ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern.

Folks, Denver Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian is on his way to a pattern. In the two practices that have been open to media, Siemian has been the better quarterback on the field for the Broncos.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, because Trevor Siemian’s skillset is much more suited to shine in a practice environment. He’s the more accurate quarterback, the more fundamentally sound quarterback and the more cerebral quarterback, those things show on the practice field, and they’ve shown quite obviously thus far.

This begs the question: how exactly is this competition being graded? Because if it’s going to be a scoreboard of which guy looked better each day, it’s going to be extremely hard for Paxton Lynch to win. The thing is, the Broncos brass is surely privy to that. Lynch shines in situations where the pocket breaks down, where he goes off of the script, he shines throwing the ball down the field. That’s not always easy to showcase between the lines at Dove Valley.

For this to be a truly even competition, head coach Vance Joseph and his staff have to be grading each quarterback differently or at least weighting different situations more heavily. For Paxton Lynch to even have a chance, there has to be an emphasis put on live-action practice and preseason game action.

If situations like the trashcan drill the team ran on Wednesday—where the quarterbacks attempted to throw the ball into a trashcan held horizontally 18 yards away—matter, Trevor Siemian, who was twice as accurate as anyone else, will be doing just fine.

Paxton Lynch still has a long way to go in terms of getting the ball out on time, along with his footwork, decision making and accuracy. Unless serious some serious strides in those areas sooner rather than later, Siemian will continue to look better at practice.

The good news for Lynch and his supporters is, according to Vance Joseph, the competition has yet to truly begin.

Unexpected Absences

Two big name players weren’t on the field for the Broncos on Wednesday in Shaq Barrett and Demaryius Thomas.

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

The good: Thomas was out with a “personal issue” according to head coach Vance Joseph and will “absolutely” be back this week.

The bad: Barrett is “being evaluated for a hip injury.” The Broncos aren’t ready to release a timetable on the injury yet, but reports suggest it could be fairly serious.

Bolles still catching up

While many see it as a foregone conclusion that first-round pick Garett Bolles will start at left tackle for the team come their September opener, the kid isn’t yet working with the ones.

“We’re working with Ty [Sambrailo] and [Donald] Stephenson right now,” Joseph said. “Bolles is backup.”

It makes sense at this point, Bolles needs to make some big strides in terms of what he knows in order to not slow down the rest of the first team.

“He needs to learn what to do first,” the head coach explained. “Obviously, he has talent as a first-rounder. He’s tall, he’s long and he’s athletic, but it’s a tough offense to learn. That’s the first part for the rookies, to learn what to do first before they can perform.”

“We dogged them”

As Emmanuel Sanders left the podium on Wednesday, Chris Harris Jr. took his spot.

“Did he tell you we dogged them today?” Harris asked with a laugh.

It was one of those moments where he was joking but totally serious. The defense had the offense’s number on the day, with a plethora of batted balls and near picks by the secondary highlighting the defense’s performance.

You do have to expect that, though, the defense is simply better than the offense, and there’s even more to it.

“Of course it’s going to be hard for them,” Harris explained. “I say it’s a little bit unfair because they’re putting a new system in the red zone and we run pretty much the same. We kind of have a jump on them right there.”