When it comes to picking a Week One starting quarterback, Broncos coach Vance Joseph is waiting as long as possible. When it comes to picking a starting quarterback for Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage, same.
“I’m not sure yet,” Joseph told reporters on Friday regarding whether it will be Trevor Siemian or Paxton Lynch. “Whoever starts, you’ll know. I’m not sure yet.”
Joseph wasn’t entirely tight-lipped on Friday about his quarterbacks. He offered Siemian a certain amount of praise for his performance in practice.
“I saw Trevor just being consistent, making his reads and making the throws where the reads told him to make the throws. He did a good job today,” Joseph said.
As to Lynch, Joseph’s only comments on Friday related to defensive lineman tipping the 2016 first-rounder’s passes at the line of scrimmage, a trend Joseph didn’t blame on Lynch.
“Our [defensive] line does a great job of knocking passes down,” Joseph said. “Now, how do you stop that from an offensive line’s perspective? You kind of jab him in the gut. We don’t want to jab our own guy. Honestly, that’s how you stop it. Or when the guy jumps, you bang him to the ground. Gameday, you will see that. You won’t see that here. That’s more of how we’re practicing then it is for Paxton.”
Even though Lynch wasn’t blamed for tipped passes, it’s a dynamic that came up in reference to him and not Siemian. Even though Lynch is 6-7 and Siemian is 6-3.
So there are now two things to watch on Saturday: (1) who starts the scrimmage; and (2) whether passes get tipped at the line of scrimmage.