Fantasy Football: Can Denver’s Stars Survive with Siemian at Quarterback?

Well, it’s official, Trevor Siemian has won the starting gig at quarterback for the defending Superbowl champion Broncos. He won a three-man battle between Mark Sanchez, Paxton Lynch and himself. None of the three Denver signal callers have been impressive at all during the first three weeks of the preseason but Siemian was just a little less worse than the other two candidates. He was able to seal the other two quarterback’s fate in the Broncos’ third preseason game where he completed 10-of-17 passes for 122 yards, one touchdown and an interception against the Rams.

Siemian has been on quite the journey over the last year and has to be ecstatic that he’ll be starting Week 1 for Denver. As a seventh-round pick out of Northwestern last season, he wasn’t even sure if he’d ever play one snap in an NFL uniform. Now, he’ll be playing on opening night against an extremely good Panthers defense, so this could be very interesting. Siemian has plenty of weapons to play with this year in Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, C.J. Anderson and even Virgil Green. In this article, I’m really going to focus on how him getting the starting job may affect these players.

Let’s start with the wide receivers. Thomas is by far one of the most talented players in all of the NFL but has had some bad quarterback play over the last few seasons. I personally don’t see Siemian being able to utilize him to his full potential so that really hurts his fantasy value in my opinion. Yes, DT will still be an every week play but I just don’t see the insanely good numbers coming his way this season. To me, this is like a similar situation that my Dallas Cowboys are enduring. We have one of the most explosive wideouts in the league in Dez Bryant but are having to use a rookie quarterback in Dak Prescott to lead the way. I’m going to go ahead and say that I think Denver is much worse off than Dallas is, so things could be rough in the Mile High City.

This move at quarterback could actually help Emmanuel Sanders and Virgil Green, especially in a PPR format. I feel like we’ll see a ton of dink and dunk type passing attempts from Siemian, which bodes well for these guys. Sanders is a stellar short route receiver who really thrives out of the slot, so I’m excited to see if he can have a better year this season. Like any young quarterback, Siemian will more than likely lean heavily on his safety blanket in the tight end, so that could increase Green’s value just a bit. I still don’t think either guy will have a monstrous year but that’s just something for you all to think about.

For the running game, I really don’t think that Siemian will help things out much. I fear that most defenses are going to stack the box against Denver early on to test the young signal caller. This will in return kill a lot of the running backs momentum due to increased pressure. I still love C.J. Anderson for this season but I’ll be lowering my expectations just a bit, honestly. Overall, the Broncos will most likely be a run first team, so I guess we’ll see just how well Anderson can hold up to the spotlight. I won’t be taking him before the end of the third or early fourth round in most of my drafts.

Overall, I foresee Siemian being nothing more than a placeholder for Paxton Lynch in Denver. I’m going to predict by Week 6, Lynch is starting for the Broncos and he’ll be in a backup role for the champs. Hopefully, for Denver fans, their defense plays at an even higher level because it could be a long year for them. So, if you decide to draft any of the Broncos’ main stars, just temper your expectation a bit and cross your fingers! Good luck this year guys!

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