With just one week left until the NFL draft, the Denver Broncos quarterback situation is about as wide open as it has ever been.
The two quarterbacks currently on the team — veteran Mark Sanchez and second-year pro Trevor Siemian — combined for two starts last year. To no surprise, there is still more talk about the quarterbacks not on the team; Colin Kaepernick is still in the mix, Brian Hoyer visited Denver on Thursday and there are plenty of quarterbacks the Broncos could go after high in the draft.
Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager John Elway addressed the quarterback situation, as well as other draft topics, at his pre draft press conference on Thursday; however, his insight left more questions than answers.
Free agent quarterback Brian Hoyer visited with the team earlier in the morning and walked away without a contract.
“We had a good visit,” said Elway. After mentioning that Hoyer is a possibility, he added that there was “nothing to report there.”
Since Hoyer is a similar caliber player as Sanchez, it is understandable why the Broncos were comfortable letting Hoyer leave Dove Valley without a contract. However, Elway is set on bringing in more completion for Sanchez and Siemian.
“We feel good with Mark,” said Elway. “I think that Mark was the starting point. Now we want to find somebody to come in and compete with [Sanchez] … hopefully we can get somebody in here.”
While players, such as receivers Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas, have sung the praises of Sanchez so far, it seems that Elway is not as sold on him as the answer, though he has allowed him to be patient in the quarterback-searching process.
“What’s helped is having Mark,” said Elway. “That’s why we’ve been patient.”
Without a doubt, there will be more quarterback’s on the roster next week, whether that is through the draft or from a trade. Elway was very reserved on his opinions about the quarterbacks in the draft.
“There are some good players in [the draft],” said Elway when talking about the quarterbacks specifically. “There will be some guys that have a chance to compete and have good careers. There are going to be some guys that are quality backups.”
When pressed to divulge more information on the quarterbacks in the draft, Elway denied, in a light manner.
“I’m not going to say that. That’s inside info, right?” said Elway.
The quarterback topic that Elway was not afraid to speak openly about was trade discussions with Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers.
“It’s dormant. He’s been working out [with San Francisco] from what I understand,” said Elway. “It’s never been [dismissed]. Everything is right there. So that’s kind of where it is.”
Elway put one more exclamation mark by the Kaepernick talks by saying “It’s there” when asked if the offer was still on the table, making it known that the decision was in Kaepernick and the 49ers hands.
The last quarterback Elway touched on was Siemian, saying he has been impressed by his skills and development.
“Trevor is going to compete,” said Elway. “He will be in the hunt. He will be right there in the middle of it competing.”
Whether the praise for Sanchez and Siemian was real, or just banter because they are on the team, it is obvious that Elway will bring in more guys to create a very competitive atmosphere within the quarterback position.
Elway gave a very interesting analogy to the team’s approach to the quarterback situation, referring to quarterbacks as apples.
“To really have to rush into a decision, we didn’t want to have to do that. Because if you run into one and all of a sudden here falls another one, another apple over there that you kind of like—I just didn’t want to get us where we were going down one road and didn’t have the option to look at all of the others,” said Elway.
It will only be a short matter of time until we find out what other “apples” Elway is talking about in terms of quarterbacks.
