Before the summer break, Broncos head coach Vance Joseph said the battle between Paxton Lynch and Trevor Siemian was still even.
From the perspective of wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, it doesn't really matter which one takes home the opening day start because both quarterbacks lift his game in a specific way.
"Both of those guys throw catchable passes," Sanders told KUSA-TV in Denver. "When it comes to the deep ball, Paxton loves to throw the deep ball. Big, strong arm. Trevor, he loves to throw the out routes, the in routes. He's a checkdown, all-around type guy."
While Sanders' interpretation of Siemian's game sounds a little more practical, it was interesting to hear Sanders describe the new version of offensive coordinator Mike McCoy's system.
"We've got this new offense with Mike McCoy," Sanders said. "We're going to be throwing the ball around so my conditioning has to be up and I've been working on that."
The rest of the piece is worth your time and gets into Sanders' personal diet revolution -- something he thinks will aid in his transition to McCoy's pass-happy offense. Like many players around his age, he stopped falling for the convenience of fast food. While every NFL team employs some type of nutritionist or dietician, it would surprise the general public to see how many elite athletes still indulge in a frequent cheat meal or two (Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie told me a few years back that he still had McDonald's pancakes every morning).
An evolved Sanders and a healthy Demaryius Thomas could go a long way toward bolstering confidence in the Broncos' passing game. Like Sanders himself, it could look quite different in 2017.
