Saturday not only marked the ninth day of training camp for the Denver Broncos, it also marked their first official scrimmage.
Despite the fact that Saturday’s scrimmage was controlled, it was one of the first real opportunities for both Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch to show people what they could do in a non-scripted environment.
According to head coach Vance Joseph, the real evaluations will begin when the Broncos head to Chicago on Thursday to take on the Bears in the first preseason game, but he was happy with what he saw out of his two quarterbacks on Saturday.
“I saw from Trevor [Siemian] consistency with his ball placement,” Joseph said after the scrimmage. “He made the correct reads most of the time. He had one ball knocked down. Not his fault. He was very solid. Paxton [Lynch], outside the interception, was solid. His best play of the day was brought back by a penalty. That would have been a pretty good drive from Paxton in my opinion. The penalty negated it and brought it back. But very solid for both guys.”
As Joseph mentioned, the blemish on Lynch’s day was a pass that was intercepted by cornerback Chris Harris when he fell off his man and onto the intended route.
“He held the ball too late in that play,” Joseph said of Lynch’s interception. “He had a guy open in the flat early on, but he held the ball, held the ball, held the ball. It’s a time clock thing. As you hold the ball, the defense recovers. They did get the ball.”
“I know I kind of stepped up in the pocket and flushed out,” Lynch said. “I saw Emmanuel [Sanders] breaking out of his route—I didn’t see anyone around him and I guess Chris just had fallen off from the flat and drifted back. Looking back, you can’t force those kind of passes. If you get pushed up in the pocket, that’s when I can take it down and run with it and use my athleticism to live to see another down.”
As it has been throughout training camp, both Lynch and Siemian had the opportunity to run with the first team on Saturday. Other than his interception, Lynch was pleased with his overall performance during Saturday’s scrimmage.
“Overall, I thought it was good,” Lynch said of his day. “I had some good plays out there that kind of got called back by penalties. There were a couple of throws too that were bang-bang plays. The defensive players made good plays on it. Obviously, I threw that one pick that I can’t have, but that’s what practice and training camp are for, to take your chances and make your mistakes out here so when you get in the game you learn from them.”
Even though Saturday’s scrimmage might have been a change of pace for everyone else, Trevor Siemian didn’t feel like it was that different for him, Lynch or Kyle Sloter. He did say that it was good for aspect of the offensive development.
“Not for quarterbacks; it’s not like we’re getting hit,” Lynch explained. “It was good moving the ball and marking the ball and moving personnel groups in and out. It’s good to get a feel for those things in real time. That’s one of those things we really hadn’t done to this point, so I think it was good to get that done.”
It could be tough for Siemian to become too tied up in the current competition after winning the starting job last year. He’s just focused on what he can do to help the team be successful.
“I really don’t think about it too much to be honest with you,” Siemian said of the competition. “I try to do my job, be a good teammate when I’m in there, get the group running well, move the ball and whatever happens, happens.”
Featured Image Credit: Ryan Greene, 5280 Sports Network
