With Case Keenum moving on to the Denver Broncos, Sam Bradford to the Arizona Cardinals, and Teddy Bridgewater to the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings were left without anyone to back up their newly acquired starting quarterback, Kirk Cousins. They could draft one. But, teams often prefer for their backups to be a little more seasoned.
Having learned the value of an experienced backup, the Vikings are acquiring a former starter they knew would be available: Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian.
The #Vikings are finalizing a trade for #Broncos QB Trevor Siemian, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 14, 2018
Siemian became the starting quarterback for the Broncos after Peyton Manning retired, beating out Mark Sanchez. He started 24 games over the last two seasons, completing 59.3 percent of his passes for 5,686 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 24 interceptions.
Denver is sending Siemian and a late-round pick this year to the Vikings. Minnesota will, in turn, send a late-round pick in next year’s draft.
Siemian was a seventh-round pick for the Broncos in 2015 out of Northwestern. Even though he only started 14 games in college, he finished his career ranked fairly high in many team categories (i.e., fourth all-time in career passing yardage (5,931), fourth in completions (550), sixth in offensive yards (5,908), and seventh in passing touchdowns (27)).
Denver went 5-11 last season and 9-7 the year before. While Siemian wasn’t great, he wasn’t bad. He was probably not quite ready to be thrust into the limelight. But, with $84 million invested in Kirk Cousins, the Vikings are likely hoping that Siemian never sees the field.
But if he does, at least the Vikings will not be forced to throw a rookie QB to the wolves.
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