The Denver Broncos faced the most unique situation at quarterback in last weekend's loss to the New Orleans Saints, starting running back Phillip Lindsay at quarterback due to all four quarterbacks ending up on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Kendall Hinton played the majority of the snaps at quarterback, throwing more interceptions than completions.
A lapse in judgment resulted in all the Broncos quarterbacks being forced to sit out in Week 12. For a few hours on that Saturday, Blake Bortles thought he was going to get the call since he was in the back of the quarterback room earlier in the week -- socially distant from his teammates.
"Obviously we were in the wrong," Bortles said, via Mike Klis of 9News in Denver. "We didn't have our masks on. It was a red flag with that. So we made a mistake, had kind of a brain fart for a moment. What's unfortunate is we've been really good all year as a quarterback group about wearing masks and our trackers.
"I thought it was unfortunate. They handled it how they handled it. Wish it was different, wish we made a better decision and could have fixed it."
Jeff Driskel was the quarterback that tested positive for COVID-19, while Drew Lock and Brett Rypien were deemed "high-risk close contacts" -- leaving Bortles to believe he was going to get the call from the practice squad. He would up a "high-risk close contact" too, leaving Denver to use the Wildcat with Lindsay and play Hinton -- a practice squad wide receiver -- at quarterback.
Denver signed Kyle Shurmur, the son of offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, to the practice squad this week in case of emergency. Bortles was kept home throughout the week just in case Rypien and Lock tested positive.
This time the Broncos have a plan in case a quarterback fiasco happens again.
