This story originally appeared in Mile High Sports Magazine. Click here to read the full digital issue.
5,931 yards, 27 touchdowns, 24 interceptions, 44 games.
5,477 yards, 55 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 16 games.
The first stat line encompasses Trevor Siemian’s entire four-year collegiate career. The second? One record-setting year from Peyton Manning.
Less than two years since his last college snap, Siemian is very much in the running to be Manning’s successor as the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback.
So how did a guy with 27 college touchdowns and one regular season NFL snap to his name get here?
Just like this.
*****
November 22, 2014.
Fifth-year quarterback Trevor Siemian sat on the team bus, coming to terms with the idea of being done with college football – one week premature.
He had just come off his best performance of the season, against Notre Dame no less, and thought he still had a game against Illinois to prove he deserved a spot on an NFL roster.
Instead, he was given the prognosis that he’d just torn his ACL. Rather than using the coming months to prepare for the NFL Combine, he would be looking forward to surgery and a hard few months of rehab.
“It was a major blow,” Northwestern teammate and current Carolina Panther Miles Shuler said. “He was a staple to our offense as a veteran guy, and when you have a player like that go down towards the end of the year like that, you know it affects the offense tremendously.”
Though Siemian did all he could to aid the team after he was hurt, including maintaining his easygoing, joking personality inside the locker room, the Wildcats suffered a crucial loss the following week that ruled out any hopes of a bowl game. Even without the disappointing ending, it had been a season full of turmoil and distraction for the NU football players.
In 2014, Northwestern was in the midst of a union battle, calling for athletes to be treated as employees and given full benefits. Siemian’s quarterback coach Mick McCall was more than impressed with the way his quarterback handled himself throughout the tumultuous season.
“For him to go through that and do the things he did – he had to lead the team through all that,” McCall said. “He’s gotta be commended for that. That was a tough situation for him and he handled it as well as anyone could have handled that.”
At the end of that rocky year, with a single season as a true starter under his belt and an average stat line, Siemian literally limped in at No. 11 among Big Ten quarterbacks. He was injured and his draft stock had dropped dramatically. No one would have faulted him for choosing to forgo the rigorous road to recovery that would eventually put a football back in his hand.
Well, no one but Siemian himself.
Against the odds, Sieman chose to bet on himself, and in doing so, took the chance that an NFL team would do the same.
*****
May 2, 2015.
Immediately after surgery, Siemian worked tirelessly to be healthy enough to resume training just four short months after his injury. On April 9, six teams showed up to watch his Pro Day – including Gary Kubiak and the Broncos.
Kubiak’s interest was evident, but Siemian would not allow himself to be complacent.
“That’s putting the carriage ahead of the horse,” Siemian said last April. “It was awesome to meet Coach Kubiak and all the coaches. It’s a great group of guys up there. I’m sure they’re just doing their due diligence and checking everyone out.”
On the third and final day of the 2015 NFL Draft, with the seventh round well underway, six quarterbacks had come off the board; Siemian was not one of them.
With six picks between Siemian and the chasm of going undrafted, Kubiak proved he was serious about his guy and made him the 250th pick.
It would be a lie to say the acquisition of Denver’s newest quarterback caused a stir. As is typical with most late-round picks, and especially with Manning and Brock Osweiler as the clear starter-backup tandem, Siemian was neither heralded nor hated. Unobtrusively, he made his way to the Mile High City.
Though he began as the No. 4 quarterback on the depth chart, by the end of training camp, Siemian had beat out Zac Dysert – a seventh-rounder in 2013 – for the third-string position on Kubiak’s 53-man roster.
For a player who wasn’t sure he would get a chance, simply making the roster was huge. Many said he had accomplished all he needed to do.
Siemian had the opportunity to learn from the greatest quarterback of all time, see his name on the jersey of a championship-level team and get a paycheck without risking another injury. What more could he want?
“I don’t want to just get into a camp and get by,” Siemian said. “I want to be a good player and be somebody who adds value to a team. When it’s all said and done, I want to be a quarterback who excels in the league.”
*****
May 31, 2016.
With Denver’s season opener less than three months away, Kubiak has yet to declare his starter – a tactic that is as stress free to Kubiak as it is stressful to the media.
No stranger to adversity or competition, Siemian remains unfazed. Despite answering nearly identical questions every day of minicamp thus far, he continues to keep his head down and work.
“I have to take the reps that I get,” Siemian says. “I feel pretty confident right now and I’m going to keep rolling with it until I play with the ones, the same way I would play with the threes. I think I know a lot, I think I’ve learned a lot, but there’s still a long way to go.”
He may not be all the way there, but it’s easy to see just how far he has come.
Last June, it was difficult to find someone outside of the Broncos organization that knew who Trevor Siemian was. If the stories out of minicamp were not about Manning, they were about Osweiler.
A year later and Siemian’s name now rolls off the lips of every reporter, coach and fan at least once a day. The world is finally starting to catch on to what Kubiak noticed 14 months ago and his teammates have seen all along.
Siemian has the arm, he knows the playbook and he can make the reads – but more importantly, he possesses a quality that can’t be taught in the film room or on the practice field. He has command of the huddle, he has the support of his teammates and he is a natural leader.
“As a quarterback, you have to be the leader on the field for the whole team, so for him, that’s one of his strongest attributes,” wide receiver Jordan Taylor said. “The coaches like that, and obviously as players, we respond well to that too. He’s a vocal guy and he makes sure to get guys in the right position to make our offense successful.”
There is no question that Siemian wants to be the guy. No athlete strives for second best, or in Siemian’s case, second string. Yet, as those who know him best will attest, Siemian genuinely wants what’s best for others, regardless of what that means for him.
“That connector part of his personality is genuine – it’s not a facade. Some guys try to come off that way but he is genuine that way, he really cares about people – sometimes even to a fault,” McCall said. “He wants the best for the football team no matter what, and he’ll do whatever he has to do.”
*****
September 8, 2016.
Football season is officially here. Cars flying by on I-25 can hear the roar of the 76,000 fans packed into Mile High Stadium, orange pom-poms waving.
Thunder gallops across the field, fireworks are popping and flames blaze from the tunnel into the only air in the NFL that sits one mile above sea level. The Broncos starters wait for their names to be announced.
There is no guarantee that Siemian will be the guy at the mouth of the tunnel, preparing to make his first NFL start. But it’s a lock that he’ll be the best teammate, supporter and leader he can be – even if he is standing on the sideline.
Starting on the day he was drafted, the dark horse candidate out of Windermere, Fla. has done nothing but prove doubters wrong. And he isn’t done yet. His competitive drive, though hidden behind his easygoing demeanor and locker room jokes, shouldn’t be overlooked.
“I couldn’t be more proud of him or happy for him. That’s a heck of an opportunity for someone to be right in the middle of it on such an incredible football team,” McCall said. “Things will work out the right way for the Denver Broncos and for Trevor Siemian. And I truly believe that.”
This article appeared alongside “Odds Beaten: Quarterbacks who did what Trevor Siemian is trying to do” by Zac Stevens
