ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On a day where the “No-Fly Zone” was more like the “Fly-a-little-zone,” missing key cogs Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward to a vet rest day, the Broncos quarterbacks bounced back. Both Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch looked better than they had during the two days previous, a good sign after mass panic from fans and media this week.

BSN Denver was on the scene at the UC Health Training Center for the entirety of the two-hour practice, here’s what we saw:

Trevor Trending Up

Incumbent starter Trevor Siemian started the hot day for the quarterbacks, after taking a sack on his very first drop, Siemian sliced up the defense for the only 11-on-11 touchdown of the day. The drive of the day began with a 25-yard ball to Jeff Heuerman, followed by a 10-yard throw to Emmanuel Sanders and was capped with a 15-yard touchdown, once again to No. 10.

In the following drill—1-on-1 red-zone—it became obvious that Siemian was feeling it. The third-year quarterback threw three or four perfect balls to the back corner of the end zone. He mixed it up between the traditional fade and the back-shoulder fade, throwing both balls on the money more than once.

Siemian can be a bit streaky when it comes to his touch passes but—from what we’ve seen this camp—when he is on, he is on. Today was one of those days when you knew if he lofted the ball, it was going to be in the right place.

“I think Trevor has been solid,” head coach Vance Joseph explained after practice. “He hasn’t done a lot of huge error stuff I should say. He’s been solid. He’s been Trevor.”

“He’s been consistent,” Joseph added. “He’s making the reads and the ball goes there. He is playing the position… He calls the plays, makes the read, the ball should go there and that’s where the ball goes.”

Later, in 7-on-7 from about 20 yards out, Siemian stayed hot, only missing one out of his four attempts and connecting with both tight end Steven Scheu and Marlon Brown for touchdowns.

**Correction: After conversations with other media members, what we originally looked to be an incomplete pass from our angle, sounds to have been an interception on the lone miss of that 7-on-7 period**

The team transitioned back to 11-on-11 for the last two drills of practice, and No. 13 continued to be on his game. In a four play series that appeared to focus on shorter throws for both quarterbacks, Siemian put two throws on the money and had one dropped by Isaiah McKenzie.

To finish the day, No. 13 had his second-best series of the practice. On his first throw, he hit Bennie Fowler on a quick slant—a ball that just squeaked past the hands of Derek Wolfe—on the next throw, he looked for Jordan Taylor deep, and Taylor drew a pass interference.

After that, maybe Siemian’s best throw of the day. Following a play-action fake, Siemian found an open Bennie Fowler on the left sideline with a nicely-floated ball, giving Fowler just enough time to drag his feet for the 30-yard gain.

After just missing Stevan Ridley on a wheel route up the right sideline, Siemian finished his day by hitting Fowler once again on a short slant.

Outside of Saturday, the day that Trevor absolutely torched the No-Fly zone, with five touchdowns of more than 50 yards across all drills, you could make the argument that Thursday was Siemian’s best practice of camp. He threw long, he threw short, he lofted the ball well and even changed up his arm angle on multiple throws to get the ball off while stuck in some tight spaces.

Too little too late for Lynch

After two practices in a row where Paxton Lynch started hot and later cooled off, the former first-round pick flipped the narrative on Thursday.

Early in the day, Lynch mixed some good throws in with a lot of inconsistency. Following Siemian’s stellar start, Lynch threw a nice ball over the head of Lorenzo Doss and connected with Carlos Henderson for a big gain, but the challenger failed to complete either of his remaining two tosses in the period.

In the next team drill, Lynch had a beautiful throw to Jamaal Charles on a wheel route but, again, he wasn’t able to follow it up with any other completions.

“His deal right now is to put good plays together back to back to back,” the coach said. “That’s what we want from Paxton right now. You can see his play making ability. He can put a ball into the field. He can scramble with it. We want more plays being made back to back to back. We’ll put him in the place for it.”

Maybe Paxton’s most questionable moments of the day came later on in the 7-on-7 period. After a nice throw to Jeff Heuerman to start the set, on the next two plays, Paxton couldn’t find any receivers. After a few seconds in the pocket, Lynch’s instincts kicked in, and he ran away from the rush. Only problem, there was no rush. It was 7-on-7.

From the view of the sidelines, it was concerning, but Joseph did his best to quell that concern.

“Just play ball. We want Paxton to have as many natural reps as possible, so when he takes off and run, I like it. I don’t want him to sit back there and force the ball and make a bad decision. Him running in seven-on-seven doesn’t bother me.”

In the end, it was an improvement from Lynch’s 7-on-7 interceptions on Monday.

At that point, it seemed like Siemian may run away with the day, but Lynch wouldn’t stand for that.

In a drill focused on getting off of your own goal line, Lynch did what Siemian couldn’t, finding Cody Latimer on third down to move the chains and get his offense out of the danger zone. He followed that up with an 11-on-11 series that only saw the ball hit the ground once—featuring an absolute dart to A.J. Derby in traffic.

That four-play series looked to be Paxton’s best of the day, but he one upped it on his final drive, putting down a perfect set to close his day. Lynch started with a first-down throw to Scheu and followed it with another first-down throw to Marlon Brown on a rollout. His third play was a nice out-pattern toss to Marlon Brown again and Lynch closed the practice with short completion to round things out.

It should be known, this was far from a bad practice from Lynch, it was a very solid practice, but he simply wasn’t consistent enough to stay with the sharp Siemian on the day.

Play of the Day

On a day that lacked any eye-popping plays from the two men fighting for the starting job, it was Kyle Sloter who made the highlight of the practice.

Late in the day, Sloter dropped back, found Carlos Henderson running open down the left sideline and dropped a perfect ball into the hands of his fellow rookie for the longest touchdown of the day.

“He is finally getting into NFL shape,” Joseph said of Henderson. “He wasn’t in great shape in the spring and early on in training camp, but you can finally see the guy getting in great shape. He’s figuring out what to do. That’s also important for a rookie. He can make plays fast. He’s a big, strong, guy with the ball in his hands. He’s a very, very engaged player. He loves to play the game. We’re excited about Carlos.”

Henderson is coming along, and Sloter has made big improvements during camp, as well.

Scoreboard

While both quarterbacks bounced back from their slow days to start the week, it was Siemian’s consistency, high completion rate, ability to get the ball in the end zone that pushed him to a comfortable win on the day.

The win ties the daily score and breaks the tie on our 10-point scale score.

Day-to-day score: 3-3-1

Daily 10-point scale score: 7-3, Siemian

Collective 10-point scale score: 37-33, Siemian