The Denver Broncos are facing a harsh transition at the most-important position in sports, and if the move from Peyton Manning to Trevor Siemian is going to go smoothly, center Matt Paradis is going to need to play a big role.
Manning is one of the smartest quarterbacks in NFL history, and he’s probably more well known for his pre-snap lingo — “OMAHA!” — than his record-breaking statistics. With “The Sheriff” now out of the picture, though, the job of pre-snap reads is going to fall in large part on Paradis, the one constant between all of Denver’s quarterbacks over the past 12 months, from Manning to Osweiler to Siemian.
“[Paradis is] the communication guy, and he’s the guy that passes calls from one side to the other,” offensive coordinator Rick Dennison said on Tuesday. “We’ve got some new veterans on that line and certainly Matt’s experience taking every snap last year really helps us out a lot to anchor that thing,”
On Tuesday after practice head coach Gary Kubiak reiterated what he said on Monday — the Carolina Panthers’ front seven is the best he has ever seen as a coach. While Siemian will certainly have his hands full in the season opener, Kubiak expects Paradis to be a major resource.
“Paradis has become a leader on our team,” Kubiak said. “He’s becoming a really good player. He understands fronts and understands what’s going on. It’s a nice guy to have to pull the ball from every play.”
While Siemian won’t be able to run as complicated an offense as Manning in his first season as the starter, the Broncos do expect many pre-snap checks and reads from the entire offense, not just Siemian.
“Trevor is a smart kid. That’s one of the reasons he’s got himself in this position, too, because he’s able to handle a lot,” Kubiak said. “It’s going to be up to him to get us in the right situations, and we also got to help him too.”
Even though the first words out of Paradis’ mouth when asked about his increased role were, “I don’t want to talk about myself,” he did eventually admit that he would help Siemian more with reads than he did with Manning, even if he can’t do them all.
“I can help [Siemain], because I’ve been in the offense longer,” Paradis said. “[Checks are] still on the quarterback. Can I help him? Yeah.”
For the past four seasons, the success of the Broncos offense has revolved around Peyton Manning’s mind. Now, in the post-Manning era, Siemian will have another brain and set of eyes to look through to help the Broncos offense pick apart defenses.
