Be Cool, Man

He was a seventh-round pick with a bum knee, but Broncos quarterback TREVOR SIEMIAN had the calm and the smarts to impress his predecessor, Peyton Manning. That can earn you respect—and wins.

- Robert Klemko

TREVOR SIEMIAN hit rock bottom in a rental car traveling north on I-65 through pastoral northwest Indiana. Earlier that November afternoon in 2014, against Purdue, he’d charged into the fray on a QB sneak and faced that terrifying moment in football when your feet are stuck in a pile of bodies but you’re still standing upright. A tackler slammed into his torso, and his left leg stayed in place. Siemian, in his final season at Northwestern, wept as trainers helped him off the field.

Now it was dawn, and as he leaned back in the car with his mother, father and older brother, Todd, he asked the big question aloud: “I wonder if I’ll ever play again.”

His parents were certain they knew the answer. He’d been a statistically poor passer on a losing football team. He had a well-paying job in real estate waiting for him. Still, nobody really knew what to say. “My husband and I agreed he was pretty much done—but we didn’t want to tell him that,” says Colleen Siemian. “Then Todd said, ‘Just give it another try, because in five years you don’t want to say could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.’ ”

Todd was right, even if Trevor did find out he’d torn his ACL. Three years later Siemian is the undisputed starter for a Broncos team that has won three of its first four games. (Denver’s No. 3–ranked run game and No. 1 defense have certainly helped that cause.) His performance in the first quarter of this season is the latest turn in an improbable journey from seventh-round draft pick to Peyton Manning understudy to competitor in a QB derby he wasn’t supposed to win, but did. Twice.

Now Siemian’s fellow Broncos have joined the chorus of former Northwestern teammates in issuing superlatives that show how far the QB has traveled since that anxiety-filled car ride.