Well that didn’t take long. Just two games into the Trevor Siemian era, Denver Broncos receiver Demaryius Thomas is less than pleased.
While the Pro Bowl receiver isn’t calling out Siemian by name, the following comments strongly suggest he is frustrated by the way things have gone with the second-year signal caller.
“We’re gonna need more offense, that’s for sure,” Thomas said, per Mike Silver of NFL.com. “It’s hard — you’re always putting it on the defense, and at some point that’s tough to count on. There’s no reason to keep it close. Last year, a lot of things went our way, but that can catch up to you.”
“You’ve got two guys … damn, the best duo in the league, and we haven’t had 100 yards in a game yet. He’s got, what, eight catches? I’ve got nine. I mean …”
You don’t have to be an in-between-the-lines expert to see what is going on here.
Siemian has done a good job of moving the ball at times within Gary Kubiak’s offense. But through two games he has just 444 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions through the air.
And the only touchdown pass was thrown to running back C.J. Anderson.
No wonder Thomas is frustrated.
He further elaborated on what is keeping Denver from excelling on offense.
“We’ve just got to be better in the red zone,” Thomas said. “We had 400 yards of offense, and the defensescored two touchdowns. We scored one. Every time we get on the 30, we just … we’ve just got to be better.”
Again, reading between the lines, he seems to be pointing a finger at the quarterback. The red zone is where the best quarterbacks make their money. So far, Siemian hasn’t been able to get his elite receivers involved in this area of the field.
Thankfully for Denver, the defense has been outstanding through the first two games. Both contests have been won on the back of turnovers caused by Von Miller and Co. But it’s awfully hard to continue winning this way — the offense struggling to produce points and the defense picking up the slack.
It will be interesting to see how things play out in the weeks to come. Up next for Thomas, Siemian and the rest of the Broncos is a road trip to play the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday — a huge early season test.