Broncos sign QB Austin Davis

With Mark Sanchez heading to Dallas, the Broncos had  a vacancy that they had to fill in the QB room. Within 90 minutes of Sanchez’s release, the Broncos found his replacement in fifth year man, Austin Davis.  Who is he and why did we add him? Let’s take a closer look.

With less than one week until the Broncos regular season opener against the Cowboys, final cuts were made to finalize the 53 man roster. Some cuts were a surprise and others, well, they were long overdue.  One of the headlining cuts was former first round pick and expected starter, Mark Sanchez.  Despite having the right attitude and work ethic necessary to win the job, Sanchez just couldn’t shake off his old habits. As a result of his erratic play, he was let go in order to pursue other opportunities.

Now when Sanchez was released, many of us in Broncos country thought that it was a sign that the Broncos would only be keeping two QB’s (myself included) but the Broncos had other plans.

After releasing Sanchez, they were quick to sign fifth year QB, Austin Davis.  Some of you may be wondering who he is, so let’s take a closer look at the Broncos newest player.

He was signed by the Rams as an UDFA out of Southern Mississippi in 2012.  Davis would go on to spend three seasons with the Rams, starting 8 games in 2014.  After his stint with the Rams, he signed Cleveland in 2015 where he started 2 games and remained with them until he was cut last week.

For his career, he has completed 62.4% of his passes for over 2,500 yards and 13 TD’s to 12 INT’s.

While his stats may not be particularly impressive, he has done some nice things in his limited time in the NFL. He had the highest passer rating amongst the QB’s for the Rams in 2014 (85.1). The most impressive stat though may come from his start against the Seattle Seahawks that same year.

In that game, Davis completed 17 of 20 passes for 155 yards, 2 TD to no turnovers and no sacks. Oh, and he led the Rams to a win that day.  While it was only one game, it was against the defending Super Bowl champions and it does provide the Broncos a glimpse of what he’s capable of in case he is forced into action.

He’s a solid prospect that appears to fit the Broncos offense and was signed for very little. That sounds like a win to me.  We’ll see if he remains the #3 QB or if he ascends the depth chart over the course of the season.  At the very least, it appears that the Broncos have an experienced “Plan C” in the building.  Hopefully we won’t have to use him.