Trevor Siemian is the New Orleans Saints starting quarterback.
An NFL Network report indicated Siemian would be the man to stand in for injured starter Jameis Winston this Sunday against the division rival Atlanta Falcons. Saints coach Sean Payton is expected to address reporters this afternoon.
Over the course of the week, Payton steadily refused to answer whether it would be Siemian or veteran Taysom Hill at quarterback. Hill only returned to practice this week after suffering a concussion against the Washington Football Team October 10, missing the last two games.
In Siemian, the Saints get an experienced player who looked comfortable operating the offense after Winston went down in the first quarter of last week’s win against the Buccaneers.
Siemian completed 16 of his 29 pass attempts for 159 yards and a touchdown while leading five Saints scoring drives and not committing a turnover.
His final drive was a 12-play, 70-yard march that ended with a go-ahead field goal inside of two minutes. Siemian completed 3 of 6 passes for 29 yards on what turned out to be a game-winning drive, though he ended it with three straight red-zone incompletions.
Siemian entered the game after Buccaneers linebacker Devin White tackled Winston from behind in the first quarter. Winston’s knee bent awkwardly and he had to be helped off the field. The team determined Monday morning that Winston had torn his ACL, ending his 2021 season.
Now the Saints turn to the 29-year-old Siemian, who has bounced around the NFL recently but has nearly two full seasons of starting experience under his belt.
Siemian followed Peyton Manning as the starter with the Denver Broncos, and in 2016 led the team to an 8-6 record with 18 touchdowns against 10 interceptions.
But the Broncos benched Siemian in 2017 and traded him to the Minnesota Vikings in 2018, starting a stretch where Siemian bounced around the NFL as a backup.
He never saw the field with the Vikings. He signed with the Jets prior to the 2019 season and started the team’s second game, but he only played 18 snaps before his season ended with a gruesome ankle injury. He caught on with the Titans last season, spending much of the year on the practice squad before the Saints signed him to their active roster late in the season.
And now Siemian is back in a starting role at the helm of a team that is positioned to make a playoff push.
After a high degree of stability for much of Drew Brees’ career in New Orleans — three players started games at quarterback from 2006-2017 — Siemian will be the fifth quarterback to start a game for the Saints in the last three seasons, joining Brees, Hill, Winston and Teddy Bridgewater.
In those last three seasons, Hill and Bridgewater combined to win eight of nine games in relief of an injured Brees.
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