Broncos' John Elway says Kaepernick situation 'dormant' and Hoyer is a 'possibility'

Calling talks with the Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers "dormant," Broncos' GM John Elway believes his team is in good shape with Mark Sanchez - and anyone they bring in for competition.

And the Hall-of-Fame quarterback means anyone - even Brian Hoyer.

"He's a possibility. He's a good football player," Elway said of the former Texans QB who became a free agent last weekend and visited with the Broncos today. "He brings competition. He's a guy that had a real good year in Houston last year...definitely a possibility for us."

That could send much of Broncos Country into therapy, but Elway has a plan in place and that may very well include the seven-year journeyman who has a 15-11 career record in 26 starts, with a total of 38 regular season touchdowns and 26 interceptions.

Hoyer also has a four-interception playoff game on his resumé with the Texans' divisional round playoff loss to the Chiefs - probably not the best game for Broncos fans to remember.

But the Broncos need three, maybe four, quarterbacks for camp, so Hoyer is a definite maybe. And reading between the lines - which is dangerous, no doubt - Elway is clearly not sold on his quarterback situation just yet.

"I think we're happy with Mark," Elway said. "I think that Mark was the starting point. Now we want to find somebody to come in and compete with him. I know Mark is excited about being here and we're excited about having him."

With recent trades by the Titans, Rams, Eagles and Browns, the quarterback situation in the draft certainly seems less of a mystery for some but still a question mark for teams way down the line.

Elway believes the Broncos weren't really affected by those trades because the Super Bowl champs never considered quarterbacks such as Carson Wentz or Jared Goff to be around for them. And the likelihood Paxton Lynch is available at 31 is pretty low.

But the GM likes the fact that the Broncos are the last to pick, and he likes to point out that anything can happen during the draft.

"We love being there. It's a good place to be," he said, laughing. "We'll have to wait and see. There are going to be a lot of different options there, so we'll see how it all takes shape."

Elway and Broncos' head coach Gary Kubiak haven't counted Trevor Siemian out of the competition mix either. Last year's third-stringer will be "in the hunt" for the top signal caller next season.

"We are really happy with Trevor and the way that he's played. He's very talented. He's got great arm talent and he's a young guy," Elway said, adding that with another year under his belt and no ACL recovery to come back from, Siemian will be much more competitive. "He will be in the hunt. He will be right there in the middle of it and competing."

Whether Kaepernick is in the quarterback hunt for the Broncos remains to be seen, but Elway noted that an offer "is there" while Kap keeps showing up for voluntary workouts with the Niners.

"It's never been [dismissed]," Elway said of the offer. "Everything is right there. So that's kind of where it is."

Where it is for the Broncos currently is that Sanchez is the guy, and he's already getting acclimated to his Denver digs.

"I think Mark has done a tremendous job of getting introduced to his teammates and fitting into the locker room," Elway said. "We feel good with Mark. But you also know that there are going to be a lot of different things that happen."

Elway reiterated that Sanchez's strengths as a leader and quarterback have allowed the Broncos to stay patient with the position.

"I just didn't want to get us to where we were going down one road and didn't have the option to look at all of the others," said the GM. "[Sanchez] is a guy that we feel like has got the experience in the league and can play in this league. That's why we've been patient."

The Broncos may have been patient, but whether Broncos Country can be remains to be seen.