After edging out this year's most anticipated quarterbacks such as Jared Goff, Mark Sanchez and Paxton Lynch, Case Keenum of the Los Angeles Rams and Trevor Siemian of the Denver Broncos became the unlikeliest starters of the 2016 NFL season. But, according to reports, the Broncos almost swapped Siemian for Keenum.
After winning Super Bowl 50, the Broncos entered the offseason without its No. 1 and No. 2 quarterbacks after Peyton Manning retired and Brock Osweiler left to join the Houston Texans. This left the team scrambling for new starting quarterback and eventually settled with Sanchez.
Apparently, due to the Broncos' need for a new QB, they almost entered into a trade deal with the Rams for Keenum. According to a recent report, the Los Angeles organization was looking to trade with Denver but the latter team never offered its high-profile players such as Aqib Talib or Bradley Roby.
Instead of these guys, Siemian was supposed to be on the trading block but after showcasing his skills during the preseason and beating Lynch and Sanchez for the starting spot, the Broncos opted out of the deal with Keenum.
If the deal went through, however, the case for both team would probably be different. With the Rams, Siemian would probably end up as a backup to Sean Mannion, leaving Goff as the team's third-stringer.
With the Broncos, on the other hand, there's a possibility that the team would have retained Sanchez and played him as a starting quarterback. Backing him up would either be Keenum or Lynch.
But, seeing how Keenum and Siemian have been performing with their respective teams, it's probably safe to say that it was a good thing that the trade did not push through, especially for the Rams. As noted by the team's head coach Jeff Fisher, Keenum will serve as the Rams' starter until Goff gets the hang of playing in the NFL.
"Jared's had a great camp, so has Sean," he said. "Case is clearly our starter. I think Week 1 just to settle things down... it's probably going to be, like I mentioned last week, it's probably going to be three and inactive."
