Tape Don’t Lie: Trevor Siemian should not be the Denver Broncos’ Starter

This one goes down as a completion and a solid play in the box score even though it’s an average play by the QB at best.

Let’s freeze the moment of truth:

That ball should already be on its way to Emmanuel Sanders. He’s almost through his break and Siemian is still holding the ball. Siemian is a slave to his routine.

He waits to get to the top of his dropback to decide, sometimes takes an unnecessary step forward, then throws. His robotism doubles as one of his best assets and ultimate downfalls.

If that pass is in the air and on target by the time Sanders makes his cut, all he needs to do is beat the last DB to the edge or break a tackle and at the very least, the Broncos move into field goal range.

Here’s another mess that highlights the deficiencies in Siemian’s game right now.

The Raiders line up playing 3 on 2 to the bottom of the screen; 4 on 2 once the middle linebacker swings out to take away the short middle. Siemian locked on to this side because…um…initially I thought that the CB on Norwood was a LB, but that’s our friend DJ Hayden again. Now I’m just confused (this could be another example of his shoulder injury taking away the far half of the field).

Meanwhile, to the top of the screen, they’ve allocated 3 defenders for 3 pass catchers. The Broncos miss an easy first down to Sanders (who has his hands up in the air in the middle of his route) because Siemian couldn’t adjust off his pre-snap read even when the MLB dropped right into his field of vision.

Siemian’s one saving grace amid all these struggles has been his willingness to take shots downfield. He may be locked in to the short pass, but he’s not a cult member like Alex Smith. That said, his accuracy gets spottier the further down the field you go, and he can get jumpy in the pocket.

McManus kicked a field goal at the end of this drive so we’ll only say Siemian cost the Broncos 4 points on this play, for a total of at least 13 in the first half. That’s a clean pocket, but for some reason Siemian keeps drifting away from the line and towards Khalil Mack’s side.

The result is Mack getting in Siemian’s face and juuuuust affecting the throw enough when he never would have had the chance if the Northwestern grad stayed in the pocket. That first half was as bad as I’ve seen from a Bronco QB this year.