Denver Broncos: Mark Sanchez to start first preseason game

The Denver Broncos have announced that quarterback Mark Sanchez will start in the team’s pre-season opener in Chicago against the Bears…

The Denver Broncos waited as long as they probably could have, but finally announced on Tuesday that quarterback Mark Sanchez will start the team’s first pre-season game against the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.

Sanchez has had an up-and-down camp, but as the elder in the quarterback competition, the team went with the guy that has the most NFL experience to at least open the pre-season.

Nothing wrong with that…

It hasn’t been a sizzling camp for Sanchez or any of the Broncos’ quarterbacks, who have all had their good days and off days. The Broncos didn’t put a great deal of stock into the starter of this game when they put out their first depth chart of the season and it featured both Sanchez and Trevor Siemian as co-first team QBs.

While many people thought the ascent of Trevor Siemian to be a joke or a publicity stunt, he’s responded with a fantastic start to camp by most accounts. He’s had plenty of slip-ups along the way, but this is a second year player who was a seventh round pick in 2015, coming off of major knee surgery.

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The expectations were pretty low for Siemian, who was expected to be — at best — Brock Osweiler’s eventual backup. The Broncos have liked what they’ve seen from him dating all the way back to the pre-draft process, and they could soon see the rewards of their patience.

With Sanchez starting the game, he’ll also get to experience the majority of reps with the first-team offense, or at least what it is currently comprised of. That would include wide receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, but Siemian is getting no slouches in Bennie Fowler and Cody Latimer.

It’s already an interesting battle, and this first pre-season game is going to make it even more so.