The Denver Broncos will be part of the 2018 quarterback derby

The Denver Broncos have followed up the Peyton Manning era with some highly questionable quarterback play. They’ll be players in the 2018 market…

Statistically, Trevor Siemian’s first 16 games in the NFL stood up against some of the first 16 games of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. In terms of actual on-field impact, however, the Denver Broncos quarterback has been a liability.

Aside from a few splash games here and there, including two excellent games to start the season, Trevor Siemian has not proven himself to be above replacement level at this particular point in time.

Unfortunately for the Broncos, neither has Brock Osweiler or Paxton Lynch, who is also hurt.

Chad Kelly is also intriguing, and should be fully recovered at this point in time, but has yet to take a snap in practice for the team, as he’s still on the non-football injury list.

Whatever the solution is for the Broncos at quarterback, there’s a better than decent chance it’s not currently on the roster, which means this is a team that will be going shopping this offseason.

The Broncos have already done in-season scouting at Wyoming (Josh Allen vs. Oregon), they have seen Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson in person, and it’s highly likely they’ve gone elsewhere to look. There are always other prospects worth watching in games that feature big time quarterbacks, but there’s probably no denying that Denver is interested in a new signal caller.

The Broncos are already at three wins on the season, so picking first overall is likely out of the question. They might have to make a trade at the end of the season if the quarterback they covet is expected to go first overall, similar to what the Philadelphia Eagles did when they moved up to get Carson Wentz. Lucky for Denver, there are a number of quarterbacks in this year’s class that have legit NFL talent.

But will the Broncos wait until the draft? Could they be in the market for someone like Kirk Cousins?

That would be a substantial investment for Denver, one that would likely cost them a veteran player. But the Broncos do have some moveable contracts after this season that could be attractive to teams in a trade, such as Emmanuel Sanders and Aqib Talib, among others.

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I’m not sure what direction the Broncos will go, whether it’s a veteran or a rookie, but either way, it’s going to cost them a lot of money, or some very valuable draft picks to get the QB of their choosing. It’s a shame that neither Lynch nor Siemian has worked out to this point, but it’s safe to say that one or both will be gone this coming offseason.

John Elway can’t be pleased with what he’s seen from either guy, especially given Siemian has had plenty of time on the field to show improvement, and Lynch was given every opportunity to take Siemian’s job, and simply couldn’t.

The great news for the Broncos is, we’ve seen teams in recent years turn things around very quickly when hitting in the draft on quarterbacks. Perfect examples of that right now are Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Rams.

Of course, those two teams had the benefit of picking at the top of the draft, but Philly jumped from the middle of the first round to get there. It can be done.

John Elway has seen the blueprint, and now he has to go out and figure out how he’s going to replicate that success in Denver, because this team has had horrible quarterback play since the start of the 2015 season.

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