Broncos' Trevor Siemian, Mark Sanchez to get equal time vs. 49ers

ByJeff Legwold ESPN logo
Thursday, August 18, 2016

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- With a quarterback competition still underway, Denver Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said Thursday Trevor Siemian will start Saturday's preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers.

And Kubiak said it's possible he would name a starting quarterback for the Sept. 8 regular-season opener next week, leading into the Broncos' third preseason game -- Aug. 27 against the Los Angeles Rams. Siemian was expected to start against the 49ers since Mark Sanchez had started the preseason opener in Chicago.

"Trevor will start (Saturday) and he and Mark will play consistently the same amount, which will probably be -- I'd like to tell you it would be a quarter and a half, but it will more of a play-count deal,'' Kubiak said. "But Trevor will start, then Mark will go and thenPaxton (Lynch)will finish up.''

If the play-counts work to his liking Kubiak said he'd like Siemian to play into the second quarter as Sanchez would then play part of the second quarter to go with the third quarter and Lynch would then close out the game.

Kubiak was asked if he would like to name the starter for the regular-season opener in the days that follow Saturday's game.

"Would I like to? Yeah. Will I? I don't know," Kubiak said. "We'll see, we'll see.''

Kubiak also added he was going to try to play each quarterback with some of the other offensive starters. That would seem to indicate he may alternate the two quarterbacks at some point in the game or play some of the other offensive starters almost to halftime.

As he tries to pick a starting quarterback, Kubiak certainly kept Sanchez and Siemian busy in the team's 22-0 victory over the Chicago Bears last week in the preseason opener. Sanchez was 10-of-13 passing for 99 yards to go with a touchdown and an interception in a quarter of work while Siemien was 7-of-12 for 88 yards in his quarter of work.

Even with the uncertain nature of the quarterback battle, the rest of the Broncos just keep rolling training camp. Linebacker Von Miller may have spoken for many of his teammates Thursday when was asked what he's seen from the Broncos' three quarterbacks thus far in camp.

"As much as I'd like to admit I have all the quarterback knowledge, I really don't,'' Miller said. "It's really not much I can say ... The arms look great, footwork looks nice, pretty tight spirals. I like all of them. I feel like I can win with all three.''