A lot is on the line when a team is choosing between two quarterbacks, but there’s a little something extra at stake for the wide receivers. They’re the ones on the other end of every pass, after all.
Not only can a bad quarterback derail a wideout’s statistic, but he can derail their season, too. A bad quarterback doesn’t just miss his targets; he leads his targets into harm’s way. One errant decision and suddenly your team’s best receiver is out three weeks with a concussion because the quarterback just led him directly into the opposing safety’s shoulder pads.
With the Trevor Siemian, though, Pro Bowl wideout Emmanuel Sanders believes the Broncos made the right decision.
“To me, it really doesn’t matter, as long as they throw a catchable pass,” Sanders told Nick Groke of the Denver Post. “Trevor is both. He throws a very catchable ball. He can put it there and can make all the throws. I like the decision.”
And he’s shown that throughout the preseason. While you can fault him for his aggressiveness down field, you can’t fault Siemian for his accuracy, especially in the short to intermediate range. Now, with the support of the organization behind him, he’ll have his opportunity to prove himself.
“I remember seeing him last year, when I first started seeing him throw, and he was the guy that I was throwing with prior to games,” Sanders said of Siemian. “I remember telling Demaryius (Thomas, Broncos receiver): ‘This dude has an arm. He can make every single throw.’ It’s just all about opportunity in this league.”
Siemian won’t play tonight in the Broncos’ fourth preseason game — standard practice for the team’s starter — but he’ll be in line to play every snap next Thursday against the reigning NFC champion Carolina Panthers.
A trial by fire for the former seventh-round pick.
