ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In this strangest of NFL seasons because of the ever-spreading COVID virus, this has to be the most insane development: The Broncos will have no quarterbacks when they play the New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon.
No. 3 quarterback Jeff Driskel is out because he learned Thursday morning he tested positive for the virus. And sources tell 9News that starting quarterback Drew Lock, backup Brett Rypien and practice squad veteran Blake Bortles have been ruled out because they were determined to be in high-risk close contact with Driskel on Wednesday.
One of the Broncos' replacement options is practice squad receiver Kendall Hinton, who played three seasons of quarterback at Wake Forest. The team's emergency quarterback is otherwise running back Royce Freeman. It's also possible the Broncos could use running backs Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay to operate from the Wildcat formation.
KUSA-TV in Denver was the first report that the NFL pulled all three of the Broncos' active quarterbacks before practice Saturday out of contact tracing concerns.
Sources said one of the issues was the quarterbacks were spotted not wearing masks at the time of close contact.
In a conference call around 3:15 p.m. Saturday with NFL officials, the Broncos were told their game against the New Orleans Saints would go on as scheduled at Sunday afternoon at Empower Field at Mile High. The team was also informed all three quarterbacks will be ruled out, sources tell 9News.
Driskel says he has no symptoms and feels completely healthy, but as a precaution the Broncos ran both regular and Rapid Point of Care (POC) tests on Lock, Rypien and Bortles on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Sources tell KUSA none of the other quarterbacks are experiencing symptoms and all have so far tested negative.
However, sources say the league reviewed tape of the interactions between Lock, Rypien and Bortles with Driskel from Wednesday and apparently there were enough concerns to raise a flag. With no quarterbacks available, Broncos offensive quality control coach Rob Calabrese, a former quarterback at Central Floriday, ran the offense continued to run plays against air with coaches taking the snaps, receivers running their routes and running backs taking their handoffs.