Report: Rams Sign QB Blake Bortles Off Broncos' Practice Squad
The Los Angeles Rams have a new backup quarterback, and it's a familiar name.
After losing starter Jared Goff to a thumb injury, the Rams on Monday plucked QB Blake Bortles from the Denver Broncos' practice squad, according to media reports. Bortles will operate as the No. 2 behind Goff fill-in John Wolford, who's never taken an NFL snap, for Sunday's must-win season finale against Arizona.
The Broncos originally signed Bortles due to their own injury concerns; he was added on Sept. 24 upon Drew Lock sustaining a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder. The 28-year-old was released on Oct. 17 and subsequently re-signed to the taxi squad.
Bortles became the unofficial "quarantine quarterback" following the team's Week 12 fiasco in which the entire room — Lock, Bortles, and Brett Rypien — supposedly came in close contact with COVID-positive QB Jeff Driskel and all were ruled ineligible to play against the New Orleans Saints. The unprecedented series of events forced Denver to thrust PS wide receiver Kendall Hinton under center amid its 31-3 defeat.
9News' Mike Klis reports Bortles turned down an offer to join an undisclosed team's active roster earlier this season because he "didn’t think it was the right fit." Now the former No. 3 overall pick returns to the potentially playoff-bound franchise with whom he ended the 2019 campaign.
The Broncos, meanwhile, maintain business as usual in their post-Bortles universe. Lock will start Week 17 against the Las Vegas Raiders, Rypien will hold a clipboard, and Driskel will be healthy-scratched.
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