Broncos need to get serious about upgrading from Trevor Siemian

The Denver Broncos got off to a 3-1 start this season thanks to a great defense and surprisingly good play from quarterback Trevor Siemian, who threw six touchdown passes in the first two games alone. A 2015 seventh-round pick out of Northwestern, Siemian was largely efficient last season and showed enough for the Broncos to hand him the keys again in 2017.

However, it’s been all downhill from there — the Broncos have dropped three straight games as Siemian’s play has gone into the tank, the entire offense going belly-up as a result. Things hit rock bottom in the past two weeks, with the Broncos getting shut out by the Chargers in Week 7 and dropping a 29-19 game to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night.

Siemian was downright atrocious, tossing three horrendous interceptions and taking three sacks. Only a last-minute garbage time touchdown salvaged his final stat line — 19-of-36 passing for 198 yards and a 43.5 QB Rating. He didn’t have much help from his receiving corps — there were a number of easy drops and the offense clearly misses Emmanuel Sanders. But there isn’t any excusing these turnovers, which are downright amateur hour.

The first pick was so badly placed, you would’ve thought Marcus Peters was running a route for the Broncos offense. Siemian just tosses the ball right in his breadbasket, and Jon Gruden rightfully said it might be the easiest interception of Peters’ career:

The second interception was slightly less terrible but still a bad mistake. Siemian bails from the pocket, arguably too early, but he has room to run for the first down with the play breaking down. Instead, he heaves it up for no real reason and overthrows Jeff Heuerman, with Ron Parker pulling it down:

Denver went into halftime trailing, 17-3, thanks to those mistakes. Yet despite that, the Chiefs offense stalled in the second half and the Broncos gradually chipped it down to a manageable 23-13 deficit. KC extended its lead to 13 points with seven minutes left, and it was do-or-die time for Siemian and the Broncos.

They died, obviously. Siemian got flushed out of the pocket and panicked once again, floating the ball into the middle of the field to no one in particular. Once again, it was way too easy for the defense, with Kenneth Acker snuffing out Denver’s comeback hopes:

The Chiefs got another field goal and went to the pay window, with Siemian leading a totally meaningless touchdown drive in the final minute. He’s now up to 10 interceptions in seven games, compared to just nine touchdowns. The Broncos haven’t reached the 20-point mark since Week 2.

At 3-4, the Broncos’ playoff hopes are on thin ice. They’re well behind the 6-2 Chiefs in the AFC West and dropped a game to the 5-2 Buffalo Bills, giving Buffalo the head-to-head tiebreaker. Their schedule gets brutal in the next two weeks when they play the Philadelphia Eagles on the road and host the New England Patriots. If they get swept in that two-game stretch, they can probably forget about playing in January.

Siemian’s bad performances have a ripple effect on the rest of the team — the offense can’t score points or sustain drives, which means the defense stays on the field, which means the defense gets gassed and gives up big plays you normally wouldn’t expect from the No Fly Zone. We saw that play out Monday, with Travis Kelce finding huge holes in the Broncos secondary and Kareem Hunt ripping off chunk yards after the catch.

Something’s gotta give soon, but the alternatives aren’t all that appealing. Brock Osweiler is the current backup, and we all know how bad he was in Houston last year. Paxton Lynch is still recovering from shoulder surgery, and even if he’s healthy, it’s not a good sign that the 2016 first-round pick couldn’t beat out Siemian in camp. This is a big problem for head coach Vance Joseph, who’s already dealing with a quarterback controversy in his first year on the job.

Either way, it’s time for the Broncos to rip off the Band-Aid. Siemian is not the answer, and the longer they stick with him the worse things will get as they waste another year of the defense’s prime.