Broncos tried to start coach at quarterback amid COVID-19 mess
The Broncos have tried the whole lot to discover a replacement quarterback for Sunday’s game towards the Saints.
Denver needed to start out offensive high quality management coach Rob Calabrese with all 4 quarterbacks on their depth chart — Drew Lock, Brett Rypien, Brandon Allen and Jeff Driskel — unable to start out after high-risk COVID-19 contacts, according to ESPN.
The NFL denied the Broncos’ request on Saturday and mentioned they’d not be allowed to activate a member of the teaching to their energetic roster. As an alternative, rookie apply squad huge receiver Kendall Hinton will get the beginning this week. Hinton, 23, was an undrafted free agent from Wake Forest who final took quarterback reps in 2015.
Driskel tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, and Lock, Rypien and Allen have been subsequently deemed ineligible to start out on Sunday.
Signing a free agent signal-caller wasn’t an choice for the Broncos in that time-frame, as one wouldn’t be eligible to start out in time for his or her Week 12 matchup in gentle of the COVID-19 protocols.
Bereft of higher choices, the Broncos felt Calabrese would have one of the best command of the Denver playbook and “may run the system higher than anybody,” per ESPN.
Calabrese final performed soccer as a hybrid huge receiver/quarterback for the College of Central Florida Knights in 2012. He spent a season teaching highschool, then labored as a graduate assistant in 2014 and offensive coordinator in 2017 for the Knights. He has been been Denver’s offensive high quality management coach for the previous two years.
The Broncos additionally pleaded with the league to push the sport till Tuesday, which might permit not less than one in all their quarterbacks to be activated. That request was equally denied.
No exceptions have been made, particularly in gentle of the Broncos’ option to not isolate any of their quarterbacks and violations of the league’s stringent COVID-19 protocols put into place to keep away from conditions like these, ESPN added.
The Broncos may face fines and lack of draft picks for his or her actions main as much as this, just like the punishments recently handed down to the Saints and Raiders.
