Brett Rypien's Emergence Buys Broncos/Drew Lock Additional Grace Period
The Denver Broncos started three different quarterbacks in the first quarter of the 2020 season. That's a nearly unheard of distinction for the Broncos, one of the most storied franchises in NFL history.
But when the starting quarterback goes down in Week 2 and the guy the front office initially tapped to be the veteran stop-gap falls flat on his face the following week... well, you know the old adage: necessity is the mother of invention.
What Brett Rypien invented for the Broncos was a victory in Week 4 over the New York Jets — the team's first win of the season. It was a far from perfect NFL debut for Rypien — he threw three interceptions after all — but it was encouraging enough that the coaching staff and front office should think long and hard about Drew Lock's targeted return date.
Lock went down with a rotator/labral injury to his throwing shoulder in Week 2. Fortunately, nothing was torn but the initial prognosis was a 2-6 week recovery.
To my knowledge, Lock is yet to begin throwing again but it sounds like that process will begin on Tuesday when the Broncos reconvene for practice ahead of Week 5's road trip to take on the New England Patriots. Head coach Vic Fangio gave Lock "50/50" odds of playing in Week 5.
I was surprised by Fangio's optimism with regard to Lock and it caused me to raise my eyebrows. Perhaps by virtue of his 23-year-old body, Lock has already bounced back and will indeed return under the best-case scenario of that timetable, which was two weeks.
But if there's any doubt whatsoever, the Broncos should wait one more week to play Lock. Rypien wasn't exactly a world-beater in Week 4 at MetLife Stadium but he proved that he could competently captain the ship.
The Broncos offense established rhythm, including a productive ground attack, and mostly protected Rypien (until the last couple of plays in which Coach Fangio inexplicably allowed the Jets to tee-off on Rypien). The second-year product out of Boise State did a great job in making pre-snap protection checks, which took a lot of pressure off the beleaguered offensive line.
Inserting Demar Dotson at right tackle also had quite a lot to do with Rypien going un-sacked in Week 4. But Rypien himself deserves a lot of the credit for his pre-snap discernment, pocket presence, and getting rid of the ball quickly.
Now, Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick has some tape on what Pat Shurmur's offense looks like with Rypien under center, and will likely have a counterpunch dialed up and ready to deploy. Shurmur and Rypien will have to anticipate that and have their own counter-counterpunch ready to go.
Going on the road in another East Coast game vs. a hostile opponent with a diabolical defensive czar? Unless Lock throws in next week's practice and feels absolutely no pain or inhibition, the Broncos should sit him one last game and circle Week 6's homestand vs. the Miami Dolphins as his return game.
The Broncos can field a competitive product with Rypien under center. Lock would give Denver the opportunity to be more than just 'competitive' but that's only if he's 100 percent. Again, if it wasn't Lock's throwing shoulder, I might be singing a different tune.
The caveat: if Lock throws on Tuesday and it no longer "feels funny" and he's pain-free and without restriction of any sort, and wakes up Wednesday feeling the same, then, by all means, play him. Otherwise, live to fight one more week and be absolutely certain Lock is back to full strength before rolling him out there
Because let's face it; there's not much difference between starting 1-3 and 1-4. The Broncos already dug themselves a hole that'll be next-to-impossible to climb out of, even with a completely healthy Lock for the duration of the season.
The 2020 campaign has already devolved into yet another evaluation period, thanks to the inordinate vagaries of the injury bug. If GM John Elway wants to get as full and complete an evaluation as possible on Lock in his second year, err on the side of caution and roll Rypien out there one more time.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
