The San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos square off tonight in both team’s second preseason game.
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Siemian is expected to start despite a sore shoulder. It’s down to the nitty-gritty here. “I’ll make that decision later in the week”.
Siemian, Mark Sanchez and Paxton Lynch will all play against the Rams on Saturday, and Kubiak expects the repetitions to be equally distributed.
A decision needs to come not long after the third preseason game because the Broncos need to plan for the fourth preseason game, in which the Week One starter surely won’t be playing. If he was the No. 3 and remained on the roster he would be the team’s highest-paid quarterback and a game-day inactive.
After the pick, Kubiak pulled Siemian in on the sideline, wrapped his arm around his waist and offered a few words and a pat on the back.
San Francisco 49ers free safety Eric Reid leaps over Denver Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian as Reid runs for a touchdown after intercepting a pass from Siemian during the first half of a preseason NFL football game, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, in Denver. And so the defending Super Bowl champions appear likely to replace a near-certain Hall of Famer in Peyton Manning with a guy whose National Football League career amounts to exactly one official snap: a kneel-down to close the first half of a game last December. Siemian went 10 for 14 for 75 yards and led a scoring drive on his opening series. His body of work was enough for Kubiak to give Siemian the start. “That was good”, defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil said, “because the one thing that people would question about Ray is his ability to play in the box, just given his history being a secondary guy”. Lynch also had one costly interception that sealed the game for the Niners, but overall he looked a lot more ready to start than Siemian and Sanchez. “So, I’m going to go back and give him a chance to do that again”.
Now, however, Gabbert has emerged as the favorite to start for the 49ers, something that no one would have predicted this time previous year. “He and Mark will consistently play the same amount, which I’d like to tell you is a quarter and a half, but it’ll probably be more of a play count”. While Siemian still seems to be the favorite, Klis said Lynch’s play makes it a competition. Gabbert, who completed four of 10 passes for 63 yards in the exhibition opener against Houston, hopes to replicate the efficient outing he had in last year’s exhibition at Denver (9-of-11, 96 yards). Sanchez was emotional after the game, saying that he had “squandered” the opportunity to win the starting job. That is a big difference and if you are going to bet the Broncos take the time to open account. “Two plays. Two really bad plays that took away from a great performance and from potentially winning the job”. If the Broncos were to release Sanchez because they believe Lynch could be the team’s backup, the team would take a $1 million dead-money hit against the salary cap and would have to pay the $1 million that is fully guaranteed in Sanchez’s contract.
Sanchez was also asked if it was hard to not know who would be the team’s starter so deep in the preseason.
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Not everything Gary Kubiak says is true. “We’ve got three quarterbacks, two of which weren’t on this team previous year, and one that has one regular-season snap (Siemian’s kneel-down at Pittsburgh last December 20)”.
