The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback depth chart experienced a recent shakeup, as the team signed Trevor Siemian on Wednesday. That means it's Siemian, Joe Burrow, and Jake Browning at QB on the Bengals' roster.
Cincinnati opted not to re-sign Brandon Allen and brought Siemian in as someone to battle Browning for the backup gig. Let's check out how the depth chart will look now that the team has three players at the position.
QB1: Joe Burrow
Duh. Unless he's injured or something else happens that takes him out of the action, Burrow is the starting quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals. With him under center, the team has a chance to contend for a Super Bowl.
While Burrow has gotten off to slow starts in each of his three seasons so far, this will be the first time that he'll have a normal offseason. His rookie year was marred by COVID protocols, year 2 he was recovering from his injury, and year 3 he had the unexpected appendicitis.
That should make a huge difference and Joey B will hopefully come out of the gates swinging in 2023.
QB2: Trevor Siemian
The newly-added Siemian gives the Bengals a much better insurance policy if something were to happen to Burrow. A seventh-round pick by the Broncos in 2015, Siemian spent the first three years of his career with Denver and started 14 games in 2016 and 10 games in 2017.
While Siemian isn't the guy you want out there for more than a few games, he's more than capable of stepping in for two or three games and getting the job done during that time. In 2021, Siemian ended up starting four games for the Saints and while they lost all of those games, he threw for 11 touchdowns and three interceptions in that span.
In 2022, Siemian backed up Justin Fields in Chicago and started one game, but didn't look as good. Again, he's not someone you want to see in more than a few games but he's an improvement over Allen for sure.
QB3: Jake Browning
I'm not surprised that the Bengals brought in Siemian to compete with Browning for the QB2 job simply because he's had no experience in the pros. He was with the Vikings in 2019 and 2020 but never made it to the active roster.
In September 2021, the Bengals signed Browning to their practice squad and that's where he's spent most of his time since then. He was Brandon Allen's backup in the 2021 regular-season finale but didn't see the field.
Burrow is the easy one to pencil in at QB1 but who will back him up? My money's on Siemian, but what do you all think?