The young gentleman in my building’s elevator that summer Sunday afternoon looked familiar, but I just couldn’t place him.
Had he not been wearing a Northwestern Wildcats football t-shirt and shorts, I probably wouldn’t have even realized that he was a person of at least a little bit of consequence in my world; the sports media universe.
The elevator ride ended. We parted ways and I thought ok “an NU football player lives here or is visiting someone who lives here.
About a week or two later, still in the summer of 2016, the football talking season, or preseason as the laypeople refer to it, I learned his identity.
A very attractive young blonde woman got in the elevator with me, and struck up a conversation with me about the B1G Media Day satchel, notebook, credential, or whatever it was.
“My boyfriend used to go that every year, and get all that stuff,” she said.
Naturally, I asked who her bae was.
“Trevor Siemian” she responded; before indicating that she is/was a tennis player at Northwestern.
Yes, my brush with the stardom of Trevor Siemian just a few weeks ago went totally unnoticed on my part. That’s how obscure Siemian was even as recently as this preseason. For someone who covers Northwestern regularly, there’s really no excuse for me not to be able to identify him, but then again when was the last time I saw Trevor Siemian up close in street clothes, instead of in a football uniform, 2013?
Well, the signal caller has come a very long way since then, becoming the first opening day starting quarterback for a defending Super Bowl champion with zero career pass attempts ever. He’s led the Denver Broncos to victories in his first two starts, over the Indianapolis Colts and Carolina Panthers, putting up average numbers.
His completion percentage is very impressive, 67.8, but the 1-3 TD-INT ratio leaves much to be desired. His 74.4 passer rating is rather mediocre.
Of course, it’s only his first two games ever, in the National Football League! He will get better, probably, but in the mean time here comes one of the worst and most annoying platitudes that you’ll ever find. The NFL is one long cliche convention, especially so when it comes to the passing game.
“It’s a passing league.” “It all starts with the quarterback.” It’s a quarterback driven league.”
For Trevor Siemian, it’s the “game manager” bromide. Yes, he’s 2016 Kyle Orton. A former Big Ten quarterback who wasn’t drafted very high and wasn’t expected to do all that much at the pro level takes over a team in orange and blue and just wins, baby.
Said Steve Beuerlein on his show CBS Sports’ NFL Monday QB: “If you ask Trent, Rich and I, all three of us would kill to be the quarterback for the Broncos… He looks comfortable. He looks very well-coached… He looks like an NFL quarterback. They’re not asking him to carry the team. They’re asking him to manage the game.”
Trent Green added this commentary during the same segment: “He managed the game and that’s really all they asked him to do… If the defense continues to play like they are, that’s all they need Trevor Siemian to do. The interesting thing would be if they get in a shootout, how is he going to handle that shootout? How will he handle the pressure of having to get the ball down the field and having to put up a bunch of points?”
Trevor Siemian, the Kyle Ortonesque “game manager” motif now applied to him, and the Denver Broncos, head to Cincinnati this week.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.