Brock made it back to the box.
The box is reserved for the Broncos’ starting quarterback during those Wednesday press conferences.
Brock Osweiler. Just 18 months ago, he was a free agent. And after leaving the Broncos to go play for the Houston Texans, who would have thought that Osweiler would have made it back to the presser box so soon?
“I’m sure a lot of people are surprised by this,’’ he said. “Very rarely does a player leave to go to a different team and be back on his previous team within a year’s time, let alone a quarterback. But once again, that’s not the story. I’m here. I’m ready to play football. I know this football team is ready to go out there and play, play a good, clean game and that’s where I focus is.’’
The Broncos have lately played a lot of games, messy with turnovers. This is THE reason why Trevor Siemian is no longer the quarterback. Three losses might not have gotten Siemian demoted.
Three losses and eleven team turnovers, six on Siemian's interceptions, is why he’s now the backup.
“I think just the one thing, a lot of mistakes I’ve made, they’ve been off schedule when I’ve gotten out of the pocket,’’ Siemian said. “It’s something I’ll learn from and hopefully clean up.’’
Joseph said the benching was best “for Trevor’s future.’’
“Lots of young quarterbacks have to take a step back to just watch the game and figure out how to play the game better,’’ Joseph said. “All of the good quarterbacks are game managers. That’s a negative term in football, but it shouldn’t be because to be a quarterback, you have to manage the football game. That part, he’s been struggling with. In my opinion, for his best interest, he needs to take a step back to watch Brock operate in meetings and on game day. It’s going to help his future.”
Status quo would not have cut it inside the Broncos’ locker room. The grousing defensive players for the league’s No. 1 unit eventually would have lost some will.
Change is necessary when status quo isn’t working.
“Whatever they feel like is necessary for us to stop turning the ball over so we have a chance to win—that’s the upstairs guys and the coaches,’’ said outside linebacker Shane Ray. “We just have to play.”
Osweiler’s first assignment as a starting quarterback in 2017? The 7-1 Eagles in Philadelphia.
“On a personal note, it’s hard to really put it into words just because of how much love I have for this organization, my teammates and this city,’’ Osweiler said. “This week’s not about me. I’ve answered those questions when I left and when I came back. This week is solely about our football team finding a way to get a win on the road in a hostile environment against a great opponent. We know we have a huge challenge ahead of us, but we’re excited to go out there, compete and see what we can do.”
