Last year, the Denver Broncos were quarterbacked by a soon-to-be first ballot Hall of Famer and won the Super Bowl.
This year, they’re quarterbacked by Trevor Siemian, a former seventh-round pick from Northwestern.
But despite going from Peyton Manning - one of the most proficient quarterbacks in league history - to a completely unproven young starter in Siemian, Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib thinks Denver’s offense is much better than last year’s group.
In an interview with Nate Kreckman and Tom Nalen on Altitude 950 AM in Denver, Talib said he feels the Broncos’ offense is “10 times better” than last year’s group.
“Honestly, from the sideline, in my opinion our offense looks 10 times better this year,” Talib said. “Them guys are playing good football in my eyes. They’re turning the ball over a little in the red zone, clean that up man and they’ll be 10 times better, man. They can only go up but I see a bunch of improvement on the offensive side of the ball.”
Denver has scored 55 points through the first two games of the season, including a 21-20 win over the Carolina Panthers and a 34-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. That gives the Broncos an average of 27.5 points per game through the first two weeks. Denver only scored 27 points in a game fives times last year. They also scored fewer than 20 points in six of their 16 regular season games.
It’s a small sample size and teams haven’t had a chance to adapt to Siemian’s style of play yet. Nevertheless, the Broncos offense has been more productive through two weeks than they were most of the last season. If they are indeed “10 times better” than last year’s offense, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Denver back in the Super Bowl in February.