as well. Third-round pick Carlos Henderson will undergo thumb surgery that will shelve him for at least the remainder of the preseason and possibly into the regular season, Mike Klis of 9News reports. Henderson suffered the injury during the Broncos’ August opener against the Bears.
The Louisiana Tech standout was vying to become Denver’s No. 3 wide receiver but was struggling during camp. The Broncos were using Henderson at kick returner in Chicago. Henderson’s injury will create openings for incumbent pass-catchers Cody Latimer, Bennie Fowler and Jordan Taylor in the coming weeks while potentially limiting the rookie’s assimilation.
- It doesn’t look like Derek Wolfe will be undergoing surgery, but the sixth-year defensive end will likely be out for a few weeks. An ankle injury forced Wolfe to be carted off the practice field Saturday, but Wolfe informed ESPN.com’s Josina Anderson (Twitter link) he should be good to go for Week 1. That said, Denver’s left defensive end told Anderson his ankle is badly sprained and has a “slight tear.” Pending further examination, the Broncos do not believe this is a serious injury, Adam Schefter of ESPN tweets. Wolfe tweeted a picture of the afflicted ankle as well.
- New Raiders offensive coordinator Todd Downing received the backing of mentor Mike Tice when it came time for Jack Del Rio to choose between Downing and previous OC Bill Musgrave. Tice helped bring Del Rio and Musgrave — who worked together for two years in Jacksonville — back together in 2015. But the Oakland offensive line coach agreed with Del Rio that losing Downing to a team that wanted him as OC wouldn’t be a smart move, Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Tice oversaw Downing’s work when he was the Vikings’ head coach during the 2000s, eventually giving Downing his first coaching job in 2005. Musgrave’s contract was not renewed, and the longtime assistant is coaching the Broncos’ quarterbacks.
- Recently added offensive lineman Allen Barbre is competing with Max Garcia for the Broncos‘ starting left guard position, Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post notes. Barbre has played both guard and tackle in his career but worked with the first unit in practice and could see time with the starters in Denver’s second preseason game, per Jhabvala. Garcia and Michael Schofield were the Broncos’ starters last season. Ronald Leary is the new right guard.
- Ray’s target date for a return from wrist surgery is Week 3, when the Broncos make their first road trip of the season in a venture to Buffalo, Jhabvala reports. Former Saints edge defender Kasim Edebali and Vontarrius Dora are the top candidates to start opposite Von Miller come Week 1, should Barrett not make it back by then.