Peyton Manning just keeps sending everybody the Jets’ way.
Manning originally endorsed the Jets’ front office to hire Adam Gase for their head coaching vacancy back in January. Fast forward to March and Manning has now helped the Jets land backup QB Trevor Siemian.
“I texted Peyton and just went back and forth with him, but he obviously thinks a lot of Coach Gase,” Siemian told the team website. “Being with some of the guys that were there in Denver when Coach Gase was there, before I had gotten there, they spoke really highly of him. That and a bunch of other reasons are why I’m here and I’m super excited.”
Siemian and Gase were never previously with the same team. However, Manning and Siemian were teammates in Denver back in 2015, when Siemian served as Manning’s backup.
Under Gase, Manning had the best season of his Hall of Fame career. While Manning was already great before Gase, the coach elevated his game even further. Clearly, that was eye-popping to Siemian.
It remains to be seen how much playing time Siemian will get with Sam Darnold being the starting quarterback already. The chances of him starting are zero unless Darnold gets hurt. Obviously, serving as a backup didn’t really matter to Siemian. He just wanted to be with Gase and the Jets.
“The pieces are here, no doubt,” Siemian said. “But I think if you talk to a lot of teams in the spring, they’re pretty excited and rightfully so. The pieces are here. I think the exciting part as a player is you get to build it from the ground up and we got the right guys here. It’s just a matter of building it and we’ll see where we go.”
