There’s an old football adage that, if you follow the sport, you’ve probably heard one bajillion* times: If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.
The idea is that if none of your team’s quarterbacks have separated themselves from the pack, problems are probably on the horizon.
Well, Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak met with reporters Thursday, and it sounds like his team still has two quarterbacks.
Trevor Siemian is going to get the start Saturday in Denver’s second preseason game. He’ll get roughly a quarter-and-a-half audition before Mark Sanchez takes over for his quarter and a half.
Last week against the Bears, Kubiak did something similar with the quarterback situation. Sanchez played the first quarter — and looked pretty good apart from an interception — while Siemian played the second quarter, and didn’t look too shabby himself. Now the roles are flipped, and each will get a little more playing time this week.
Sanchez, in his seventh NFL season, has the most experience of any QB on the roster. Siemian, entering his second year with the Broncos, has only taken one NFL snap, and it was a kneel-down; but where Siemian has the upper hand is his knowledge of Kubiak’s playbook. Sanchez is still learning, as is rookie first-round pick Paxton Lynch.
Lynch will likely play the fourth quarter against San Francisco. We know that he's out of the running to be the Week 1 starter. Lynch has never played in a pro-style offense before — at Memphis, he operated almost exclusively in the spread — so that's really not much of a surprise. Until the Broncos think Lynch is ready, the choices are Sanchez or Siemian.
Kubiak told reporters that he could decide on a full-time starter after Saturday’s game against the 49ers. Hopefully by then, the picture will be a little clearer.
* Scientific estimate Denverite calculated after an exhaustive quantitative analysis.