Denver Broncos: Case Keenum is John Elway’s latest victory

One of the most underrated moves of the offseason was the Denver Broncos signing of Case Keenum, which will make John Elway look like a genius

It was an offseason of quarterback changes, but the one made by the Denver Broncos seemed to get the least amount of attention. After deciding they would be moving on from Trevor Siemian, the Broncos were expected to make a run for Kirk Cousins.

He was available thanks to the Washington Redskins trading for Alex Smith just before the Super Bowl. There were other moves too that made waves because of the names as well, like Teddy Bridgewater heading to the New York Jets and Sam Bradford going to the Arizona Cardinals.

Yet the Broncos showed no interest in any of those players and never even sniffed Cousins despite many saying he wanted to go there. Instead, they went for Case Keenum, who actually started in place of the aforementioned Bradford and Bridgewater last season in Minnesota, who were both injured.

All Keenum did was fall one game shy of leading his team to the Super Bowl, so why should he get any play, right? Well Broncos general manager John Elway doesn’t care about the attention, he saw a winner in Keenum and so far it looks like a good move.

"“He’s a great leader,” Emmanuel Sanders told reporters according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “Every day — the majority of the days — he’ll come in and ask me and [Demaryius Thomas] to go and watch practices and we’ll sit in the back room and watch film and go over what he’s thinking and what we’re thinking. I’ve been a part of two Super Bowl teams, and that’s what it takes. That extra work that’s not mandatory, where guys are in there working out or working on their mental game. That right there, when it’s fourth quarter or when it’s fourth and five or third and eight. That’s the stuff that gets you over the hill.”"

Those are the kinds of remarks people have been making about Keenum since he entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent back in 2012. Still, he doesn’t get the love he deserves.

To date, Keenum has completed nearly 62 percent of his passes for 8,771 yards with 46 touchdowns and 27 picks. His one bad season happened to be in 2016 with the Los Angeles Rams, but that was with Jeff Fisher as his coach. We all saw how much better Jared Goff and Nick Foles were without Fisher, so that too should be a mulligan season for Keenum.

Taking that year out of the equation, he’s been an accurate quarterback that’s safe with the ball and gives his team a chance to win.

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Joining a strong defensive team like the Broncos is just what a player like him needs to duplicate the success he had in 2017 with a very similar Vikings roster. There’s simply no reason to think Keenum won’t be successful with Denver. And when he is, Elway will look like an even better general manager than he already is.